The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The Wager, Volume 8(18) - None shall pass: Self-exclusion programs in Victoria, Australia

Self-exclusion, a program “that enables individuals to have themselves banned from entering a casino” (Nowatzki, 2002, p. 3), has been a much discussed and controversial topic since its recent inception. We do not yet have studies that assess the impact of selfexclusion programs. However, the Victorian Gambling Research Panel commissioned the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies to study self-exclusion in Australia during 2001-2002 (South Australian Centre for Economic Studies, 2003). This week’s WAGER reviews data from this study on the self-perceived ability of gambling venues to enforce self-exclusion bans, an important element of successful self-exclusion. The research group mailed... Read more →

The Wager, Vol. 8 - Editorial, Letters

The views expressed in this article are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The WAGER, its sponsors, or affiliated organizations. For past editorials, click here. Letters to the Editors Recently, The WAGER published an editorial focusing on the ethics of accepting industry funding for scientific research. This editorial prompted interesting responses that were published with the original editorial. This week we are publishing two responses from WAGER readers to the original editorial exchange as well an editorial comment. Dear Editor: I was interested in a recent issue concerning ethical dilemmas that may... Read more →

The Wager, Volume 8(17) - Influencing Perceptions of Luck

Beliefs about personal luck are dynamic; these beliefs might fluctuate with the outcome of each game. A few big wins and a gambler can feel lucky; a sudden big loss and a gambler can think that luck has abandoned him. But what happens when a gambler experiences a near win (just misses a jackpot) or a near loss (just avoids losing a large sum)? The authors featured in this WAGER suggest that near losses actually increase self-perceived luck. A gambler who barely misses going bankrupt may believe it was good luck that spared him from losing. Conversely, gamblers who begin... Read more →

The Wager, Volume 8(16) - The Decorated Ducks: Las Vegas Architecture

This week The WAGER announces the release of the fifth volume of the Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions web initiative, Addictions & the Humanities. The aim of this initiative is to create a public forum to discuss literature, art, music, and performing arts related to addictions, including pathological gambling. Science and technology will always help us understand addiction, but truth also may be revealed by examining art. Below is an article from the fifth issue of Addictions & The Humanities that examines the architecture of the Las Vegas Strip. In Historical studies of church-building in the middle ages, Venice,... Read more →

The Wager, Volume 8(15) - Impaired Control and Disordered Gambling

Scientific research on gambling has focused on how the cognitive processes of pathological gamblers differ from those of “healthy” subjects (e.g., Cavedini, Riboldi, Keller, D'Annucci, & Bellodi, 2002; Ladouceur & Walker, 1998; Sylvain, Ladouceur, & Boisvert, 1997). Central to this debate is whether pathological gamblers experience a disruption of the ability to recognize and regulate time and money spent. Similarly, a recent study by O’Connor and Dickerson (2003) analyzed gamblers’ self-reported impaired control to see if behavioral differences exist between two different categories of gamblers (i.e., off-track and electronic gaming machine gamblers) and if gambling involvement was associated with self-perceived... Read more →

The Wager, 8(14) - Reward and Risk: Identifying a Physiological Marker for PG

Researchers who demonstrated that individuals with alcohol dependence are more likely to experience a leap in their baseline heart rate (HR) following alcohol consumption (Conrod, Peterson, Pihl, & Mankowski, 1997; Wilson & Nagoshi, 1988) suggested that the leap indicates a genetically programmed sensitivity to reward (Conrod, Peterson, & Pihl, 2001). Because alcohol dependence and pathological gambling are frequently comorbid (see for example WAGER 8(13)), Brunelle et al. (2003) hypothesized that individuals who showed cardiac reactivity to alcohol would be at greater risk for gambling pathologically. This week’s WAGER reviews their work on ethanol-induced cardiac reactivity and gambling. Researchers recruited participants... Read more →