The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

Op-Ed/Editorials: Gambling and the Law®: Prosecutors Claim Internet Gaming Ads Violate Local Laws

Here’s a quote that should scare anyone involved with any form of legal gaming. The federal Department of Justice (“DOJ”) got Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to agree to pay $31.5 million in fines to settle claims that they had promoted illegal gambling by running ads on the Internet. The DOJ announced that the fines were “for corporate conduct the government found in violation of the Federal Wire Wager Act, federal wagering excise tax laws, and various states' statutes and municipal laws prohibiting gambling.” The DOJ has been waging a war of intimidation against Internet gambling for almost 10 years. It... Read more →

WAGER 13(9) – Cut Me Off: Self-Limit Programs for Internet Gambling

Self-limit programs (i.e., programs offered by casinos or Internet gambling sites that impose wagering or deposit limits) are intended to reduce gambling-related harms. This week the WAGER examines the Internet sports gambling behavior of people using the self-limit program of a prominent Internet gambling site (Nelson, LaPlante, Peller, Schumann, LaBrie, & Shaffer, 2008). Methods 567 Internet gamblers who elected to self-limit their gambling deposits (SLs) compared to 46,567 other subscribers to the same betting site (non-SLs) Measures of actual Internet sports gambling during an 18 month period: % of days on which a bet was placed; # of bets per... Read more →

Op-Ed/Editorials: Gambling and the Law®: Compacts, Elections and Bureaucrats – Oh My!

On February 5, 2008, Californians voted on whether four tribes could triple the number of slot machines in their casinos, from 8,000 to 25,000. The tribes won. If they hadn’t, there would have been years of ugly lawsuits. Opponents, primarily unions and competing tribal casinos and racetracks, believe the legal mess was created by underhanded attempts to guarantee that these four tribes would get their slots, even if the voters disapproved. I believe the problems were the result of federal and state bureaucrats following what they thought was the letter of the law, without using common sense. This particular fight... Read more →

STASH Vol. 4(9) - The power of hidden bias: Implicit prejudice toward injecting drug users and nurses' intentions to quit

Implicit prejudice, harboring negative associations toward particular social groups without conscious awareness, predicts a wide range of real-life behaviors, including discriminatory medical decisions (Green et al., 2007) and hiring practices (Ziegert & Hanges, 2005). Drug addicts are often the target of implicit prejudice by the general public. This week’s STASH reports on new research related to implicit prejudice toward injecting drug users (IDUs) among drug and alcohol (D&A) nurses (von Hippel et al., 2008). Participants • Participants were 44 D & A nurses in the Sydney, Australia metropolitan area recruited from D&A treatment facilities, needle and syringe exchange programs, and... Read more →

Addiction & the Humanities, Vol. 4(7) - Cultural Anthropology Guiding Addiction Research

Scientific research focusing on addiction, especially research on effective interventions and treatments, is typically grounded in the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, and other behavioral sciences. An important but less frequently used guide could be cultural anthropology, especially when researchers explore cultures other than their own. This issue of Addictions and the Humanities will explore how cultural anthropology raises psychological scientists’ awareness about cultural context, and how this awareness is essential to advance meaningful research. Beatrice Medicine, a member of the Lakota Indian tribe, was a cultural anthropologist who spent her life writing and studying Native Americans, particularly those living on... Read more →

Op-Ed/Editorials: Gambling and the Law®: A Modest Proposal

Is poker a game of skill? In states without licensed cardrooms, the answer will almost always determine whether it is legal to operate the game as a business. In about half the states, it would also determine whether merely playing in a commercial game is a crime. States do have the right to put restrictions on games of skill played for money. They may even be able to outlaw them completely, although there is case law holding that governments cannot discriminate by picking on only certain skill games. But all states outlaw unauthorized gambling, defined as games with three elements:... Read more →

ASHES Vol. 4(10) - All the cool kids are doing it: An increase in waterpipe tobacco smoking?

The popularity of waterpipe tobacco smoking (i.e., hookah, shisha, hubble bubble, argileh), originating in Eastern Mediterranean countries, continues to grow internationally. Those using waterpipes as an alternative to standard cigarettes and cigars associate it with lower health risks (Smith-Simone, Maziak, & Ward, in press). However, these users are still ingesting tobacco, nicotine, and other associated toxins. Thus, it is important to monitor changes in waterpipe use prevalence and the long term effects such use has on both casual and regular users. Eissenberg et al. reported one of the first survey studies of a small sample of college students to explore... Read more →

The DRAM Vol. 4(8) - Falling off the Recovery Wagon: Drinking Trajectories

Understanding the drinking behavior that can occur immediately after a lapse from abstinence can help individuals prepare for obstacles as they work their way toward a more stable recovery. Using data from the Relapse Replication and Extension Project (RREP), researchers examined the behavior of recovering individuals from an alcohol-related disorder following an initial post-treatment lapse (Witkiewitz & Masyn, 2008). Participants N (RREP sample) = 563 participants All participants met RREP recruitment criteria, which included the following: aged 18 or older; satisfied criteria for having alcohol use or dependence within the past 6 months; with no record of additional concurrent substance... Read more →