Gambling, Compulsive

Gambling, Compulsive, behaviour disorder in which an individual becomes progressively unable to resist the impulse to gamble. There has been increased concern about gambling in Britain due to the introduction of the National Lottery, Internet gambling, and increased gambling among young people. In June 2000 the National Centre for Social Research produced a report on a national survey of gambling and problem gambling in the United Kingdom. The research found that gambling was widespread, with three in four adults—around 33 million people—taking part in some form of gambling activity in a given year. Most people are aware that they rarely or never win and they consider gambling to be a leisure activity. These people tend to gamble small amounts of money, for example on the National Lottery or occasional and high-profile sporting events, and very rarely develop problems with compulsive gambling.

However, about 7 per cent of the population are active gamblers who regularly gamble in a variety of different contexts, such as horse and dog racing, in casinos, and through private bets. These active gamblers are most likely to be men under the age of 45. Although new forms of gambling have emerged recently, including Internet gambling and spread betting, only 1 per cent of the population use these methods. Recent research suggests that less than 1 per cent of the population constitutes compulsive or problem gamblers, which is a lower prevalence than in many other countries. Problem gamblers are more likely to come from lower income brackets, twice as likely to be male rather than female, and more likely to have parents who had a gambling problem. Problem gamblers are generally identified by using a questionnaire that asks whether they continue to gamble to try to win back their losses, whether they have committed crimes to finance gambling, or if they have lost a job or experienced the breakdown of a relationship as a result of excessive gambling.

Compulsive gambling can take the form of an anxiety disorder: obsessive-compulsive disorder. This occurs when an individual gets an obsession about gambling such that he or she cannot stop thinking about gambling and these intrusive thoughts dominate their thinking. When such thoughts are expressed in behaviour the compulsion can become fixed and the gambling behaviour is repeated over and over again. The combination of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour is experienced as being impervious to change and causes considerable distress and disruption. The gambler is aware of the obsessive-compulsive nature of his or her behaviour and the negative consequences but feels powerless to stop.