Section 4: Research on Gamblers and Gambling -- Pathological Gambling in Canada (From Gambling in Canada: Golden Goose or Trojan Horse?, P 221-242, 1989, Colin S. Campbell and John Lowman, eds. -- See NCJ-126295)

• NCJ Number: 126307
• Author(s): H R Lesieur
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Simon Fraser University
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Pathological gambling, viewed by psychiatrists as an addiction similar to alcoholism and other psychoactive substance dependencies, has many social and economic implications in Canada. Compulsive gambling is indicated by a combination of several conditions including inter alia, frequent preoccupation with gambling, gambling larger amounts of money than intended, repeated losses and repeated returns, and abandoning other activities in order to gamble.

Abstract

Research based on interviews with wives of compulsive gamblers attending Gamblers Anonymous reveal the problems that this addiction creates for other family members including financial straits, domestic violence, and physical illnesses suffered by spouses of gamblers. The limited available research on children of pathological gamblers suggests serious levels of pathology in these children resulting from the seesaw relationship they experience with the gambling parent. There appears to be a higher rate of pathological gambling among adolescents and young adults; negative experiences with gambling tend to smooth out the curve as these people grow older. Despite problems in the workplace caused by compulsive gambling, few employee assistance programs focus on screening employees for this type of addiction. While researchers have reported various rates of indebtedness on the part of gamblers, several gambling establishment practices, including check cashing services, cash machines, easy credit and loan sharking, probably exacerbate the level of debt. Addictive gambling almost always results in crime, be it white collar, commonplace criminal activity, or gambling-related crime. Recent evidence indicates that compulsive gambling often overlaps with other psychiatric disorders including depression and hypomania; furthermore, over half of a group of Gamblers Anonymous participants were addicted to alcohol or illicit drugs. This chapter maintains that Canada needs to provide more extensive treatment to gamblers and to establish a national Commission on Compulsive Gambling. 2 tables and 59 references