The ‘light drugs’ of gambling? Non-problematic gambling activities of pathological gamblers

Abstract

Our aim was to investigate whether harmless gambling activities exist for pathological gamblers. A total of 169 pathological gamblers who recently quit were recruited by media announcements. Respondents were asked at baseline to report any gambling activities not causing them problems, as well as those causing problems. The gambling activities were categorized as follows: lottery, scratch tickets, bingo, betting or card games with friends/family, horse racing, raffle, casino games and video lottery terminals. Only a small proportion (16%) of respondents reported not having any non-problematic gambling activities, 45% reported one, 28% two, 10% three, and 1% four non-problematic activities. Further, involvement in most of these activities was unrelated to both baseline and follow-up gambling problem severity (NODS, SOGS), depression level (CES-D), frequency of gambling and extent of gambling losses. However, some exceptions were observed in case of involvement in casino (higher NODS and SOGS scores and gambling-related losses) and bingo games (higher gambling-related losses). These findings provide some support for the idea that pathological gamblers who wish to give up harmful gambling can continue involvement in some types of gambling and that this is a ‘good enough’ goal for pathological gamblers; complete abstinence may not be necessary.

Keywords::

• pathological gambling
• abstinence goals
• controlled gambling
• harmfulness of gambling
• longitudinal design
• treatment goals

Acknowledgements

Nicole Peden and Erin Cassidy were responsible for data collection. The authors are also grateful to Jonathan N. Stea for his helpful comments on a previous version of this paper. Finally, we would like to thank the participants who gave freely of their time despite the struggles they were facing.

Additional information

Funding

Funding

This project was made possible with funding support from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. The authors also wish to thank to the Norlien Foundation for supporting the first author when working on this article.

Notes on contributors

Barna Konkolÿ Thege

Barna Konkolÿ Thege is a postdoctoral fellow at the Addictive Behaviours Laboratory, University of Calgary, Canada. His research interests focus on psychometrics, epidemiology of addictions, and the question of which role existential concerns (e.g. lower level of perceived meaning in life) may play in the development, maintenance and quitting of substance-related and behavioural addictions.

David C. Hodgins

David C. Hodgins is a professor in the Program in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Calgary. Dr Hodgins is also the Head of the Department of Psychology, and a coordinator with the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. His research interests focus on various aspects of addictive behaviours including relapse and recovery from substance abuse and gambling disorders. He has conducted a number of randomized clinical trials of both brief and more traditional addiction treatment models.