Recent studies have found a connection between personality disorders and gambling addiction, at the same time that the percentage of problem gamblers remains constant, but they are gambling more money.
A study by Monash University in Australia has discovered links that it says exist between gambling addiction and personality disorders. Gambling addicts are more likely to have those disorders than those who are able to control their gambling.
It says that those who are being treated for the one should be screened for the other, and that those with a gambling addiction share similar traits with those who have been found to be antisocial, histrionic and to have narcissistic personality disorders. They also have problems with relationships and often act by impulse, said the study. They also have a higher incidence of suicide.
It is estimated that about 2.3 percent of the world’s population has some form of gambling problem. It is a problem that experts contend creates many intra and interpersonal problems as well as societal ills as well as mood disorders, anxiety disorders and substance abuse.
The report recommends that personality disorder screening be routine when treating gambling addiction.
Problem gamblers and those with personality disorders share another trait: they are three times more likely than the norm to drop out of treatment programs, which makes it even more challenging to treat them.
According to the report, “The fact that problem gambling and high levels of psychopathology often go together indicates a need to undertake routine and systematic screening and assessment of problem gamblers who sign up for treatment.”
Gaming Popularity Declines
Another study finds that while the popularity of gaming is declining overall, that those with a gambling addiction are betting more.
The University of Buffalo study focused on how the skyrocketing number of casino that have been established since 2000 have changed the general public’s playing habits.
The study, “Gambling and Problem Gambling in the United States: Changes Between 1999 and 2013,” started with the expectation that more casinos meant more gambling and more addictive gambling, according to John W. Welte, a senior research scientist with the university’s Research Institute on Addictions. That was not the case, however.
“Our results show it is clear that U.S. residents are gambling less often,” said Welte. The results also showed that young casino visitors were likely to return less often to the casino than the general population.
Gambling addiction remained relatively stable, except for the “hard core” gamblers, whose activity has increased significantly, meaning that they both win and lose big.
Those higher on the socioeconomic ladder tend to gamble less, said the report.
The report showed that in 2000 slightly more than 82 percent had gambled in the past year. By 2011-2013 that percentage had fallen to 79 percent, but those people gambled 10 percent less than before.
State lotteries and horseracing appeared to take the biggest hit. The only gambling activity on the rise is internet gambling, said the report, with those taking part going from 0.3 percent of the population in 2000 to 2.1 percent currently.
Young adults seem to be becoming more skeptical of gambling, mainly because they feel that the odds are so much against them. Welte said, “Kids expressed their belief that gambling was dumb because the odds are stacked so high against you.”
Welte speculated that the easy availability of casinos almost everywhere may have resulted in the romance or lure of the activity declining.
