Introduction

In this chapter, I discuss compulsive (excessive, pathological) gambling and whether it is usefully seen as an addiction. Compulsive gamblers are those who experience loss of self-control, by spending more than they intend (a within-episode phenomenon) or by quitting and then relapsing (a between-episode phenomenon). Following Dickerson (1984), an operational criterion is whether the gambler has sought help or treatment to control the gambling or to give it up altogether.

I shall rely on the general framework laid out in the introductory chapter and follow a similar subdivision of the topic. In Section 2, I give a brief overview of the main varieties of gambling behavior and their quantitative aspects, both in terms of the number of persons concerned and in terms of the amount of money involved. In Section 3, I discuss the phenomenology of gambling. In Section 4, I survey various explanations that have been offered of compulsive gambling. Section 5 offers a brief conclusion.

Before I proceed, let me note briefly that many of the general methodological issues raised in the introductory chapter can be illustrated by the specific case of gambling. Thus I agree fully with the following observation: