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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffOn rare occasions, gambling becomes a problem with the very first wager. But more often, gambling progresses over time. In fact, you may spend years enjoying social gambling without any ill effects. But more frequent gambling or life stresses can turn casual gambling into something much more serious. During periods of stress or depression, the urge to gamble may be especially overpowering. Eventually, you become almost completely preoccupied with gambling and getting money to gamble.
For most compulsive gamblers, betting isn't as much about money as it is about excitement. Sustaining the thrill gambling provides usually involves taking increasingly bigger risks and placing larger bets. Those bets may involve sums you can't afford to lose. Unlike most casual gamblers, compulsive gamblers are compelled to keep playing to recoup their money — a pattern that becomes increasingly destructive over time.
Signs of compulsive (pathologic) gambling include:
- Gaining a thrill from taking big gambling risks
- Taking increasingly bigger gambling risks
- A preoccupation with gambling
- Reliving past gambling experiences
- Taking time from work or family life to gamble
- Concealing gambling
- Feeling guilt or remorse after gambling
- Borrowing money or stealing to gamble
- Failed efforts to cut back on gambling
- Lying to hide gambling
- In severe cases, financial ruin, legal trouble, loss of career and family, and even suicide
Compulsive gambling is an impulse-control disorder. This means that you're not able to resist engaging in behavior that's harmful to you or to someone else. People with impulse-control disorders usually feel a sense of emotional arousal or excitement before engaging in the behavior, followed by pleasure and gratification, and then guilt or remorse.
When to see a doctor or mental health provider
Have family members, friends or co-workers expressed concern about your gambling? If so, listen to their worries. Because denial is almost always a characteristic of compulsive or addictive behavior, it may be difficult for you to recognize that you have a problem and seek treatment.
Your gambling is out of control if:
- It's affecting your relationships, your finances or your work life
- You're devoting more and more time and energy to gambling pursuits
- You've unsuccessfully tried to stop or cut back on your gambling
- You try to conceal your gambling from family or health professionals
- You resort to theft or fraud to get gambling money
- You ask others to bail you out of financial woes because you've gambled money away
- Pathologic gambling. In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed.: American Psychiatric Association;2000. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed Dec. 1, 2008.
- Questions and answers. Gamblers Anonymous. http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/qna.html. Accessed Dec. 1, 2008.
- Unwin BK, et al. Pathologic gambling. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Dec. 1, 2008.
- About problem gaming: FAQ. National Council on Problem Gaming. http://www.ncpgambling.org/about_problem/about_problem_faq.asp. Accessed Dec 1, 2008.
- Dodd ML, et al. Pathological gambling caused by drugs used to treat Parkinson disease. Archives of Neurology. 2005;62:1377.
- Unwin BK, et al. Pathologic gambling. American Family Physician. 2006;61(3):741.
- Compulsive gambling. Minnesota Department of Human Services. http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&dDocName=id_008574. Accessed Dec.1, 2008.
- Grant JE. Gender differences in pathological gamblers seeking medication treatment. Comprehensive Psychiatry. 2002;43:56.
- Ibanez A, et al. Genetics of pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies. 2003;19:11.
- Regard M, et al. Brain damage and addictive behavior: A neuropsychological and electroencephalogram investigation with pathologic gamblers. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. 2003;16:47.
- Kringelbach ML, et al. The functional neuroanatomy of the human orbitofrontal cortex: Evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology. Progress in Neurobiology. 2004;72:341.
