Myth of Problem Gambling in America - Preface to my study

[Keyser.]

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I am going to be writing a paper on this during the week that pertains it to ethics and legality. It's a short 2-3 page paper, and I'll probably use some of these ideas if you don't mind. I think the introduction is well written and paints a good picture.

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If you coach me at poker I'll coach you at not writing bad papers.

[claudenm]

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you can't just tack on the 4% to the 2%. "problems with their gambling" could mean:

a) my girlfriend doesn't like my job as a Pro Player
b) I'm a cook and I just blew $1000 on the Wizards-Cavs last night. That was stupid. Now I can't do anything for the next two weeks.
c) My wife is upset that I come home smelling like beer and cigars every wednesday when I come home from the weekly $20 poker night.
d) As a college student, I spent 25 hours last week playing poker - $5 SNGs, I made $78 last week. Ironically, I got a 78 on my Sociology exam.

I think all of these would qualify as "a person experiences problems with their gambling but does not fulfill the conditions for a diagnosis of the psychiatric condition called pathological gambling"





However, 2% is a pretty big portion of the population to be "pathological gamblers," and probably should count as a "societal problem." I'd love to see comparable numbers for Alcoholics, Addicts, Shopoholics, Nymphos, etc. I'd also be curious to see a Venn Diagram to see how much these categories overlap - if it is just 4% of the country who are prone to "oholicism."

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Only B in the above example can be construed as problem gambling, and even that is a stretch. Cute little anecdotes aren't useful in identifying what a problem gambler is, as it takes into account a whole array of circumstances and ways of acting. If for example, that cook couldn't make rent, and then chased his bet with $300 dollars he had left, then he tends more towards problem gambling. If on the otherhand, he just lost some money he allocated to gambling, and could still meet all his bills, it probably isn't.

Examples A and C are just stupid. Somebody not liking your job as a professional poker player, or your weekly card game doesn't make it problem gambling. Those are marital/relationship problems, not gambling problems.

Example D is borderline, but if it was a throw-away non major class then it isn't all that big a deal. Did he learn his lesson and study harder or cut back afterwards? Could he have afforded to lose the money he was gambling with?

Please don't oversimplify the issue. I can tell you, as a son of gambling addict who destroyed his family and life, it ain't that simple.

[Rottersod]

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you can't just tack on the 4% to the 2%.

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According to his data (and I'm only respondonding to what he posted as I have no other stats at hand) the 4% did count as problem gamblers under the subclinical definition:

"*Level 2 subclinical means a person experiences problems with their gambling but does not fulfill the conditions for a diagnosis of the psychiatric condition called pathological gambling, which is severe problem gambling."

In other words, they have problems with their gambling but not at the level for them to be classified as pathalogical. Quite frankly I'm a bit astonished that 2% of our population does qualify as pathalogical. That's quite a large number of people.

[Peter McDermott]

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As someone who has done problem gambling research myself in Europe, and read innumerable epidemiological studies from America on it I can attest to the fact that there is an abundance of rigorous, scientific, random population prevalence studies from America both nationally at at state levels.


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Can I ask where you did your research, Hotspur? While I'm not especially familiar with the field, the stuff by Iain Brown out of Glasgow really impresses me.

[Humble Pie]

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A minister, after reading this article, walks slowly to his pulpit. He raises his bowed head and stares out unto his congregation. His hands lift up to the level of his shoulders and he proclaims: “Did you know the word sin is in the word casino?” The congregation, in unison, gives a low-toned gasp. It is almost as if revelation has been received on the immorality of gambling.

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A little side story. In my home town there was this reputed whore-monger/drug-dealer. The guy owned three differnt strip clubs which were all pretty shay. Two of his stip clubs were eventually closed due to prostitution. When one of them was raided, a back room was found with a bunch of sex toys a couple of beds, and a safe which had over 3 million in cash in it. Nonetheless this guy was supposedly a devout catholic and donated a confirmed hundreds of thousands to his local church. Despite knowing that this guy was into alot of shady activity, the church gladly took his donations, and actually named a wing of the newly renovated church in his honor. I know this story doesn't have much to do wiht gambling, but it goes to show that the church is all about the money. I can dig up the achived news articles if anyone wants them.

[GTL]

His hands lift up to the level of his shoulders and he proclaims: “Did you know the word sin is in the word casino?”

holy crap that is the worst line ever.

[antisocialgrace]

I do know what OP means. He replied to my post however, and his response fit what I wrote.

I don't know how the "quick response" script works. It may be that whenever used it automatically places the most recent poster in the "response to" link, which would have been me.

[hashi92]

4% is a small number. 96% of the population has to pay for the short comings of 4%? We would start to resemble more of a communist state if we were to take this approach. fast food, tobacco and alcohol ruin the lives of millions of people too.

[Rottersod]

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I do know what OP means. He replied to my post however, and his response fit what I wrote.

I don't know how the "quick response" script works. It may be that whenever used it automatically places the most recent poster in the "response to" link, which would have been me.

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That's exactly how the quick reply works and why it is important to pay attention to the meaning of someone's post. I write from experience as I did this a few times in my early days here.