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Medically reviewed:06/22/2018
Last updated: 04/17/2020
Author: Addictions.com Medical Review

Reading Time: 7minutes

What is Gambling Addiction?

Gambling addiction or gambling disorder is defined as persistent and recurring problematic gambling behavior that causes distress and impairs your overall livelihood. Gambling addiction affects roughly 0.2% to 0.3% of the general U.S. population, and tends to affects males more than females, though this gender gap has narrowed in recent years. Gambling disorder is a behavioral addiction that can be effectively treated using a range of cognitive and behavioral therapies.

The desire to buy scratch tickets, play slot machines, and visit casinos aren’t necessarily signs of gambling addiction. But when the desire to gamble becomes overwhelming to the point you can’t stop thinking about it until you gamble on something, may be a sign you need help. Those who suffer from gambling addiction will continue to gamble despite negative financial, legal, and social consequences.

Gambling disorder is a brain disease that can cause you to do things you wouldn’t normally do if you weren’t suffering from addiction. Behavioral addictions like gambling disorder are often difficult to manage and control without getting professional help. Addiction treatment centers can help you overcome gambling addiction and teach you important skills aimed at helping you repair problems in your life caused by your disorder.

What are the Signs and Symptoms of Gambling Addiction?

There are no physical health symptoms associated with gambling disorder. Familiarizing yourself with common gambling addiction behaviors can clue you into whether you or a loved one may need professional help.

Chasing after losses is the most common tell-tale sign of gambling disorder. This particular symptom is marked by the urgent need to continue gambling to earn back a loss or series of losses. Individuals diagnosed with gambling disorder may abandon their usual gambling strategies to win back all losses at once and may lie to family, friends, and therapists to hide the severity of their addiction.

The following behaviors are potential signs of gambling addiction:

• Needing to gamble using increasing amounts of money to achieve the desired rush and excitement.
• Feeling restless or irritable when trying to reduce or stop gambling.
• Inability to control, reduce, or quit gambling despite numerous repeated attempts.
• Preoccupation with gambling, such as devising ways to get more gambling money and reliving past gambling experiences.
• Gambling when experiencing feelings of distress, helplessness, guilt, anxiety, and depression.
• Chasing after your losses to get even after losing money gambling.
• Lying to conceal the severity of gambling behaviors, and the addiction.
• Loss of personal relationships, job, and educational pursuits due to gambling.
• Replying on others to provide money to resolve financial situations caused by gambling, such as a threat of eviction from the home.

Those with a mild gambling addiction may exhibit between four and five of these behaviors, while those with a moderately severe gambling addiction may exhibit six to seven of these behaviors. People who suffer from severe gambling addiction will usually exhibit all nine behaviors. Moderate to severe cases of gambling disorder tend to be more common than mild cases.

You might have a gambling problem if:

• You feel compelled to keep gambling until you’ve spent your last dollar. You may keep bidding until you’ve spent everything to win your money back, or you continue increasing bet amounts.
• You hide your gambling from friends or family members. You may sneak off to gamble without telling anyone, or lie about your gambling activities.
• You spend money you don’t have on gambling. You may use money intended for important bills like rent, mortgage, car payments, credit card bills, and other expenses for gambling.
• You steal from others or sell your possessions so you can gamble. You may steal money or belongings from others so you can gamble, or sell or pawn valuable possessions like musical instruments and vehicles to obtain more gambling money.
• You prioritize gambling over obligations related to work, school, family. You may stop going to work or school so you can gamble, or stop buying household necessities so you can use the money for gambling instead.
• You’re experiencing financial hardships due to gambling. You may have lost your home, car, job, and important personal possessions due to gambling.
• You’re facing a range of negative emotions triggered by gambling. Gambling may be a serious problem in your life if it’s triggering depression, anxiety, frustration, agitation, and remorse.
• You want to stop gambling but can’t. You have tried to stop gambling but can’t seem to stop despite your desire to do better and to stop gambling.

Negative Effects of Gambling Addiction

Gambling addiction can produce many more negative effects than just financial hardship. Gambling disorder can affect your physical health, mental health, and social functioning, and lead to the loss of important relationships with friends and loved ones. You may also suffer a decline in work or school performance, and feel more restless and bored with all other areas of life that don’t involve gambling.

Those who suffer from gambling addiction tend to suffer from higher rates of poor general health than those who don’t gamble. Tachycardia and angina are common health problems among those diagnosed with gambling addiction. Many who suffer from gambling disorder also tend to experience distortions in thinking surrounding their addiction, such as superstitions, overconfidence, and a sense of power over the outcome of chance events. Nearly 50% of those receiving treatment for gambling disorder experience suicidal ideation, while an estimated 17% have tried to commit suicide.

The negative effects of problem gambling include:

• Financial problems including high debt, poverty, or bankruptcy
• Domestic violence and child abuse in families
• Suicidal thoughts, attempts, or the act of suicide
• Legal troubles, including arrests for theft or prostitution
• Behavior problems in children of problem gamblers
• Depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders
• Loss of relationships with friends and family
• A decline in performance at work or school
• Suicide and death
• A risk for drug or alcohol abuse

How Does Gambling Addiction Interact with Addiction?

Alcohol and cocaine are the two most common substances associated with gambling and binge gambling, respectively. Alcohol is legally available in most gambling settings such as bars and casinos and is often rewarded to gamblers for free at many of these establishments. Roughly 44% of people with gambling disorder in the U.S. also suffer from an alcohol use disorder.

Binge gambling is defined as intermittent episodes of uncontrolled gambling after long periods of abstinence. For instance, a person who practices binge gambling may only visit the casino five times per year but gamble non-stop for long periods during their stay. Cocaine use tends to be common among these gamblers since it produces stimulating effects of increased energy, alertness, focus, concentration, and confidence.

Individuals with gambling disorders tend to suffer higher rates of co-occurring alcohol and drug use disorders compared to their peers. Gambling often takes place in environments that enable and encourage alcohol and drug use. Gambling can also trigger mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, which many may self-treat using alcohol and drugs like marijuana, painkillers, and other addictive substances.

How Are Gambling Addiction and Substance Use Treated?

Gambling addiction is commonly treated using cognitive and behavioral therapies that treat the root psychological causes of your addiction. These therapies also help you identify and change negative, unhealthy thoughts and behaviors that may have led to your gambling addiction. Treatments for gambling addiction can be tailored especially for you or your loved one based on the factors surrounding your disorder.

Gambling addiction can also be treated using community reinforcement, group therapy, and 12-step support groups like Gamblers Anonymous. These treatments help you identify your triggers that can lead to gambling and teach you ways to overcome and manage those triggers. For instance, if a stressful day at work usually makes you feel like gambling, you may learn yoga, deep breathing, or other healthy methods that relieve stress without putting your health and well-being at risk.

Gambling Addiction Help

If you or someone you love needs treatment for gambling addiction, it’s important that you use a treatment approach that best suits your recovery needs. Gambling addiction treatment is available in many different settings, including inpatient and outpatient treatment settings.

Inpatient gambling addiction treatment can greatly benefit those who suffer from severe gambling disorder, and who have suffered severe financial, legal, or social problems. Inpatient treatment includes around-the-clock supervision in a hospital-like setting where you can live for the duration of your treatment program. The intense level of therapy, counseling, and supervision provided by inpatient treatment centers can help significantly reduce the risk of relapse while in recovery.

Compulsive gamblers often need support from friends, family members, and peers to help them stop gambling. Gamblers Anonymous groups can provide peer and social support for those in recovery or for those who wish they can stop gambling. These groups can provide a solid, healthy foundation for a successful and long-term recovery from gambling addiction.

Here’s how to help a family member or loved one suffering from a gambling addiction:

• Understand the addiction. The first thing you can do to help a loved one who is addicted to gambling is to learn all you can about the addiction. Find a support group that can help you cope with the stress that comes from having a loved one who is addicted to gambling.
• Find support. Support for yourself and for your loved one who is addicted can be very beneficial in helping with a gambling addiction. Many support groups are available throughout communities and in treatment centers. Therapists and counselors can also provide support for gambling addiction.
• Manage money tightly. If your loved one is addicted to gambling and is actively pursuing help, take over managing all financial responsibilities for your loved one. This can help reduce any gambling impulses your loved one may be experiencing throughout their recovery.

For some, visiting a casino and dropping a few quarters into a slot machine doesn’t present much of a problem. In fact, millions of Americans visit Las Vegas every year and return home having experienced a wonderful vacation. For others, the risk-taking involved in gambling – the thrill – can pose a much larger problem.

The psychiatric community has recognized that gambling can be a problem for many years. The most recent publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – the guidelines used by psychiatrists and psychologists so that each diagnosis is formed in a similar manner among a cross section of patients – lists gambling disorders with other addiction-related concerns. This type of addiction is commonly known as a “process addiction”. In other words, it is a behavior that some people become psychologically addicted to.

Signs and Symptoms of Gambling Addiction Mimic Substance Abuse Disorder

We’ve compiled a list of three criteria that may indicate the presence of a gambling addiction. If you suspect that you or someone you love might have a problem with gambling, it is a good idea to speak with a licensed mental health counselor or call our toll-free number to learn more. In the meantime, here are three symptoms that compulsive gambling may have become a problem in your life:

• 1. TIME SPENT THINKING ABOUT GAMBLING
  Do you consistently talk about, think about, and spend a considerable amount of time working toward and thinking about the opportunities to gamble?
  When an individual is diagnosed with substance dependence, a similar question is used: Does the individual spend an exorbitant amount of time figuring out where to get their drugs of abuse, and does he or she constantly worry about how to get the next dose?
• 2. THE PRESENCE OF TOLERANCE
  Generally speaking, when discussing the abuse of drugs or alcohol, tolerance is a physical condition. Tolerance occurs body becomes physically accustomed to the drugs that are being ingested, and more drugs are needed in order to achieve the same type of euphoric effects that the person experienced the first time around.
  For example, an individual may use two or three Percocet tablets in the beginning of their substance abuse path, but later they find that two or three pills are not enough. In order to achieve the same “high,” they need to take five or six pills. This indicates that a tolerance has been built.
  On the other side of the coin, an individual who suffers from a gambling addiction might have to consistently increase the value of each bet in order to achieve the thrill that they’re looking for. Perhaps in the beginning they were excited to win a $5 bet, but as the problem progresses, $5 isn’t nearly enough. They may begin to bet hundreds of dollars at a time, which, of course, increases the amount they may lose.
• 3. THE PRESENCE OF WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS
  Likewise, an individual who suffers from an addiction to gambling will also experience a type of withdrawal. It is not a physical withdrawal, as with drug or alcohol withdrawal. Instead, compulsive gamblers who attempt to cut back on their gambling or who stop gambling for a period of time may experience irritability and other emotions that affect their mood.

Other symptoms and warning signs of gambling addiction:

• Avoiding one’s problems through gambling. This is similar to the avoidance that someone addicted to drugs will experience as the drugs encourage a feeling that nothing else matters.
• Counteracting the negative effects of gambling with more gambling. Known as “chasing” one’s losses, addicted gamblers will return to a casino to try to earn back the dollars they have lost in much the same way that someone addicted to cocaine will use more cocaine to avoid the cocaine-induced depression that follows a binge.
• Dishonesty can appear in two forms. Lying to family and friends about the severity of gambling practices and/or committing illegal activities to support the habit are traits that also appear for those who are struggling with drug addiction.
• Strain on family relationships is present in any addiction, and significant arguments often occur due to destructive behaviors.
• Significant financial losses are common due to excessive gambling, and it is often necessary for friends and family to supplement income and pay necessary bills, such as rent, for an individual who has a gambling problem. These strains may also carry over into legal fees and over-drafted bank accounts, liens, or fines.
• An inability to stop gambling, or even cut back on the frequency or dollar amounts gambled, is similar to a drug addict’s inability to stop using drugs.¹

Drug Abuse and Gambling Impact the Brain in the Same Way

Evidence has shown that both drug abuse and gambling affect similar parts of the brain. As in drug use, gambling can affect levels of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, as well as the GABA neurotransmitters. These are the same parts of the brain are altered through drug abuse and addiction to drugs.

Brain Basics

To understand how each of these conditions relates to these parts of the brain, it is necessary to understand what each of these brain chemicals do for us as well as how the brain works normally. For instance, the human brain is made up of brain cells called neurons. In between each neuron is a space, called the synapse.

Each neuron can send and receive messages about how we feel, what we’re thinking, and how we behave.

One neuron will release a chemical, called a neurotransmitter, into the synapse and an adjoining neuron will receive that chemical. Various neurons contain receptors and transporters. The receptor is the part of the neuron that receives the chemical messengers traveling through the synapse, and the transporter is the part of the neuron that recycles any excess chemical left in the synapse. The transporter is located on the same neuron that released the message to begin with.

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Dopamine: The “Feel Good” Neurotransmitter”

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter related to both drug addiction and gambling. Dopamine has two characteristics that are related to addiction in general.

First, it’s a “feel good” chemical associated with rewards. Imagine you are stranded on a desert island and you haven’t had any fresh water for hours or even days. You go in search of water and discover that a fresh water source is located directly north of the signal fire you’ve lit on the beach. You experience a rush of joy and elation when you find the spring. This feeling of euphoria is due to the dopamine that has been released in your brain.

Secondly, it plays a part in learning. When you find the water source, you commit the location of this life-giving source of water to your memory. Dopamine does more than make us feel wonderful; it helps us learn what makes us feel that way. Certain drugs can increase the production of natural dopamine, mimic the chemical itself, or block the ability of the transporters in the brain to recycle the dopamine floating in the synapse.

When someone uses a drug that affects dopamine levels, the person will both feel better and then learn what activity or substance created the euphoria.²

An individual who experiences that rush from winning even a small jackpot during the course of gambling learns that pulling the lever or pressing the button on a slot machine has the ability to make them feel great.

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Gambling Addiction Treatment is Similar to Drug Addiction Treatment

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If the behaviors associated with addiction are learned, is it possible to unlearn them? According to the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists, it is not only possible, but it is effective. Cognitive function, which refers to one’s ability to think, and our behaviors are connected to what we think.

The basic premise for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) addresses the link between our perceptions of the world around us and how we translate that into our actions.

The people and circumstances of our lives have less control over how we behave than we think they do.

For instance, an individual who sees a slot machine and associates the slot machine with the good feeling of winning may blame the presence of that slot machine for their problem. Perhaps, if they thought of that machine in a different way, they would not be as anxious to gamble.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been used in the treatment of drug addiction to achieve a similar goal: change the association, change the thinking, and practice those new thought patterns until the behavior fully changes.

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By helping an individual learn that the drugs or the gambling behaviors do not actually improve life or emotions, and by helping that individual address the issues that have caused the feelings of unworthiness, this person unlearns the association between addictive behavior and self-worth.

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Other Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Gambling and Substance Abuse:

• CBT is a short-term method that involves active participation, homework assignments, and goal setting.
• CBT allows the individual to determine their own course of actions to improve the quality of their life. The therapist helps them learn how to feel better without telling them how to feel.
• CBT shows an individual how to operate from a position of knowledge and fact, rather than making assumptions about the world around them.
• CBT develops an equal partnership between therapist and patient, or both parties work in tandem to reach goals.³

How to Get Help for Gambling Addiction

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If you or someone you love suffers from a gambling addiction, it is important to get help as soon as possible. Gambling addiction can have serious consequences on your life, your finances, your relationships, and your happiness.

Feel free to contact us at (866) 874-5899 to find out more about how our treatment methods and dedication to gambling recovery can help you.

Sources:
¹New York State. Warning Signs of Problem Gambling. Nd. Accessed 26 November 2018.
²Volkow N., et. al. Dopamine in drug abuse and addiction: results of imaging studies and treatment implications. Arch Neurology. Nov 2007.
³National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists. What is Cognitive Behavior Therapy? 2018.