Gambling disorder has been associated with significant health and psychosocial problems ( Abbott et al., 2013 Meyer, Hayer, & Griffiths, 2009) as well as increased comorbidities with substance abuse disorder, anxiety, and mood disorder ( Lorains, Cowlishaw, & Thomas, 2011).
586 American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Gambling disorder has now been officially classed by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a behavioral addiction characterized by “persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior that disrupts personal, family, and/or vocational pursuits” (p.
Although gambling is a socially acceptable behavior ( Griffiths, 1996), epidemiological research estimates that 0.2%–2.3% of adults in the general population meet the criteria for problem or pathological gambling ( Gainsbury et al., 2014). Gambling growth over the past 20 years has placed gambling-related harms at the foreground of public health concerns for adults ( Raisamo, Mäkelä, Salonen, & Lintonen, 2014) and youth ( Molinaro et al., 2014).
