Pathological gambling

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Our online table of contents is updated at least twice each day. Read all articles published in the last 7 days.
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
OPEN ACCESS: All research articles are freely available online, with no word limit. Find out more about the BMJ's open access policy. Submit your paper.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

Sheila B Blume

Medical director Alcoholism, Chemical Dependency, and Compulsive Gambling Programs, South Oaks Hospital, Amityville, NY 11701, USA

An addiction to an altered psychological state

Neither gambling nor its problems are new to human history. Artefacts related to gambling dating from 3000 BC have been identified in the remains of ancient Babylon. Lotteries originated in Europe in the middle ages, and the first lottery to be sponsored by a government was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1566.1 Serious gambling problems are described in the classical literature of many cultures, such as the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. The Russian novelist Dostoevsky wrote his 1866 novella The Gambler in a desperate effort to repay his own gambling debts.2 Yet despite the accelerating trend towards the legalisation of many types of wagering worldwide and the awareness that for some people gambling becomes a destructive addiction, little attention has been given to the prevention or treatment of its problems.

Gambling is big business in the United …