Gambling

The Gambling Craving Scale (GACS) is a multifaceted measure of gambling craving. Initial validation work by Young and Wohl (2009) in university student samples showed that the GACS had a three-factor structure capturing dimensions of Desire, Anticipation, and Relief. Despite its potential clinical utility as a measure of craving, the GACS has yet to be validated in people seeking treatment for gambling problems. Accordingly, we examined the psychometric properties in a sample of people (N = 209; Mage  = 37...

Adolescence has been characterized as a period of risky and possibly suboptimal decision-making, yet the development of decision-making in autistic adolescents is not well understood. To investigate decision-making in autism, we evaluated performance on 2 computerized tasks capturing decision-making under explicit risk and uncertainty in autistic and non-autistic adolescents/young adults ages 12-22 years. Participants completed the Game of Dice Task (32 IQ-matched participant pairs) to assess decision-making under explicit risk and the modified Iowa Gambling Task (35 IQ-matched pairs) to assess decision-making under uncertainty...

AIM: To develop and user test an evidence-based patient decision aid for children and adolescents who are considering anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. DESIGN: Mixed-methods study describing the development of a patient decision aid. SETTING: A draft decision aid was developed by a multidisciplinary steering group (including various types of health professionals and researchers, and consumers) informed by the best available evidence and existing patient decision aids...

Impaired decision-making constitutes a fundamental issue in numerous psychiatric disorders. Extensive research has established that early life adversity (ELA) increases vulnerability to psychiatric disorders later in life. ELA in human neonates is associated with changes in cognitive, emotional, as well as reward-related processing. Maternal separation (MS) is an established animal model of ELA and has been shown to be associated with decision-making deficits. On the other hand, enriched environment (EE) and intranasal oxytocin (OT) administration have been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on decision-making in humans or animals...

BACKGROUND: Although the correlation between substance use disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been largely studied, less is known about the correlation between behavioral addictions and ADHD. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of behavioral addictions in a large sample of adult patients with a primary diagnosis of ADHD and to compare the clinical profile of ADHD patients with and without behavioral addictions comorbidity...

Donor-linking where those genetically related through donor conception (e.g. donor-conceived persons (DCP), donors and siblings), or recipient parents, search for and connect with each other, is increasingly common, both in identity-release jurisdictions where donors' identifying information may be released to DCP, usually when they become adults - and in anonymous jurisdictions, e.g. as a result of direct-to-consumer DNA testing. In this paper, we explore New Zealand fertility clinic counsellors' views regarding their donor-linking roles and their concerns and needs in relation to current and anticipated service provision...

Analyzing scored sleep is a fundamental prerequisite to understanding how sleep changes between health and disease. Classically, this is accomplished by manually calculating various measures (e.g., percent of non-rapid eye movement sleep) from a collection of scored sleep files. This process can be tedious and error prone especially when studies include a large number of animals or involve long recording sessions. To address this issue, we present SleepInvestigatoR, a versatile tool that can quickly organize and analyze multiple scored sleep files into a single output...

We present a method for direct imaging of the electric field networks in the human brain from electroencephalography (EEG) data with much higher temporal and spatial resolution than functional MRI (fMRI), without the concomitant distortions. The method is validated using simultaneous EEG/fMRI data in healthy subjects, intracranial EEG data in epilepsy patients, and in a direct comparison with standard EEG analysis in a well-established attention paradigm. The method is then demonstrated on a very large cohort of subjects performing a standard gambling task designed to activate the brain's 'reward circuit'...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: This study characterized chasing behaviour as the time to return to an online gambling website after a losing or a winning visit. METHODS: We analyzed a naturalistic dataset from an eCasino (PlayNow.com, the provincial platform for British Columbia, Canada), comprising 1,909,681 sessions from 15,544 individuals. Analyses distinguished sessions on slot machines, blackjack, roulette, video poker, probability games, or mixed-category sessions. RESULTS: Overall, gamblers on most games returned more slowly as a function of the prior loss, and more quickly as a function of the prior win...

Recent technological advances and legislative changes have led to an increase of sports wagering across the United States, raising concerns about possible increases in problem gambling behaviors. This, in turn, points to an increased need to understand responsible gambling and how it relates to sports gambling behaviors. The present work utilizes the Positive Play Scale (PPS), a recent scale designed to measure the increasingly popular responsible gambling concept of Positive Play, to assess how various aspects of sports gambling relate to responsible gambling...

Problem gambling has been recognised as an important public health issue because of its harmful consequences at the personal, interpersonal, and societal levels. There is a proliferation of gambling activities in Ghana owing to increased access to the internet, soaring smartphone penetration, and an influx of sports betting companies. Yet, very little research has addressed the harm associated with problem gambling in Ghana. This study assessed if the effect of problem gambling severity on suicidal behaviours (ideation, planning, and attempts) through psychological distress is contingent on the level of perceived social support...

New gambling products have been developed over time as technology permits. For example, early mechanical slot machines were later replaced by electronic gaming machines (EGMs), which enabled a faster speed of play and more immersive experience. EGMs have in the decades since their invention become one of the main drivers of gambling expenditure worldwide and are one of the gambling products most strongly associated with harm. This literature review considers research relevant to a new subcategory of EGM, 'skill-based' EGMs, termed 'SGMs' here...

Recent years have seen increased attention given to identifying and describing the levels of gambling participation that confer a risk of harm in order to generate public health advice regarding lower-risk gambling. However, most of the existing literature has failed to explicitly assess these limits in a prospective manner. The purpose of this study is to employ a methodology consistent with prior investigations to evaluate the level of gambling participation associated with an increased risk of future gambling-related harm...

When individuals make uncertain decisions, they often evaluate the correctness of their choices in what is referred to as decision-making confidence. The outcomes of such decision-making can lead to counterfactual thinking wherein alternative possible outcomes are contemplated. This, in turn, can elicit counterfactual emotions including upward and downward counterfactual thinking, which, respectively, refer to regret and relief. Decision-making confidence and counterfactual emotions have key effects on how individuals learn from the past and prepare for the future...

The widespread use of computers and the Internet has substantially changed the gaming environment during the past ten years. The gambling industry is no longer exclusive to land-based gaming establishments (such as casinos and racetracks). Today, a few keystrokes on a computer are all it takes to access gaming operations. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and various other platforms constitute a particular form of access that has drawn more attention from academics in gambling studies...

The increasing incidence of psychological pains, burnout, and anxiety among gamblers in Nigeria is high. This is because pathological gambling (PG) is on the rise and it is linked to many social vices such as stealing, drug abuse, and sexual abuse. It is important to investigate the trajectories of PG in Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey design was employed in our study with 197 participants sampled from 28 gambling venues in Nigeria made up the study's sample size. Of the 197, 131 (66.5%) were males and 66 (33...

AIMS: The trials upon which recommendations for the use of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in heart failure used optimal medical therapy (OMT) before sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i). Moreover, the SGLT2i heart failure trials included only a small proportion of participants with CRT, and therefore, it remains uncertain whether SGLT2i should be considered part of OMT prior to CRT. METHODS AND RESULTS: We compared electrocardiogram (ECG) and echocardiographic responses to CRT as well as hospitalization and mortality rates in consecutive patients undergoing implantation at a large tertiary centre between January 2019 to June 2022 with and without SGLT2i treatment...

BACKGROUND: This study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gambling behavior of individuals who were already actively engaged in such pursuits. We aimed to uncover the intricate consequences of the pandemic on this specific demographic, emphasizing the importance of understanding the complex connection between public health concerns such as the COVID-19 pandemic and gambling behavior from a public health perspective. In addition to identifying immediate impacts, this study holds significance in assessing potential long-term public health implications for the broader gambling industry...

Gambles that involve a large but unlikely gain coupled with a small but likely loss-like a lottery ticket-are known as positively-skewed. There is evidence that people tend to prefer these positively skewed choices, leading to what is called a positive-skew bias. In this study, we attempt to better understand under what conditions people are more drawn toward positively skewed, relative to symmetric, gambles. Based on the animal literature, there is reason to believe that preference for skewed gambles is dependent on the strength of the skew, with a greater preference for more strongly skewed options...

Migration is a risk factor for gambling-related harms. Little research has been conducted on gambling and gambling harms among migrant groups in Finland, but there are indications that gambling participation is high among migrants also in this context. Russian speakers constitute the largest migrant group in Finland. This study focuses on the experiences and views of Russian speakers in Finland on the Finnish gambling system and its relationship to gambling harms. The study is based on the results of qualitative data collected on gambling experiences among Russian-speaking residents of Finland...