Surveying Recent Research Regarding Problem Gambling

While problem gambling was once an issue shrouded in shame and mystery, the modern era provides problem gambling - and those impacted by their gambling - with the most diverse array of information and resources found at any point in history. Below we've provided short summaries of some of the most recent findings in the field, along with links to the research so that you can review it for yourself.

An interesting paper titled Gambling Behaviors and Perceived Health Among Incarcerated Older Adults (2025) focuses on the health issues associated with gambling problems, specifically among older adults. While somewhat limited in scope, the research still has interesting implications for policy makers attempting to quantify what impact problem gamblers are likely to have on society at large.

In his 2025 article Pathological gambling: impulse control disorder or addiction? Wim van den Brink tackles the tricky question of how gambling addiction should be classified. Is it a matter of simply making poor decisions or is there something more pathological at work? The paper ultimately concludes that gambling addiction should be treated clinically as one would treat a substance addiction - an important distinction with significant implications for problem gambling treatment. These questions are echoed - and the answers extended - by Joe Bouch's 2025 article Dependence or Addiction?

Vulnerability and Gambling Addiction: Psychosocial Benchmarks and Avenues for Intervention, a 2025 paper by Amnon Jacob Suissa, explores the mitigating impact strong social networks can have on problem gambling behavior. While Suissa doesn't claim that such networks can completely stop problem gambling, he uses the concept of social networks to explore a variety of topics related to problem gambling, including the peripheral impacts of such behavior, early warning signs of developing problems and the psychology of the affected individual.

While less a scholarly article and more a personal story, Sam Skolnik's High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America's Gambling Addiction adds a valuable perspective to the discussion of problem gambling by pulling the lens back from the individual to survey a nation's struggle with gambling. The lessons presented by the book are often just as applicable to the individual as they are to the country, and sometimes in fact are drawn in much sharper relief when considered at the national level.

The above represents less than a single percentage point of the available research concerning problem gambling, and the list of resources and insights is growing by the day. While much of the material may ultimately be too clinical for the typical reader, enough of the core ideas are straightforward enough to prove of use to anyone with an interest in the subject. For those with a deeply personal interest, learning more about the subject via such research may be the first step in dealing with problem gambling in a considered and healthy fashion.