Gambling was reclassified from an impulse control disorder to a behavioural addiction in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edn).1 Conservative estimates indicate that approximately 1% of the UK population exhibit gambling behaviour that warrants a diagnosis of ‘disordered gambling’,2 where disordered gambling refers to the useful term proposed in the DSM-52 re-classification encompassing ‘problem’, ‘pathological’, and ‘compulsive’ gambling.1 The negative effects of disordered gambling can include mental health problems, financial crises, relationship breakdown, domestic violence, and self-harm or suicide, and tend to cluster with other high-risk behaviours such as smoking and drug taking.
University of Lincoln, College of Social science Research
Dr Amanda Roberts, University of Lincoln, School of Psychology
Henrietta Bowden-Jones, National Problem Gambling Clinic, London and Imperial College London
David Roberts, Market Square Surgery, Waltham Abbey
Stephen Sharman, University of East London