Stress and Anxiety as Factors in the Onset of Problem Gambling: Implications for Treatment

Many new and accessible forms of gambling have been introduced in Australia in the last decade, with a concomitant increase in research into gambling behaviour and its treatment. This article reviews the clinical characteristics of gambling and proposes a continuum from social gambling, through problem gambling, to the more severe form of pathological gambling. The role of stress and anxiety as precipitating and perpetuating factors in problem gambling is discussed, highlighted by data on the aetiology of problem gambling from the Addiction Research Institute. The article concludes with a review of treatment implications for problem gambling.