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You Bet Gambling Is Addictive

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You Bet Gambling Is Addictive By Shanaz Rahim Gambling is common and prevalent in society due to it being a source of revenue for the government and also a pioneering force in tourism and entertainment. This entertainment, however, can lead to prolonged or progressive gambling known as pathological gambling (PG), which the American Psychiatric Association (APA) labels as an impulse disorder in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorder. This edition of the manual, DSM-IV-TR, provides a widely accepted definition of PG as persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior that “disrupts personal, family, or vocational pursuits” (APA 2000). The diagnostic criteria established by the APA in the DSM-IV-TR are that a person is a pathological gambler if he or she agrees with five or more of the following behaviors: 1. as gambling progressed, became more and more preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, studying a gambling system, planning the next gambling venture, or thinking of ways to get money 2. needed to gamble with more and more money in order to achieve the desired excitement 3. became restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling 4. gambled as a way of escaping from problems or intolerable feeling states 5. after losing money gambling, would often return another day in order to get even ("chasing" one 's losses) 6. lied to family, employer, or therapist to protect and conceal the

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