How to Determine Your Level of Gambling Addiction?

The DSM-IV Pathological Gambling Diagnostic Form

There are many questionnaires on gambling addiction on the Internet. One of the most accurate is by American Psychiatric Association and is called “The DSM-V Pathological Gambling Diagnostic Form”. It was published in 2013 and is a product of more than a decade of effort by hundreds of international experts in all aspects of mental health.

The questionnaire consists of 9 carefully chosen and constructed questions:

• Have you often found yourself thinking about gambling (e.g., reliving past gambling experienc es, planning the next time you will play or thinking of ways to get money to gamble)?
• Have you needed to gamble with more and more money to get the amount of excitement you are looking for?
• Have you become restless or irritable when trying to cut down or stop gambling?
• Have you gambled to escape from problems or when you are feeling depressed, anxious or bad about yourself?
• After losing money gambling, have you returned another day in order to get even?
• Have you lied to your family or others to hide the extent of your gambling?
• Have you made repeated unsuccessful attempts to control, cut back or stop gambling?
• Have you risked or lost a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of gambling?
• Have you sought help from ot hers to provide the money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling?

Four or more “yes” answers will indicate a diagnosis for Gambling Disorder. Less than four indicates a potential problem and/or at risk indicators. It’s very easy to fill in, but the most important is to be honest and try to look at yourself from a perspective as it helps to disassociate with your beliefs which may be biased.

The Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI)

Another study leads us to the Canada Consortium for Gambling Research (CCGR), which is a Canadian authority with different groups that have a role related to gambling research. In 2001 they launched what’s known as The Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI), which has been used to measure the prevalence of problem gambling not only in Canada but also in Australia, Great Britain, Iceland and Norway.

There are also only 9 questions in this form, some of which have been derived from the DSM above, but also South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS):

• Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?
• Have you need to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement?
• Have you gone back another day to try and win back the money you lost?
• Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?
• Have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling?
• Have you felt that gambling has caused you health problems, including stress and anxiety?
• Have people criticized your betting or told you that you have a gambling problem, whether or not you thought it was true?
• Have you felt that your gambling has caused financial problems for you or your household?
• Have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?

Rating, on the other hand, is a bit different from the test above. This time, there are four scores you have to give that go as follows:

• 0 = Never
• 1 = Sometimes
• 2 = Most of the time
• 3 = Almost always.

After rating the questions as best as you can, here’s how the overall score should be measured to determine the level of risk or gambling problem (according to the new scoring system proposed by the 2010 report “Improving the Psychometric Properties of the Problem Gambling Severity Index”):

• Score 1-4 = Low risk
• Score 5-7 = Moderate risk
• Score 8-27 = Problem gambler.

Give it a try as it should only take a few minutes of your time.