Pathological gambling: Implications for therapeutic recreation practice

Therapeutic Recreation Journal, Fourth Quarter 1999 by Carruthers, Cynthia

Irrational thinking. Cognitive distortions are very instrumental in the maintenance of pathological gambling. Common cognitive distortions include illusions of control, selfserving attributions, and faulty belief% related to recouping losses. The illusion of control is very prevalent among pathological gamblers (Blaszczynski & Silove. 1995; Griffiths, 1990; Ladouceur, Gaboury, Dumont, & Rochette, 1988), and is represented by individuals' belief in their ability to defy chance. Pathological gamblers have the unfounded belief that somehow they can "beat the system" or that they have an "edge" (Blaszczynski & Silove, 1995). They believe that through their behaviors, skill, or luck, they can influence chance events (Rugle, 1993) or gain the advantage over probability. Examples of irrational thoughts include carrying "lucky" fetishes to bingo games, placing bets on the numbers that coincide with family members' birthdays, playing a slot machine that has recently paid out, and belief that a certain routine when playing the machines makes a difference. The highest levels of illusions of control exist in slot machine players, a game of complete chance (Blaszczynski & Silove).

Faulty attributions regarding the causes of wins and losses also are necessary to support the maintenance of pathological gambling. Gamblers often attribute their wins to their 11 strategies" or "knowledge" (internal, stable attributions), but make elaborate complex extemal attributions for their losses. For example, if someone wins in sports betting, the attribution would be that their knowledge of sports teams was responsible for the win. Since their knowledge will remain high, they should continue to win. If the team loses, they may blame it on players being uncharacteristically out of synch, unanticipated bad weather, an unexpected number of turnovers, but not on their own knowledge or skill. Even after a loss, they will believe that unanticipated negative events such as these are unlikely to happen again, and that their knowledge and skill will assure a win in the future.

Finally, pathological gamblers often hold the irrational belief that the only or easiest avenue that they have for recouping extensive losses is to continue gambling. This "chasing of losses" is irrational because probability suggests that the gambler is much more likely to lose than win. However, pathological gamblers often continue to gamble after a significant loss, oftentimes betting larger amounts and taking greater risks, under the belief that it is the only way to recover their losses (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Poor coping skills. Pathological gamblers are deficient in both the the number of coping skills to which they have access and their flexibility in using them (McCormick, 1994). That is, they have difficulty evaluating which coping skill is most appropriate in a particular situation. Pathological gamblers often do not believe that they have the ability to deal with life's problems or their day-to-day responsibilities or relationships (Rugle. 1993).