The CompulsiveGambler Personality

If there is a 'compulsive gambling personality type', it has yet to be identified in a precise manner.

However, compulsive gamblers do exhibit some distinctive characteristics.

While these are commonly found among compulsive gamblers, it must be remembered that not every compulsive gambler will exhibit all of them or exhibit them in an extreme way.

There is considerable diversity among compulsive gamblers.

Compulsive gamblers have a need to control events, and gambling provides the illusion that they can control the uncontrollable. Some develop a kind of 'irrational thinking' in which they come to believe that they can (literally) control the turn of a card, the roll of the dice, the spin of the wheel, or the outcome of a race.

In the advanced stages of this disorder, especially when they see their financial problems as unsolvable and they become desperate, compulsive gamblers begin thinking 'backwards', about their problems.

Rather than seeing their financial, family, work, legal, and other problems as a result of their gambling, they see further gambling as the solution to their problems.

'If only I had money to gamble with, I could win some money, and all my problems would be taken care of' is the all too familiar complaint of the compulsive gambler.

There is also evidence that compulsive gamblers are self-centered, insecure, and tend to exhibit a disregard for authority. They are highly competitive, but seem to have abandoned or given up on conventional ways of competing.

One interpretation is that, because compulsive gamblers have doubts about the strength of their personal resources, they turn to gambling in an attempt to be successful.

This perspective is consistent in Merton's idea that when people do not have access to conventional and socially approved means of achieving success, they will become 'innovative' and turn to deviant means of achieving the goal of success.

On some standardized personality tests, compulsive gamblers appear to be quite similar to alcoholics.

Compulsive gamblers borrow money from friends, relatives, co-workers, banks, loan companies, credit unions, credit cards, and loan sharks in order to pay their gambling debts and stay in action.

In several studies, the average gambling-related debt of male compulsive gamblers was estimated at between 442,000 and $54,000, excluding home mortgages, car loans, and other consumer loans.

The level of indebtedness is approximately one-third lower for female compulsive gamblers.

Given their indebtedness and the desire to stay in action, it is not surprising that compulsive gamblers engage in a variety of illegal behavior.

About two-thirds of compulsive gamblers report that they have engaged in illegal activities to pay gambling debts or obtain money with which to gamble.

The illegal activities reported include forgery, embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion/fraud, and a variety of 'street crimes'.