Symptoms:

People with pathological gambling often feel ashamed and try to avoid letting others know of their problem. The American Psychiatric Association defines pathological gambling as having five or more of the following symptoms:

• Committing crimes to get money to gamble
• Feeling restless or irritable when trying to cut back or quit gambling
• Gambling to escape problems or feelings of sadness or anxiety
• Gambling larger amounts of money to try to make back previous losses
• Having had many unsuccessful attempts to cut back or quit gambling
• Losing a job, relationship, or educational or career opportunity due to gambling
• Lying about the amount of time or money spent gambling
• Needing to borrow money to get by due to gambling losses
• Needing to gamble larger amounts of money in order to feel excitement
• Spending a lot of time thinking about gambling, such as past experiences or ways to get more money with which to gamble

Signs and tests:

A psychiatric evaluation and history can be used to diagnose pathological gambling. Screening tools such as the Gamblers Anonymous 20 Questions can help with the diagnosis.