Saturday, March 25, 2006

To play a game of chance for stakes or to take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit. Compulsive gambling is an urge or addiction to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. The preferred term among many professionals is problem gambling, as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others rather than by the gamblers behavior. Severe problem gambling may be diagnosed as clinical pathological gambling if the gambler meets certain criteria. Read further...