TEA Lab and collaborators present at the APA's Collaborative Perspectives of Addiction Conference

Dr. Grant Weinandy presented recent results on the potential problems of responsible gambling in terms of treatment seeking, alongside collaborators from the University of New Mexico. Using data from a U.S. census matched sample of gamblers and oversampling of sports betters, analyses looked at how aspects of responsible gambling (i.e., personal responsibility, gambling literacy, honesty and control, and pre-committment) are related to feeling the need to seek treatment and treatment seeking in gamblers experiencing harm. Results showed that only personal responsibility was related to treatment seeking, such that higher feelings of personal responsibility were related to less treatment seeking. No other relationships were significant between responsible gambling and either treatment seeking or feeling the need to seek treatment. Overall, this suggests that responsible gambling practices are generally not related to treatment seeking when problems arise and can even increase barriers to treatment seeking through beliefs about personal responsibility! We are looking forward to continuing to look at barriers to treatment seeking for gamblers and ways to improve support services. Thank you to APA's Division 50 for hosting a great conference.