Gambling Addiction as a Pathology: Some Markers for Empowerment

Abstract

Defined by researchers as “a silent epidemic” the gambling phenomenon is a social problem that is having negative impact on individuals, families and communities. Among these effects are seen a dismantling of community networks, weakening of family and social ties, psychiatric co-morbidity, suicides and lately more homelessness. Youth, women, elderly, deprived citizens and native communities constitute the social groups that seem to suffer more from gambling accessibility when compared to others. Without pretending to cover all these aspects, we intend, from a social critical perspective, to highlight some of the major psychosocial stakes of the gambling phenomenon. After a brief historical overview underlining the social construction of gambling as a pathology, we will address issues such as the social and ethical contradictions of governments when managing gambling and the heated debate around the disease model of addiction versus a multifactorial approach to this phenomenon. Finally, we propose markers...