Contemporary issues and future directions for research into pathological gambling

The recent healthy increase in research into all aspects of gambling is not ed. The dominant theme accounting for most of this research is the mental d isorder model of pathological gambling and measures that have been derived from this conceptualization. It is suggested that an alternative approach f ocusing on the construct of choice or subjective control over gambling may be a research direction that will ensure that progress is maintained. In th is paper a context for the discussion is provided by first identifying brie fly fundamental conceptual and methodological issues associated with the me ntal disorder model. In particular it is argued that the heterogeneity of t he diagnosis of pathological gambling makes the research task of assessing truly independent variables extremely difficult. Subsequently an illustrati ve schema is presented that demonstrates both the potential advantages and some of the complexities associated with the dependent variable of self-con trol over gambling behaviour. The main advantages are argued to be (a) the focus of research is narrowed to one potential cause of harmful impacts rat her than the great diversity of impacts themselves, (b) prospective studies of regular gamblers in real gambling venues may be a key source of insight into the development of pathological gambling and (c) it promotes the deve lopment of theoretical links with the mainstream of the discipline of psych ology. Despite the conceptual difficulties that may be associated with the variable of self-control, it is suggested that these may be overcome becaus e contemporary research into the addictive behaviours has demonstrated cons iderable success in the definition and measurement of control and related t hemes such as craving, restraint and temptation.