Bet on it: Gambling runs in families
According to experts, gambling is a genetic pathological addiction.
Problem gamblers likely come from families with a pathological betting problem, in addition to a host of other issues, including alcoholism, drug using, and antisocial behavior, says a University of Iowa study.
“Something is being passed along in these families that increases the person’s likelihood of engaging in impulsive and ultimately self-destructive behavior,” says Dr. Donald Black, a psychiatry professor at the school, noting that gambling disorders have grown over the past 20 years as access to gaming has increased in many forms, including casinos, racetracks, bingo and lotteries.
These findings, based on interviews with 31 pathological gamblers, 30 control subjects and first-degree relatives who share 50 percent of their genes (parents, siblings, kids), are the first step to finding a genetic basis for pathological gambling, according to Black.
Black’s study found that problem gambling tended to start at around age 34 for men and 39 for women. Even though women start later, their severity of problem gambling grows worse quicker, according to Black.
“What we find with pathological gamblers is that they have this uncontrollable urge to gamble,” Black said. “Ideally, it would be nice to discover a drug that would reliably interrupt that urge.”
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