No abstract

No abstract

The alleged incidence of addiction to fruit machine gambling among children in the U.K. has highlighted the need for a measure to define and count pathological gambling in children. The DSM-IV criteria, which are being refined to diagnose pathological gambling in adults, was adapted for use with pre-adult gamblers. The resulting DSM-IV-J criteria were tested using a questionnaire survey on a sample of 467 schoolchildren aged between 11 and 16 years. Those children who were defined as "probable pathological" gamblers by the DSM-IV-J index were significantly more likely to be involved in behaviours hitherto associated with dependency, than were the control group. DSM-IV-J appears to be a major advance in the discrimination of pathological gambling in children.

This paper presents a revised version of DSM-IV-J criteria for youth, the DSM-IV-MR-J, together with psychometric data stemming from its use in a major prevalence study of adolescent gambling and problem gambling. The case is made for further development and testing of current and emerging instruments to screen for problem gambling in youth, with the aim of establishing one internationally accepted gold standard measure.

This paper seeks to provide a sociological account of how children and young people orient to fruit machine gambling. The account is based upon the findings of an ethnographic study and is presented in the form of a typology. Arcade Kings and their Apprentices, Machine Beaters, Escape Artists, Action Seekers and Rent-a-Spacers comprise a classification which includes ‘addicts’ as well as ‘social gamblers’. The typology reveals the multi-dimensional nature of fruit machine gambling as a leisure pursuit. It thus provides a theoretical contribution to the sociology of gambling as well as an ‘ethnographic road map’ for researchers and counsellors in the field.