With the legalization and spread of gambling across North America over the last twenty years of the twentieth century, problem gambling emerged from out of the shadows into the mainstream of serious personal and social problems.

Beginning of Treatment

In the United States, the first organized program to deal with problem gambling occurred in 1957 with the founding of Gamblers Anonymous, a self-help/mutual support program. The first professional treatment program for compulsive gamblers was begun in 1972 by a psychiatrist, Robert Custer, in an inpatient alcohol program in a Veterans Administration hospital. The first state funded treatment program for compulsive gamblers began in Maryland in 1978.

Assessment and Terminology

Gamblers Anonymous developed 20 screening questions to help individuals decide whether they are compulsive gamblers. This questionnaire was the primary instrument utilized by professionals until 1980, when the mental health establishment recognized a gambling problem as a psychiatric disorder...