ABSTRACT
During the past decade there has been a slow but steady growth in clinical interest, professional education, treatment programmes, research and public policy measures aimed at prevention and treatment of pathological gambling. This is particularly true in the United States where gambling, both legal and illegal, has become a $240,000,000 a year industry, and where an estimated 1.5 per cent of the adult population are probable compulsive gamblers and another 2.8 per cent have gambling problems (Volberg and Steadman, 1988).
