ABSTRACT
Today the pathological gambler lurks not only in the pages of the psy literature but in every casino, fruit-machine hall, racetrack and betting oce. One does not have to look back far for the picture to be very dierent: in the psychiatric and psychological writings of the 1970s, the 1960s, the 1950s and before, the pathological gambler was a rare gure and one almost always denied the recognition aorded by an entry in the nosologies of mental illness. In 1980 this changed when the condition was listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,
3rd edition (DSM-III) and since then there has been a rapid expansion of research on pathological gambling and it has achieved a higher prole in everyday life. [Here] I explore the emergence of the category of pathological gambler and, in particular, I focus on the apparently late construction of that gure.
