Penn State Health’s Advancement in Recovery program launched a specialised gambling-addiction treatment service in August, adding a clinical programme focused on helping patients interrupt harmful gambling behaviour.
The service asks patients to map the pathways and triggers that led them to gamble, keep journals of their feelings and return to activities they previously enjoyed that can offer healthier rewards. It also uses an app designed to block access to gambling sites.
Gambling disorder is a process addiction rather than a chemical addiction. Penn State Health’s Medical Minute identified family histories of addiction, impulsivity, depression, anxiety and loneliness as risk factors. The health system lists Advancement in Recovery among its substance-use-disorder treatment services.
The launch comes as Pennsylvania’s latest Interactive Gaming Assessment found that 17% to 30% of adults had gambled online in the prior year. The assessment surveyed more than 3,500 residents and found that online participation had risen from about 11% in its first two years to 16% in the third year and 20% in the fourth, before reaching the latest range.
More than half of calls to Pennsylvania’s 1-800-GAMBLER helpline specifically identified online gambling as the most problematic form of gambling, according to the state-backed assessment. It also found that people who gamble both online and offline have higher rates of at-risk and problem gambling than those who use only one format.
Pennsylvania legalised interactive gaming in 2017. Sports betting followed in 2018 and online casino games in July 2019; iGaming revenue rose from $241 million in 2020 to $897 million in 2021 as the pandemic shifted more activity online.
The programme adds a health-system treatment option to the statewide case-management, telehealth and low-cost services described in our August coverage of Pennsylvania’s problem-gambling awareness month.
