From the Editor

This issue of the Electronic Journal of Gambling Issues: eGambling (EJGI) offers several challenges to conventional thinking about problem gambling.

Do you accept that problem gambling is an addiction or do you question that definition? Stanton Peele's Feature article queries whether the concept of “addiction” is even appropriate for problem gambling. Another current debate concerns the accuracy of classifying problem gambling as an impulse control disorder as found in the latest 1994 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Both the Feature article and the first Research article by Mark W. Langewisch and G. Ron Frisch also question this disease classification. These articles raise important issues and we hope readers will offer debate and comments.

If you've ever wondered about the beginnings of Las Vegas and how it got to be the way it is, you will find new insights on how this gaming centre grew out of the Mojave desert in our second Research article by David Schwartz. And to understand some non-western views that challenge mainstream assumptions about gambling and its place in society, we've reprinted an article from Australia by Diane Gabb in our Opinion section about gambling among people who may be your neighbours. Whether you love the game of poker or hate it, you may enjoy comparing your feelings to those of author Barry Fritz in First Person Accounts.

The EJGI also offers a new section, Service Profile, which we hope will encourage clinicians from around the world to tell our readers about their problem gambling services.

A handful of book reviews, a movie review and a debate in Letters to the Editor round out this issue. Please tell us what you think.

– Phil Lange

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Statement of Purpose

The Electronic Journal of Gambling Issues: eGambling (EJGI) offers an Internet-based forum for developments in gambling-related research, policy and treatment as well as personal accounts about gambling and gambling behaviour. Through publishing peer-reviewed articles about gambling as a social phenomenon and the prevention and treatment of gambling problems, it is our aim is to help make sense of how gambling affects us all.

The EJGI is published by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and is fully funded by the Ontario Substance Abuse Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. We welcome manuscripts submitted by researchers and clinicians, people involved in gambling as players, and family and friends of gamblers.

Editor

Phil Lange

Editorial Board

Andrew Johnson,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Nina Littman-Sharp,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Robert Murray,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Wayne Skinner,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tony Toneatto,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Nigel Turner,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Reviewers

Peter Adams,Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioural Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Alex Blaszczynski,Impulse Control Research Clinic, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Gerry Cooper, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Jeff Derevensky, Youth Gambling Research & Treatment Clinic, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

William Eadington, Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, University of Nevada at Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA

Pat Erickson,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jackie Ferris,Ferris Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Ron Frisch,Problem Gambling Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Rina Gupta,Youth Gambling Research & Treatment Clinic, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Len Henrickson,Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada

Roger Horbay, Game Planit Interactive Corp., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

David Korn, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Igor Kusyszyn, Dept. of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Robert Ladouceur, École de Psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Samuel Law,Dept. of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

Vanessa López-Viets, Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Geoff Noonan, Canadanadian Foundation on Compulsive Gambling (Ontario), Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Alan Ogborne,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

María Prieto, Dept. of Psychological Intervention, University P. Comillas, Madrid, Spain

Robin Room, Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

Lisa Root, The Niagara Alcohol and Drug Assessment Service, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada

Randy Stinchfield,University of Minnesota Medical School, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

William Thompson, Department of Public Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada USA

Lisa Vig,Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, Fargo, North Dakota, USA

Rachel Volberg, Gemini Research, Ltd., Northampton, Massachusetts, USA

Keith Whyte, National Council on Problem Gambling, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Harold Wynne, Wynne Resources Ltd., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Martin Zack, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Design Staff

Graphic Designer:Mara Korkola,Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

HTML Markup:Alan Tang, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Copyeditors

Kelly Lamorie and Megan MacDonald, double space Editorial Services, Toronto, Ontario, Canada