Towards a cognitive-behavioural theory of problem gambling.

A heuristic model to account for the development and maintenance of problem gambling is provided with the aim of directing clinical management and future research. Previous explanations of problem gambling have been limited in two main ways. Firstly, the models have been primarily descriptive, and secondly they have generally lacked clinical value. Most explanations have ignored the mechanisms through which this behaviour becomes problematic, and have not identified the relationships between different variables.