The most current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2000) provides only a single gambling-related diagnosis: Pathological Gambling. This diagnosis requires that an individual meet at least five out of ten criteria which are representative of problem gambling among Western samples. However, even in the West, many individuals suffer significant financial and interpersonal consequences from gambling without meeting full criteria for this mental disorder. The literature typically refers simply to “problem gamblers,” a category which is inclusive of these subclinical cases as well as those which would meet diagnostic criteria (Raylu & Oei, 2004). In this paper we will follow the same convention, referring to problematic gambling behavior as that which is subjectively “out of control” for the gambler, whether or not it meets the Western diagnostic criteria. We will also see that conceptions of normative and problematic gambling vary across cultures, such that culturally-appropriate practices of diagnosis and treatment are called for.

In this article we will examine the differences in the ways that problem gambling is conceived of and presented within Chinese culture versus Western culture. We will review literature on the role that culture plays in the etiology and progression of problematic gambling behavior in general, as well as the specific cultural factors affecting its development among the Chinese people. We will see how the cognitive and emotional factors that lead to problem gambling in the Chinese are similar to and different from the factors that drive these behaviors in Western samples. Finally, we will examine whether our understanding of problem gambling among the Chinese may also inform our understandings of problem gambling in other Asian cultures. » Read the rest of this entry «