Understanding the Overlap Between Gaming, Gambling, and Behavioral Addiction
By Darin Roberts, MFT Intern, Life Balance Counseling Peoria
What is the first thing you think of when you think about video gaming? Many people view video gaming in a certain way. For many teenagers and young adults, gaming is simply a way to have fun, relax, connect with friends, or take a break from everyday responsibilities. Gaming itself is not necessarily a problem. However, gaming can begin to interfere with an individual's emotional, social, academic, occupational, or daily functioning. This raises an important question for parents, caregivers, and young adults: Is video gaming simply a fun recreational activity, or can it go too far?
Gaming disorder and gambling disorder are increasingly recognized as behavioral addictions, and researchers have begun examining the similarities between these two conditions. Although gaming and gambling are distinct behaviors, both can involve reward-seeking, repeated engagement, and reinforcement patterns that encourage individuals to continue participating in the activity. Understanding these similarities does not mean that video games cause gambling problems or that every person who enjoys gaming is at risk of developing an addiction. Instead, it offers an opportunity to better understand why certain individuals may become vulnerable to problematic behavioral patterns.
One area of particular concern is the increasing presence of gambling-like elements within video games. Features such as loot boxes let players spend real or in-game currency for randomized rewards, meaning they do not know exactly what they will receive before making the purchase. For some players, this may simply feel like another part of the game. For others, however, spending money, receiving an uncertain outcome, and anticipating a desired reward may create a gambling experience. Research has identified loot boxes as one major overlap between gaming and gambling because they combine video game rewards with randomized outcomes and, in some cases, real-money spending (Jauregui et al., 2023).
These features matter most when considering adolescents and young adults. Video games have become a common part of social life, and many young people encounter these mechanics without necessarily seeing them as gambling. A player may focus on obtaining a particular character, weapon, cosmetic item, or other reward without recognizing how the process resembles gambling. Research has found relationships between symptoms of gaming disorder and gambling disorder, and loot boxes have been identified as one potential factor contributing to this overlap (Jauregui et al., 2023). At the same time, it is important not to assume that exposure to loot boxes automatically results in future gambling problems.
WHEN GAMING BECOMES MORE THAN A HOBBY
The amount of time a person spends gaming is not necessarily the most important factor when determining whether gaming has become problematic. A teenager may spend several hours playing a game while still maintaining friendships, completing schoolwork, getting adequate sleep, participating in family activities, and engaging in other interests. Another individual may spend less time gaming but experience significant problems because gaming consistently interferes with responsibilities, relationships, or emotional well-being.
For parents, this distinction matters. It can be easy to focus on how many hours a teenager spends in front of a screen, but the more important question may be what is happening around the gaming. Is the young person beginning to withdraw from family and friends? Are grades or responsibilities changing? Is the individual regularly staying awake late to continue playing? Does the person become extremely distressed when asked to stop? Has gaming replaced activities that were previously important to them? These changes may provide more meaningful information than hours alone.
Young adults may face similar concerns, although they often have greater independence over their gaming. While not always, young adults don’t have parents setting limits on when gaming ends, so it can be easier to push responsibilities aside. Schoolwork, employment, relationships, sleep, finances, and other obligations may gradually receive less attention as gaming becomes a greater priority. The individual may recognize that gaming is creating problems but continue returning to it despite those consequences.
This is where it may be helpful to ask a different question. Instead of simply asking, "How much are you gaming?", consider asking, "What role is gaming playing in your life?"
THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF GAMING
Emotional functioning may also play an important role in understanding why some individuals develop problematic behavioral patterns. Research has examined relationships among gambling disorder, gaming disorder, negative affect, alexithymia, and difficulties with emotion regulation (Verrocchio and Porcelli, 2019).
Alexithymia refers to difficulties identifying, understanding, and describing one's emotions. Emotion regulation difficulties can also make it harder for individuals to manage negative emotional experiences. When someone has difficulty identifying or managing what they feel, gaming may become a way to temporarily escape those emotions. A person who feels lonely, overwhelmed, angry, anxious, or frustrated may find that entering a video game provides an immediate distraction from what is happening in their life.
There is nothing inherently wrong with using recreation to relax after a difficult day. The concern arises when gaming becomes a primary way an individual copes with difficult emotions or avoids problems. If gaming consistently provides an escape from negative experiences, the person may rely on it more often. Over time, this can create a pattern in which difficult emotions lead to gaming, gaming provides temporary relief, and the individual becomes increasingly likely to return to gaming whenever those emotions appear.
Individual differences may also influence vulnerability to problematic gaming. Mathews et al. (2019) found that greater ADHD symptom severity was associated with greater video game addiction symptom severity, suggesting that difficulties with attention, self-regulation, and managing reinforcement may be relevant when considering why some individuals are more vulnerable to problematic gaming.
For parents, recognizing this emotional component can change the way they approach their teenager. Instead of viewing gaming only as something that needs to be stopped, it may be helpful to become curious about what the teenager is experiencing. Asking, "What do you like about playing?", "What happens when you can't play?", or "Does gaming help when you're stressed?" may provide information that a simple argument about screen time would not.
LOOKING BEYOND THE SCREEN
For parents, recognizing problematic gaming does not necessarily mean immediately taking away every device or treating video games as the enemy. Gaming can be a healthy recreational activity, an important social outlet, and a meaningful source of enjoyment for many people. The goal is not to eliminate gaming, but to recognize when it may be interfering with other important areas of life.
A conversation may be more helpful than an immediate confrontation. Parents can begin by trying to understand what their teenager experiences while gaming. What do they enjoy about the game? Who do they play with? What makes it difficult to stop? Does gaming help them manage stress? Are there things happening at school, with friends, or at home that make gaming especially important to them? These questions can help parents understand the behavior rather than simply reacting to it.
Young adults can engage in a similar self-reflection process. They may benefit from asking themselves whether they game because they genuinely enjoy it or because it has become a way to avoid difficult emotions, responsibilities, relationships, or problems. They can consider what happens to their sleep, work, school, finances, and relationships when gaming increases. They may also consider whether they have tried to cut back and found it harder than expected.
These questions are not intended to provide a diagnosis. Instead, they can help an individual recognize whether gaming continues to function as a healthy recreational activity or whether it may have become a source of impairment, much like other activities that can start off as a good way to relax, and turn into a maladaptive coping mechanism.
UNDERSTANDING THE BIGGER PICTURE
The recognition of gaming disorder and gambling disorder by international health organizations, combined with research examining the similarities between these behaviors, demonstrates the importance of continuing to examine gambling within video games. The World Health Organization's development of standardized screening and diagnostic instruments represents an important step toward identifying problematic gaming and gambling behaviors (Carragher et al., 2022).
At the same time, research examining the relationship between these disorders suggests that greater attention should be given to how video games incorporate gambling-like mechanics, the emotional factors associated with problematic gaming and gambling, and the potential risks these features may create for vulnerable individuals. Understanding these connections may help clinicians, researchers, parents, educators, and policymakers better recognize problematic behaviors and develop appropriate prevention and treatment strategies.
Ultimately, the goal is not to label every teenager who enjoys video games as having a problem. It is also not to suggest that gaming inevitably leads to gambling. Instead, the goal is to recognize when a behavior that once provided enjoyment begins to interfere with the rest of a person's life.
For parents, that may mean looking beyond the screen and noticing changes in their teenager's relationships, responsibilities, emotions, sleep, and overall functioning. For young adults, it may mean taking an honest look at the role gaming plays in their own lives.
Gaming does not have to be the problem. But when gaming becomes the primary way a person copes, connects, escapes, or seeks rewards, it may be time to look more closely at what is happening beneath the surface.
Sometimes the most important question is not "How much are they gaming?"
It may be "What is happening in their life that makes gaming so important?"
References
Carragher, N., Billieux, J., Bowden‐Jones, H., Achab, S., Potenza, M. N., Rumpf, H., Long, J., Demetrovics, Z., Gentile, D., Hodgins, D., Aricak, O. T., Baigent, M., Gandin, C., Rahimi‐Movaghar, A., Scafato, E., Assanangkornchai, S., Siste, K., Hao, W., King, D. L., … Poznyak, V. (2022). Brief overview of the who collaborative project on the development of New International Screening and diagnostic instruments for gaming disorder and gambling disorder. Addiction, 117(7), 2119–2121. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15780
Jauregui, P., Estévez, A., Rodríguez, M., Lopez-Gonzalez, H., & Etxaburu, N. (2023). Interplay between alexithymia, emotion regulation, and positive and negative affect as predictors of gambling and gaming disorders in adolescents and young adults. [Interacción entre la alexitimia, la regulación de las emociones y el afecto positivo y negativo como predictores del trastorno de juego y de los videojuegos en adolescentes y jóvenes]. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 55, 149–159. https://doi.org/10.14349/rlp.2023.v55.17
Mathews, C. L., Morrell, H. E. R., & Molle, J. E. (2019). Video game addiction, ADHD symptomatology, and video game reinforcement. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 45(1), 67–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/00952990.2018.1472269
Verrocchio, M. C., & Porcelli, P. (2019). Gambling Problems and Alexithymia: A Systematic Review. Brain Sciences, 9(8), 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9080191