The purpose of the study was to develop and test a model for predicting problem gambling in speculative game users based on Blaszczynski and Nower's pathways model of problem and pathological gambling.

The participants were 262 speculative game users recruited from seven speculative gambling places located in Seoul, Gangwon, and Gyeonggi, Korea. They completed a structured self-report questionnaire comprising measures of problem gambling, negative emotions, attentional impulsivity, motor impulsivity, non-planning impulsivity, gambler's fallacy, and gambling self-efficacy. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypothesized model and to examine the direct and indirect effects on problem gambling in speculative game users using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 20.0 programs.

The hypothetical research model provided a reasonable fit to the data. Negative emotions, motor impulsivity, gambler's fallacy, and gambling self-efficacy had direct effects on problem gambling in speculative game users, while indirect effects were reported for negative emotions, motor impulsivity, and gambler's fallacy. These predictors explained 75.2% problem gambling in speculative game users.

The findings suggest that developing intervention programs to reduce negative emotions, motor impulsivity, and gambler's fallacy, and to increase gambling self-efficacy in speculative game users are needed to prevent their problem gambling.

This study was done to examine the intervention effects on the family of a family education program for pathological gamblers based on Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT).

A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The participants were 44 families of pathological gamblers from G center in Gyung-gi Province and 5 Gam-Anon groups in Seoul City and Gyung-gi Province. The experimental group (n=22) attended the 6 weekly 2 hour-long CRAFT family education program. The control group (n=22) attended the 12-step program of Gam-Anon. Data were collected from November, 2011 to May, 2012.

Compared with the control group, the experimental group showed significant decrease in depression (p=.001) and state anger (p=.039). There were no significant differences between groups in the level of interpersonal communication, trait anger, the mode of anger expression and self-esteem.

Findings from this study suggest that the CRAFT family education program is effective in decreasing depression and state anger in families of pathological gamblers.