KANSAS CITY, MO—Research grant awards announced today by the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) total $1,063,730 to bring the organization’s total awards since 1996 to $2.6 million. The eight new grants made by NCRG support cutting-edge scientific research on disordered and youth gambling.
The grants were selected by the NCRG Advisory Board which met in Washington, DC in advance of the NCRG’s conference, "New Directions in Addiction Research," cosponsored by The George Washington University.
Christine Reilly, executive director of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, said the most recent awards broaden the scope of research to ensure a comprehensive study of the subject. "These innovative projects will build on the outstanding research investigations supported by the NCRG in 1996 and 1997."
Scientists from the NCRG’s first eleven projects presented preliminary findings at the NCRG’s conference which featured a keynote address by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse on "Addiction is a Brain Disease and it Matters." The first public forum focused exclusively on new research in gambling studies attracted a diverse audience of 150, including scientists, clinicians, gaming industry representatives and public policy makers.
Maj. General Paul A. Harvey (Ret), chairman of the NCRG Board, said "With these new awards, we will be eight investigations closer to understanding, preventing and treating disordered gambling behavior."
Underage gambling and prevention strategies, priority topics for the NCRG, are the focus of two of the new research investigations:
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The University of South Alabama received a grant of $125,800 in support of "Adolescent Gambling Behavior as a Function of Individual Differences in Risk-taking, Gender, Peer and Family Context, and Community Norms for Legalized Gambling." This project will provide a needed model for youth gambling behavior so that risk factors can be identified.
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The Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto received a grant of $88,296 for "Adolescent Understanding of the Emotional and Cognitive Aspects of Gambling: The Development of a Prevention Strategy." The researchers intend to develop and test a brief classroom intervention designed to prevent adolescent gambling in hopes that early intervention may reduce the development of a gambling disorder in at-risk adult populations.
The NCRG also selected four projects exploring the neurobiological basis for disordered gambling behavior. As argued by the Harvard Medical School study funded by NCRG in 1996, research that identifies biological markers for the disorder can provide a much-needed "gold standard" against which the accuracy of screening instruments can be measured.
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The University of Missouri-Columbia was awarded $171,124 for "Molecular Genetic Analysis of Personality." Identifying the role of defects in dopamine receptor genes will help researchers and clinicians gain a better understanding of who is at greatest risk for the disorder.
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Massachusetts General Hospital received a grant of $172,500 for "Functional MRI of Neural Responses to Monetary Gains, Losses and Prospects in Pathological Gamblers and Normal Subjects." This project reveals how new imaging technology is allowing researchers to study brain activity and, specifically, the brain’s reward system, in real time. Deficiencies in the reward system have been implicated in gambling disorders.
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The University of Illinois-Chicago received a grant of $172,492 for "Reward Deficiency Event-related Brain Potential Abnormalities." This study of the brain reward system will also examine the effects of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a condition associated with pathological gambling.
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A grant of $75,042 to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto will examine the "Pharmacological Priming of Gambling-related Cognitions by Amphetamine." This study represents another approach to understanding the role of dopamine in disordered gambling behavior.
In the domain of the social and behavioral sciences, the NCRG awarded a grant of $86,321 to Washington University-St. Louis in support of "The Development of a Diagnostic Gambling Assessment." This 15-month project addresses the validity and reliability of screening and diagnostic instruments. A grant of $172,155 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will study "Affective, Cognitive and Perceptual Processes in Gambling." The proposed experiments will attempt to discern differences between pathological and recreational gamblers.
For more information about the National Center for Responsible Gaming and its grant projects, call 816-531-1878.
Established in 1996, the NCRG is the first national organization devoted exclusively to funding peer-reviewed research on disordered and underage gambling. The NCRG, affiliated with the University of Missouri, Kansas City, is a division of the Gaming Entertainment Research and Education Foundation (GEREF). In addition to supporting the NCRG, GEREF’s mission is to raise awareness through education and to develop and promote programs for the prevention and treatment of problem and underage gambling.
