Adding Gambling to the Conversation: Recognizing, Screening, and Responding in Today's Gambling Environment

Session Description: Gambling is increasingly embedded in everyday life. The rapid expansion of sports betting, online casinos, fantasy sports, prediction markets, cryptocurrency speculation, and gaming-related wagering has created new opportunities for gambling-related harm—and new challenges for behavioral health and addiction professionals.

Despite the growing prevalence and accessibility of gambling, it is still frequently overlooked in clinical conversations, particularly when clients present with substance use, mental health, financial, or relationship concerns. This session will help clinicians and other behavioral health professionals recognize when gambling may be contributing to a client’s difficulties and feel more confident addressing it as part of routine care.

Participants will examine today’s evolving gambling environment, common risk factors and warning signs, and the ways gambling-related harm can intersect with substance use disorders, mental health conditions, family functioning, and recovery. Practical strategies will include incorporating brief screening questions into existing assessments, opening nonjudgmental conversations about gambling, identifying when additional intervention may be needed, and connecting individuals and families with appropriate resources and support.

Participants will leave with practical tools they can immediately integrate into their work to ensure gambling becomes part of the broader behavioral health and addiction conversation.