Are you in control? A Self Assessment

Know your gambling

Gambling can be fun if you can control your spending. However, even though it starts out fun, it can quickly become all about recovering losses and getting stuck on a downward spiral that’s hard to get out of, resulting in an unhealthy gambling addiction. 

In 2001, Ferris and Wynne developed the PGSI specifically for use among the general population rather than within a clinical context. This means we can self-assess our own at-risk status. The PGSI looks at 9 items as in the table below.

In the self assessment, each item you are scored based on your response: never, sometimes, most of the time, almost always.

The score you get for the following responses are:
>> score 0 for each response of ‘never’;
>> score 1 for each response of ‘sometimes’;
>> score 2 for each ‘most of the time’;
>> score 3 for each ‘almost always’.This means a PSGI score of between 0 and 27 points is possible.

Once you have tallied up your scores, you will fall into one of the following categories:

The results categories the person into the following categories

• non-problem gambler
• low-risk gambler
• moderate-risk gambler
• problem gambler.

Non-problem gambler - Score: 0

• Non-problem gamblers gamble with no negative consequences.

Low-risk gambler - Score: 1–2

• Low-risk gamblers experience a low level of problems with few or no identified negative consequences. For example, they may very occasionally spend over their limit or feel guilty about their gambling.

Moderate-risk gambler - Score: 3–7

• Moderate-risk gamblers experience a moderate level of problems leading to some negative consequences. For example, they may sometimes spend more than they can afford, lose track of time or feel guilty about their gambling.

Problem gambler - Score: 8 or above

• Problem gamblers gamble with negative consequences and a possible loss of control. For example, they may often spend over their limit, gamble to win back money and feel stressed about their gambling.

To do the test: https://www.gamblinghelponline.org.au/take-a-step-forward/self-assessment/problem-gambling-severity-index-pgsi#/?_k=vutl5m