A method for classifying pathological gamblers according to “enhancement,” “coping,” and “low emotion regulation” subtypes

Pathological gamblers vary in their personality traits, psychopathological characteristics, and motivations for gambling. Methods for classifying them according to disseminated subtyping schemes, however, are not readily available, which may hinder further research on subtypes or efforts to incorporate subtyping schemes into clinical practice. With regard to affective motivations for gambling, we describe and evaluate a method for classifying pathological gamblers according to “enhancement,” “coping,” and “low emotion regulation” subtypes. Generalized squared distance was used to determine the best profile fit for 158 pathological gamblers on the basis of their Inventory of Gambling Situations (IGS) scores and in relation to refined IGS subtype profiles obtained through cluster analysis, these refined subtypes also having been validated via Gambling Motives Questionnaire scores. No gamblers were misclassified, suggesting that this method may perform well on cross-validation. For interested researchers and practitioners, an easy-to-use tool is available that automates this profile-matching approach to classification. Additional research is needed on how this method fares in independent samples of regular gamblers and of individuals with gambling disorder.