When Risk Becomes Addiction: Identifying Gambling Disorder Across Sports Betting, Crypto, Stocks, and Prediction Markets
Join Brad Holt, Licensed Professional Counselor at Sunflower Sober - for a free, live class on identifying gambling disorder across sports betting, crypto, stocks, and prediction markets.
Gambling has changed. It no longer lives in casinos. It lives in the phone, inside apps that look like entertainment, investing, or financial news. Sports betting platforms, crypto exchanges, day trading apps, and prediction markets all share the same reinforcement mechanics, and many clients engaging in them would never describe themselves as gamblers. That makes gambling disorder one of the easiest diagnoses to miss in a standard intake, especially when it co-occurs with substance use. This class gives clinicians a practical framework for recognizing when risk-taking has crossed into disorder, no matter what platform it's happening on.
What we'll cover:
How modern betting, trading, and prediction platforms map onto DSM-5 gambling disorder criteria, and why "investing" language masks symptoms
Screening questions and assessment approaches that surface gambling behavior clients don't self-identify, including brief tools you can fold into an existing intake
The overlap between gambling disorder and substance use disorders, including shared risk factors, cross-addiction patterns, and what this means for relapse prevention
Clinical considerations for treatment planning, from financial harm reduction to when to refer for specialized gambling treatment
This class includes live Q&A.
Who it's for: Therapists, counselors, prescribers, and clinicians working with or interested in working with clients who use substances.
Free · 60 minutes · Thursday, June 25th at 1:00 PM ET · Zoom