This book documents the history of ideas about problem gambling and its link to addictive disorders. The book uses a combination of literature review and conceptual and linguistic analysis to explore the way ideas about problem gambling gave changed over time. It examines the religious, socio-cultural, and medical influences on the development of the conceptof problem gambling as a disease, along with the ways in which such ideaswere influenced by attitudes aboutsubstance abuse. The history of mental illness, notably as it pertains to themes such as loss of control over behavior, is also addressed. The book ends with a discussion of the current statusand future prospects, with an eye to which ideas about problem gambling and addictions seemmost promising and which should perhaps be left behind.