[Women and gambling: an overview]

This paper aims to explore the features of the spread of gambling and its pathological outcomes among women, through a review of the existing literature. It analyzes 73 documents, published between 1990 and 2012, mainly from Australia, Canada and United States. Characteristics which has been found as more peculiar of a problematic women's gambling behavior are divided into four theme categories: socio-demographic features; motivations and psychological aspects of gambling involvement; comorbidity factors; treatment issues. Results show the centrality of relational issues, both at the origin of an excessive involvement in gambling among women and as therapeutic instruments. Secondly, female problem or pathological gamblers' feelings are deeply influenced by cultural attitudes, which tend to be different in judging male and female gamblers. Conclusions underline the lack of a systematic organization of the data so far obtained, but they also suggest some interpretative hypotheses to address future research.