Motivations for gambling and problem gambling: A systematic review and methodological critique

Over the past 20 years, motivational models of gambling have emerged that highlight the influence of different gambling motives on problem gambling. Given that no comprehensive review exists on the topic, the purpose of the present work was initially to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical literature published up to May 2025 on the relationship between gambling motivations and problem gambling.

This systematic review followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, querying databases for empirical, quantitative studies on gambling motives and problem gambling. Searches yielded 13,726 articles; after screening out articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria, a total of 141 studies were identified as relevant to the review.

Findings consistently underscored coping motives as the most consistent predictor of problems, with the relationship between other motives and problem gambling being more context-dependent. However, numerous methodological issues noted in studies precluded the ability to make meaningful comparisons between motives across studies. As such, we elected not to conduct a meta-analysis as this methodological variability undermines the reliability of any pooled effect size.

The review highlights that, despite significant progress over the past 2 decades, much research on gambling motives suffers from simplistic methodologies, flawed measurement conceptualizations, poor theoretical integration, and a lack of treatment-related studies. If these issues are not addressed, research on gambling motives will likely remain fragmented, with limited generalizability. As a result, there is a notable lack of evidence to reliably inform the translation of research findings into clinical practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).