The Journal of Gambling Issues Encompasses Video Gaming Papers

A few months ago, the Journal of Gambling Issues announced that it was opening its doors to papers on other behavioral disorders and in particular to papers on video gaming. Video gaming is a rapidly growing industry that attracts a worldwide audience and therefore a worldwide impact, but few journals that specifically focus their attention on video gaming. According to a quick internet search, the worldwide video gaming industry is valued at $151.06 billion US in 2019 and, according to the same web page, is expected to grow at a rate of about 13% per year (Grand View Research, 2021). In addition to its size, the video game industry has rapidly changed from an emphasis on console gaming machines and computers to mobile devices. This shift means that video gaming is increasingly becoming available almost everywhere. If we view excessive gaming as an addiction, owning a smart phone is like walking around with an open bottle of alcohol all the time, a bottle that never becomes empty (unless you let your battery die).