Just before 2000, Dr. James Whelan and his staff at the University of Memphis Psychological Services Center saw a patient exhibiting signs of depression. With the patient also struggling with a gambling issue, someone asked Whelan if he knew of problem gambling resources.
“My joke about this is we did what good academic psychologists should do, and that is, we sent a graduate student to the library,” Whelan said.'
Whelan and graduate students found that while research on problem gambling existed, quality research often made outdated assumptions about gambling addiction. Whelan's interest was piqued.'
“My second joke about this is my friend and I just sort of looked at each other and said, 'This stuff is so easy to do, even we could have an impact,'” Whelan said.'