Article by Stacey A. Tovino
Gambling disorder is not a legally sympathetic health condition. Health insurance policies and plans have long excluded treatment for gambling disorder from health insurance coverage. Individuals with gambling disorder who seek disability income insurance benefits from public and private disability income insurers also tend not to be successful in their claims. In addition, federal and state antidiscrimination laws currently exclude individuals with gambling disorder from disability discrimination protections. This Article is the first law review article to challenge the legal treatment of individuals with gambling disorder by showing how health insurance and antidiscrimination laws hurt problem gamblers. Using neuroscience, economics, and principles of biomedical ethics to argue that individuals with gambling disorder should have the same legal protections as individuals with substance-related and other addictive disorders, this Article proposes important amendments to federal and state health insurance laws and antidiscrimination laws.
Citation
89 Tul. L. Rev. 191 (2014)