Problem Gambling Screening (PGSI)
The nine-question PGSI, scored as published, with support resources beside your result. Nothing you enter is saved.
This is a screening instrument for the general population, not a diagnostic tool: it tells you how your last-12-months answers compare to a validated scale, and nothing about why, or what to do about it beyond the resources linked beside your score.
Answer for in the last 12 months. Nothing is calculated until you ask to see your result, and nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere.
1.Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?
2.Have you needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement?
3.When you gambled, did you go back another day to try to win back the money you had lost?
4.Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?
5.Have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling?
6.Has gambling ever caused you any health problems, including stress or anxiety?
7.Have people criticized your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem, regardless of whether or not you thought it was true?
8.Has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household?
9.Have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?
0 of 9 answered.
Written and reviewed by Alexander Korsager · last reviewed October 6, 2026 · corrections
The idea
What this tool shows
The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is the nine-item screening instrument researchers and support services use to measure gambling-related risk (Ferris and Wynne, 2001). Most sites that mention it link out to someone else's version. This one hosts the instrument directly, scored exactly the way it is published, rather than sending you somewhere else to answer nine private questions.
Answer for the last 12 months.There are no trick questions and no running score while you go: nothing is calculated until you have answered all nine and asked to see the result, and nothing you enter leaves your browser. No answer and no score is stored on your device, put in the page's URL or sent anywhere, and this page carries none of the scroll-tracking the site's other tool pages do, because a screening score is not the kind of thing that belongs in a measurement pipeline, however anonymous.
A number at the end is not a diagnosis.It tells you how your answers compare to a validated scale, nothing more, and the page says so again next to the result rather than only up here.
FAQ
Questions players ask
What is the PGSI?
The Problem Gambling Severity Index, a nine-item self-report screening instrument published by Ferris and Wynne in 2001 for the Canadian Problem Gambling Index. It is the instrument most commonly used in gambling research and by support services to gauge gambling-related risk in the general population.
Is this a diagnosis?
No. It is a screening score, not a clinical assessment. Only a qualified professional can diagnose a gambling disorder. A high score here means your answers matched a pattern the instrument associates with risk, and is a reason to read the resources below, not a verdict.
Is my answer saved or sent anywhere?
No. Your answers exist only in this page's memory while you have it open, and are gone the moment you leave or reload. Nothing is written to storage on your device, nothing is put in the page's URL, and no answer and no score is sent anywhere, ever. Two things are worth separating from that, because a page like this one should be precise rather than reassuring: this page leaves out the scroll-tracking event the site's other tool pages send, and if you have accepted the cookie banner, the site-wide page-view analytics every page carries applies here too. That records only that the page was opened. It never sees a question, an answer or a score.
Why does the score range from 0 to 27?
Nine questions, each answered Never (0), Sometimes (1), Most of the time (2) or Almost always (3). The total is the sum, so the ceiling is 9 times 3.
What do the four result bands mean?
No risk (a score of 0), low risk (1 to 2), moderate risk (3 to 7) and problem gambling (8 to 27), exactly as the published instrument defines them. This page does not rename or resize any of the four.
Where can I get help?
The same resources this page links beside your result are on the responsible gambling page: the National Problem Gambling Helpline (US), free and confidential, 24 hours a day, and several others. You do not need a specific score to use them.
Methodology
How this is calculated
The panel asks the PGSI's nine items in their published order, each on the instrument's own four-point scale (never, sometimes, most of the time, almost always, worth 0 to 3).
The total is the unweighted sum of all nine, 0 to 27, and the band a score falls into (no risk, low risk, moderate risk, problem gambling) is read off the same four ranges the 2001 report defines. Both the sum and the band lookup are computed in pgsi.ts and pinned by pgsi.test.ts, never inline in the page.
Common misreadings2
- A score of 0 or a low-risk band is not permission to gamble without limits; it describes the last 12 months as you reported them, not a prediction about the next 12.
- A problem-gambling band is not a diagnosis, and reading it that way is the specific misreading this page's result panel is written to head off. It is a reason to read the resources beside it, not a verdict to sit with alone.
Assumptions2
- Self-report, for the last 12 months, answered honestly and from memory. The instrument was validated on exactly that basis and has no way to check an answer against anything else.
- One score per completed pass. Retaking it with different answers produces a different, equally valid score for that pass; nothing here tracks a score over time, because nothing here stores anything at all.
Limits3
- The PGSI measures gambling behavior and its consequences, not gambling frequency or spend on their own: someone who gambles often but reports no loss of control, borrowing or guilt can score low, and someone who gambles rarely but recognizes the pattern in a few items can score higher.
- It was developed and validated on general-population samples, not as a clinical diagnostic interview, and a score at any level is not equivalent to a clinician's assessment.
- Nine questions cannot capture every way gambling affects a specific person's life. A low score is informative, not a guarantee that gambling is not a problem for you.
Evidence
Ferris, J., & Wynne, H. (2001). The Canadian Problem Gambling Index: Final Report. Ottawa: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. Item wording and the response scale as reproduced by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's SBIRT toolkit (https://kmb.camh.ca/ggtu/sbirt-toolkit/screening/pgsi.html, retrieved 2026-09-13).
Score bands corroborated against that page and against Currie, S.
R. et al., "Validation of the problem gambling severity index using confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch modelling" (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6878252/, retrieved 2026-09-13), which independently states the same four ranges. pgsi.ts holds the instrument and the scoring, pinned by pgsi.test.ts.
Gambling can cause serious harm. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential and open 24/7, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), or chat at ncpgambling.org/chat.
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