NEW YORK, Mar 18 (Reuters Health) -- The introduction of new technology, such as the Internet, used in gambling may make problem gambling more widespread, according to a government report released Thursday.

In the report ``Pathological Gambling,'' experts in law and social science at the National Research Council in Washington, DC, express their concern that gambling addiction may be on the rise in the US, especially among teens.

To learn more about the problem, the committee calls for more federally funded study of gambling in the US.

And although the ``institutionalization'' of gambling -- now legal in some form in 47 states -- has benefited economically depressed communities, gambling also has social and economic costs, the study authors note.

According to the report, more than 80% of American adults have participated in a form of gambling, including casino games, betting on horse races, and lotteries.

But whereas recreational gamblers wager small amounts and view gambling as entertainment, pathological gamblers go beyond this. Pathological gambling is a psychiatric disorder, the experts note, ``described as a chronic and progressive failure to resist impulses to gamble, characterized by undesirable outcomes ranging from borrowing money from family or friends and losing time at work, to being arrested for offenses committed to support gambling.''

The expert panel also notes that people with gambling problems are also more likely to be substance abusers and have mood disorders -- such as depression -- and are more likely to commit crimes, run up large debts, damage relationships with family and friends, and to commit suicide.

About 1% of American adults, mostly men, are pathological gamblers in any given year. Of particular concern is the fact that 1.1 million adolescents, aged 12 to 18, participate in gambling to an unhealthy degree each year.

``Recent research suggests that the earlier one starts to gamble, the more likely one is to become a pathological gambler,'' the expert committees note.

More casinos, lotteries, and gambling outlets have become available in recent years, and new ways to gamble -- such as over the Internet -- are being created. In 1997 alone, gamblers bet an estimated $551 billion.

``With the increased availability of gambling and new gambling technologies, pathological gambling has the potential to become even more widespread,'' according to the report, which was requested by Congress under the National Gambling Impact Study Commission Act of 1996.

``A greater understanding of this problem through scientific research is critical,'' the report authors write. This research should include study of the factors that can produce problem gamblers, and of measures to help such individuals control their gambling.

The Research Council authors note that ``research indicates that gamblers who seek treatment generally improve.'' However, ''this research is inadequate to determine whether any particular treatment approach is more effective than any other or the extent to which people recover on their own.''