Introduction: Patiens with a diagnosis of pathological gambling have a high rate of drop-out from treatment. Factors related to retention or drop-out of treatment in pathological gamblers are manifold. Objectives: The aim of the work was to find out what is the retention of pathological gamblers in the treatment and which gambling behaviour factors are related to their retention in the treatment. Research sample and methods: The final study sample consisted of 251 probands (92% males) with an average age of 33.4 years (SD=9.6) who were treated with the diagnosis of pathological gambling (F63.0). They were patients of the Center for Treatment of Drug Dependencies in Bratislava, who entered the treatment between 2015 and 2017. We detected retention in treatment and its relationship to the age of onset of gambling, the duration of gambling, the preference of the type of gambling and the severity of gambling pathology as measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Results: There were 27 % of the probands who retained in the treatment for 6 months. The best retention in treatment was in the group of gamblers with lower severity of gambling pathology. However, at the same time they also tend to end the treatment before it starts. The results of the other investigated factors were not statistically significant. Conclusion: In the context of the results of this work, is emerging the issue of the usefulness of the retention in the treatment of pathological gamblers as treatment effectiveness indicator. lt requires further investigation, also taking into account other potential factors which might be in the association with treatment retention.

Key words: pathological gambling – retention in treatment – drop-out of treatment