**5. Conclusions**

Patients who reported an absence of gambling-related illegal behavior were older, and showed the lowest GD severity, the most functional psychopathological state, the lowest impulsivity levels, and a more adaptive personality profile. Patients who had committed offenses with legal consequences presented the highest risk of dropout and relapses, higher number of psychological symptoms, higher likelihood of any other mental disorders, and greater prevalence of tobacco and illegal drugs use. Our findings uphold that patients who have committed gambling-related offenses show a more complex clinical profile that may interfere with their adherence to treatment. Therefore, specific treatment plans are required for this type of patient.

**Author Contributions:** C.V.-A.: conceptualization, writing—original draft; G.M.-B.: conceptualization, writing—original draft; R.G.: formal analysis, methodology; E.C. (Elena Caravaca): investigation; M.G.-P.: investigation; L.M.: investigation; I.B.: investigation; A.d.P.-G.: investigation; S.V.-S.: investigation; M.L.-H.: investigation; B.M.-M.: investigation; E.V.-M.: investigation; E.G.-G.: investigation; E.C. (Ester Codina): investigation; J.M.M.: funding acquisition; F.F.-A.: writing—review and editing, funding acquisition; S.J.-M.: writing—review and editing, project administration, funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya gave institutional support. This work was additionally supported by a gran<sup>t</sup> from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant RTI2018-101837-B-100). The research was funded by the Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (2019I47 and 2021I031), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (PI17/01167 and PI207132) and co-funded by FEDER funds/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), a way to build Europe. CIBEROBN and CIBERSAM are both initiatives of ISCIII. CVA is supported by a

predoctoral gran<sup>t</sup> awarded by the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (FPU16/01453). GMB was supported by a postdoctoral gran<sup>t</sup> by FUNCIVA. IB was partially supported by a Post-Residency Grant from Research Committee of the University Hospital of Bellvitge (HUB; Barcelona, Spain) 2020–2021. RG is supported by The Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA-2021 Academia Program). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge PR307/06 (8 February 2007).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The datasets analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to patient confidentiality and other ethical reasons but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

**Conflicts of Interest:** F.F.-A. received consultancy honoraria from Novo Nordisk and editorial honoraria as EIC from Wiley. The rest of the authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
