Gambling motivation and involvement: A review of social

All predominantly biological, psychiatric and psychological research on gambling,
including problem gambling prevalence studies, has been excluded from the
review. There are a number of overviews of that literature [11–27].
Economic works on the motivations for gambling have been included but the
relatively vast literature, explicitly on gambling or relevant to the decision-making
of gamblers, regarding risk perception and cognitive heuristics, has been excluded.
Thus, regret theory [28], the risky shift [29], base-rate fallacy [30], subjective probability
[31], availability bias [32], counterfactual thinking [33] and prospect theory
[34] are among the concepts and theories that will not be discussed. The reason for
this is that the psychological component is usually predominant; commonly, these
theories are tested in psychological experiments. For the same reason, most of the
gambling research based on social learning theory [35] and similar approaches [36,
37] is not included either.
Within the economic, social and cultural sciences, studies in the following research
areas were not included, as they say little or nothing about people’s motives for participating
in gambling or the factors that influence their degree of involvement.
• The socioeconomic impact of gambling, i.e. measurements of social costs and
benefits to society at large [38–42].
• Impact of the siting of gambling venues and casinos on the local economy and the
use of urban space, see e.g. the study by Nichols [43].
• Changes in work commitment, attitudes and life satisfaction among jackpot winners:
Binde [44] presents a comprehensive list of works.
• Studies and discussions in political and policy sciences, including public affairs
and administration, on gambling in society [45, 46].
• Studies on gambling law and regulation (see Gaming Law Review).
• Studies and discussions on responsible gambling [47–50].
• Economic studies on revenue maximizing design of lotteries and other games
[51–53].
• Gambling taxation issues [54, 55, 56 Ch. 19 and Sect. M , 57].
The review covers research and theory of current relevance. Few works older than
fifty years are cited. Apart from ethnographic and mathematical studies, there is
little empirical research on gambling older than that.
This is not an exhaustive review. Not all works on the various subjects discussed
are referenced. A selection is most often made with the effect that key works and
representative examples are cited. In some cases, however, the works on a certain
issue are so varied with respect to content that all known works are cited.
The intention is not necessarily to provide a “balanced” description – in terms of
publication volume and/or impact – of economical, social and cultural research on
gambling. Research will be discussed in greater detail if it is especially relevant to the
objective of this report, or if doing so is required to make it more comprehensible to
readers with little or no prior knowledge.
10 G A M B L I N G M O T I VAT I O N A N D I N V O LV E M E N T