Gambling motivation and involvement: A review of social

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A Study of Persistence in the Social World of Horse Race Gambling [106]. The title of the book refers to the bettors calling themselves “degenerates”: even on Christmas Eve they gathered at the Harrah’s Race Book in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to bet on horses. Rosecrance argues that a social identity of belonging to the group of bettors is one of the main reasons why these gamblers persist in gambling, despite losing a lot of money in the long run [104, 106]. While the social rewards of gambling thus exercise a pull on certain individuals, the motivation to become deeply involved in a gambling subculture can be strengthened by the gambler’s experience of ordinary life in mainstream society as unrewarding or outright frustrating. This process is the focus of Grant Ocean’s study of regular gamblers in an American casino [107, 108]. The casino constitutes a subculture with distinctive values, beliefs and informal norms [108]. It is a “just world”, where social distinctions, ethnic belonging and physical handicaps are irrelevant. Key values among regular gamblers are “beating the system” and “cooperation”. Gamblers perceive themselves as an egalitarian group with a common interest against the casino. Over time, individuals develop a distinct identity in the social world of the casino, which boosts self-esteem and constitutes a positive reinforcement for frequent gambling. For the regular gamblers, the casino subculture is highly rewarding and they spend a lot of time and money in order to be part of it. At the same time, many of the regulars feel discontent with the outside, ordinary world, where they hold subordinate social positions, have low status, and have few friends and feel little social belonging. Furthermore, as they become deeply engaged in casino gambling, they also receive the stigma of being heavy gamblers. In mainstream American society, being a heavy gambler suggests having some type of mental or personal problem. This makes it even harder for individuals to disengage from the subculture of casino gambling and reintegrate in mainstream society. Thus, for socially marginalized persons, casino gambling can become a refuge where they find a more rewarding life than in society at large. Ocean sums up the social forces that create the push away from mainstream society and the pull towards the subculture of regular casino gambling: “given the choice, humans tend to gravitate to social situations which place them in a higher status” [107 p. 328 ]. If the person gives up the attachment to mainstream society entirely and adopts an identity as a gambler, the gambling lifestyle might lead to a need to procure money through hustling and criminal activities [109]. In the subcultures of gambling, individuals may make a living from playing the games (hustling or not) or believe that in the future they will be able to do so. Gambling then tends to be viewed not as leisure, but rather as work [93, 102, 103, 105, 110–113]. In recent times, the idea of becoming a poker professional appears to have become much more common than before among young people (mostly men) in Sweden and elsewhere. This is occasioned by the current popularity of poker – in casinos, at tournaments and on the internet – and mass media exposure of individuals who have made a fortune playing poker. Being a poker pro promises a good income as well as exciting experiences [114]. The intense gambling by individuals 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 19
elieving themselves to be, or aspiring to become, professional gamblers poses some interesting questions of definition. Are such individuals addicted to gambling or just hard-working? Can their eventual monetary losses be viewed as investments to further their experience and skill? The issue of monetary losses is invariably discussed in the studies on gambling subcultures. Since the perspective is sociological, large losses are not seen as the consequence of pathological gambling behavior. Typically, losses are seen as the consequence of inadequate money management and defective strategies of play [102, 115–117]. Rather than being subject to psychological treatment, the gambler who loses much money should thus be educated in optimal playing and betting strategies [108]. Several money management defects have been identified. “Going on tilt” means that, because of some frustrating turn of events, the gambler loses control and departs from sensible playing strategies [118]. “Bad beat” is a similar concept, referring to the gambler suffering a series of unexplainable losses, which questions his or her ability to play skillfully and triggers reckless and uncontrolled gambling [117, 119]. RELEvancE tO pRObLEm GambLinG StudiES The subculture studies highlight the importance of the social dimension of gambling for explaining varying levels of involvement. Very high involvement, resulting in huge monetary losses and a host of personal problems, can be convincingly explained by social factors, rather than individual pathology. If the personality traits of heavy gamblers are to be revealed in problem gambling studies, it is thus important to distinguish the subculture gambler from the true pathological gambler whose problems are essentially psychological. Bounded gambling settings with specific subcultures also appeal to casual gamblers, who may experience them as interesting and exciting. Spending time in such a setting, being a kind of tourist there, may be a motive for participating in a specific form of gambling. Geographical analyses Sociological studies of gambling are often concerned with the social and demographic characteristics of gamblers. If such characteristics are mapped in geographical space, patterns of varying involvement in gambling, and perhaps also varying modes of participation, emerge. One issue that can be investigated is how the availability of gambling relates to such patterns. There are at least three reasons why relations between the availability of gambling and socio-economic variables in geographical space are to be expected. Firstly, gambling is a multifaceted activity and the consumers of various forms of gambling have specific demographic and socioeconomic profiles. For instance, bingo play- 20 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
Page 1 and 2: Gambling motivation and involvement
Page 3 and 4: Report no 2 in the SWELOGS-programm
Page 5 and 6: Historical studies and literature h
Page 7 and 8: Extensive summary thiS REpORt pRESE
Page 9 and 10: Introduction Objective This report
Page 11 and 12: All predominantly biological, psych
Page 13 and 14: Sociological approaches SOciOLOGy S
Page 15 and 16: valve function [63, 64]. According
Page 17 and 18: RELEvancE tO pRObLEm GambLinG Studi
Page 19: The social rewards of gambling may
Page 23 and 24: ling venues. Australian data sugges
Page 27 and 28: utility for a person who owns only
Page 29 and 30: 105, 60, 141-145]. The Friedman and
Page 33 and 34: price of heroin would probably mean
Page 37 and 38: in order to maximize utility from s
Page 39 and 40: e discussed below, where commercial
Page 41 and 42: Gambling and the macro-economy Ther
Page 43 and 44: however, that individuals within th
Page 45 and 46: Cultural approaches in 1952, tWO am
Page 47 and 48: In an appendix to Man, Play, and Ga
Page 49 and 50: However, several scholars have main
Page 51 and 52: covering 58 of the 60 distinct cult
Page 53 and 54: theory. In these studies, the objec
Page 55 and 56: is epidemiological and psychologica
Page 59 and 60: Comprehensive models of gambling be
Page 61 and 62: Involvement models Involvement mode
Page 63 and 64: than believing that their problems
Page 65 and 66: Concluding discussion Gambling - a
Page 67 and 68: solidarity. It is first when borrow
Page 69 and 70: Much contemporary research into gam
Page 71 and 72:
References 1. Rönnberg S, Volberg
Page 73 and 74:
39. Grinols EL. Gambling in America
Page 75 and 76:
84. Goffman E. Frame Analysis. Harm
Page 77 and 78:
128. Volberg RA, Nysse-Carris KL, G
Page 79 and 80:
173. Becker GS, Grossman M, Murphy
Page 81 and 82:
218. Cain M, Law D, Peel D. The rel
Page 83 and 84:
265. Knapp BL. Gambling, Game, and
Page 85 and 86:
311. Desmond GR. Gambling among the
Page 87 and 88:
349. O’Brien Cousins S, Witcher C
Page 89 and 90:
391. Kingma S. A sign of the times:
Page 91 and 92:
433. LaPlante DA, Nelson SE, LaBrie
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