Gambling motivation and involvement: A review of social

e discussed below, where commercial gambling is seen as part of contemporary
post-industrial society, with an emphasis on the consumption of experiences, imagination
and symbolic objects [66, 202, 203].
RELEvancE tO pRObLEm GambLinG StudiES
Studies of gambling as a leisure activity are much needed as a complement to
problem-oriented research into excessive gambling. Such studies reveal the varying
motives that people have for participating in gambling. Some of these motives
may be factors that, in certain circumstances, contribute to problem gambling. In
contemporary gambling studies, the formerly sharp distinction between “normal”
gambling and “pathological” gambling appears to be dissolving; many researchers
acknowledge that individuals who at one time have serious gambling problems at
other times gamble in a controlled manner or not at all. It therefore seems valuable
to pursue research on the characteristics of both controlled and uncontrolled gambling,
the former being a leisure activity.
Gambling as economic exchange
The economic functions of gambling are necessarily limited by the fact that nothing
material is produced. The only product, in an economic sense, is the experience of
gaming, which in industrial societies may be sold on a mass scale, generating enormous
profits and sustaining entire communities, such as Las Vegas.
In non-commercial games the experience of gambling is offered for free, and
money or valuables are circulated among the gamblers. If money is circulated, in
a fair game of chance, the wins and losses of individual gamblers will even out in
the long run. If valuables are circulated, however, gambling may fulfill important
redistributive economic functions. In some societies, mainly small-scale third world
societies, these functions sustain gambling as a social institution and are a principal
motivation for gamblers to partake in games. For literature overviews and discussions,
see Binde [92] and Wagner [204].
An example of gambling with just such a redistributive function was reported
from the Hadza in Tanzania in the early 1980s by the British anthropologist James
Woodburn [205]. The Hadza are hunter-gatherers who live in small groups on the
dry savannah southeast of Lake Victoria. A principal ethical value among them,
which is of great adaptive value for survival in the harsh environment, is sharing:
the one who at the moment has plenty of food or other valuable assets is expected
to share with others in the group. In practice, this ideal may conflict with the wish
of individuals to keep what they have. Hadza men gamble a lot on a kind of dice
game – lukuchuko – played with disks made of bark; it is a game of chance. At stake
are relatively valuable objects that cannot be manufactured locally but are imported
into the area, such as metal-headed hunting arrows, knives, axes, and beads. The
38 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