Gambling motivation and involvement: A review of social

than believing that their problems result from individual pathology or weak character.
Such a consciousness of the commercial principles of the gaming market and the
politics of gambling regulation is assumed to have a healing power and increase a
person’s chances of succeeding to quit gambling excessively.
“Synoptic model of gambling behavior” [428]. The model integrates a sociological
perspective with elements of cognitive psychology and focuses on the culturally and
socially generated meanings of gambling. The reality of the gambler is differentiated
into eight sets of variables. At the macro level, there are (1) status variables (e.g.
socio-economic status, occupation, education), (2) situational variables (e.g. availability
of gambling, friends who gamble), and (3) contextual variables (e.g. gaming
regulation). The first three variables are subject to (4) social transformation rules
(i.e. social norms that apply to particular forms of gambling), that feed into (5) gambling
event variables (consisting of game rules and the practicalities of playing). At
the micro level, the gambling events shaped and loaded with sociocultural meaning
at the macro level are imbued with individual meaning through (6) psychological
variables and transformation rules (e.g. personality traits, locus of control). On
the basis of these rules, the individual may choose to play a certain game and thus
engage in (7) gambling action, the perception of which is influenced by (8) social
feedback signal variables (approval or disapproval by others) that connect back
in a loop to the (6) psychological variables and transformation rules. In short, the
macro-level variables shape the image that a certain person has of a specific form
of gambling and thus predict whether or not the person is likely to try the game;
the micro-level variables dynamically determine to what extent the individual will
engage in the game once he or she has tried it.
“Model to explain the relationships between gamblers, the gambling institution,
and outside society” [107]. This is a socio-cultural model with few psychological
factors, which have been outlined above in the section on subcultural studies. Heavy
gambling is seen as resulting from the commitment to gambling institutions (e.g. a
casino). Commitment is negatively reinforced by conflicts with outside society and
the stigmatization resulting from intense involvement in gambling, and at the same
time positively reinforced by the social rewards gained while gambling, this taking
place within the institutional arrangements of the provider of gambling. In all, the
model comprises about 20 factors.
62 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