Gambling motivation and involvement: A review of social

Extensive summary
thiS REpORt pRESEntS a review of social science research on gambling. The objective
is to sum up what the literature says about the motives people have for gambling
and the factors that influence their degree of involvement in gambling. The report
is commissioned by the Swedish National Institute of Public Health and is part of
the preparations to the data collection phase of the Swedish Longitudinal Gambling
Study (SWELOGS). Most of the previous gambling research relies on medical
concepts of problem gambling as pathology. This review focuses on the social,
economic and cultural aspects of gambling rather than perceiving it as a progressive
and irreversible disease in an individual. 434 works are cited in this report. Predominantly
biological, psychiatric and psychological research on gambling, including
problem gambling prevalence studies, which have been excluded from the review.
Directly related to the description of each research approach, conclusions on the
usefulness for gambling research can be found.
The section on sociological approaches on gambling research deals with structural
functionalism, social frustration and escape theories, gambling as social rewards,
subculture studies and geographical analyses. From the perspective of structural
functionalism gambling is regarded as a mechanism which can help reduce tension
in society. By keeping hopes for betterment alive, gambling can reduce some of the
frustration among segments of the population and avoid conflict. It is uncontroversial
to claim that people gamble to escape from everyday life. Social frustration and
escape theory can however also shred light on what factors that push the gambler
away from ordinary life and pull him or her towards gambling. From the perspective
of social rewards gambling can be regarded as a social contest, but also as
something that relates to togetherness and conviviality.
Subculture studies perceive gambling environments as subcultures with specific and
complex cultural codes. It is concluded that very high gambling involvement, resulting
in huge monetary losses and personal problems, can be explained by social factors
rather than individual pathology. Within geographical analyses the relations between
the availability of gambling and socio-economic variables in geographical space are
investigated. Research from New Zealand and US has shown that gambling opportunities
are more common in deprived areas and that people living in a neighbourhood
close to a gambling venue had a significantly higher risk of having gambling problems.
The section on economic approaches on gambling research deals with a wide
range of different perspectives, beginning with a mathematical paradox related to
coin tossing in 1728, ending with modern economic theories on betting markets
with parallels to financial markets. The question of why rational people chose to
gamble remained unsolved in economics for more than 200 years. In 1948 Milton
Friedman and Leonard Savage came up with a widely accepted solution, relying
6 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