A Risky Business
Mark Griffiths
Although most people gamble occasionally for fun and pleasure, gambling brings with it inherent risks of personal and social harm: it can gravely affect significant areas of a person’s life, including their physical and mental health, employment, finances and interpersonal relationships. It is clear that there is a dangerous link between problem gambling and such serious problems as depression, alcoholism, and obsessive-compulsive behaviours.
The 2007 British gambling prevalence survey (of which I was one of the co-authors) reported that two-thirds of adults gambled at some point in the previous year. Over half had gambled on the bi-weekly Lotto game. The other most popular gambling activities in the past year were scratch-cards, horse race gambling, slot machines, and casinos. Only six per cent had gambled or placed a bet online. The same study found that there were approximately 300,000 problem gamblers in the UK – that equates to around 0.6 per cent of the adult population.
Variations in gambling preferences are thought to result from differences in both accessibility and psychological motivation. For instance, older people tend to choose activities that minimise the need for complex decision-making or concentration, such as bingo. As people progress from social to regular to excessive gambling, there are often significant changes in their reasons for gambling: whereas a person might have initially gambled simply for enjoyment, the progression to problem gambling is almost always accompanied by an increased preoccupation with winning money and chasing losses.
Another factor central to understanding gambling behaviour is the structure of gambling activities. My research has shown that gambling activities vary considerably in their structural characteristics, such as the probability of winning, the amount of gambler involvement, and the magnitude of potential winnings. Structural variations are also observed within certain classes of activities such as slot machines, where differences in frequency, colours, sound effects and machines’ features can influence the profitability and attractiveness of machines.
For instance, a behaviour that many regular gamblers often engage in is turning their losing experiences into near winning ones – for instance, by rationalising that if the referee had given a penalty in the last five minutes, they would have won the bet. These are sometimes referred to as "near misses." There are some gambling products (like fruit machines and scratchcards) that have lots of these near miss experiences pre-programmed or predetermined in their design. From a gambler’s perspective, they are not constantly losing but constantly nearly winning: something that is both psychologically and physiologically rewarding!
Another vital structural characteristic of gambling is the continuity of the activity: that is, the length of the interval between stake and outcome. In nearly all studies, it has been found that continuous activities such as horserace gambling with a more rapid play-rate are more likely to be associated with gambling problems. The ability to make repeated stakes in short time intervals increases the amount of money that can be lost, and also increases the likelihood that gamblers will be unable to control spending. Such problems are rarely observed in non-continuous activities, such as weekly or bi-weekly lotteries, in which gambling is undertaken less frequently and where outcomes are often unknown for days.
Other factors central to understanding gambling behaviour are the situational characteristics of gambling activities. These are the factors that often facilitate and encourage people to gamble in the first place. Situational characteristics are primarily factors such as the location of the gambling venue, but can also include internal features of the venue itself or facilitating factors such as free drinks. These variables may be important in both the initial decision to gamble and the maintenance of the behaviour. Although many of these situational characteristics are thought to influence vulnerable gamblers, more research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be made about their influence on gambling behaviour, and whether vulnerable individuals are any more likely to be influenced by these particular types of marketing ploys.
Gambling and problem gambling are highly complex behaviours that are not only influenced by individual risk factors, but also by the situational factors of the gambling environment, and structural characteristics of the gambling activity itself. Psychology plays a major role in the development of gambling problems, and is a major issue that will take on increasing importance over the coming years as the new Gambling Act starts to take effect.
Mark Griffiths is Director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University.
0 comments on A Risky Business