The contrasting attitudes and beliefs of gamblers and non-gamblers

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Types of Gamblers
The Essence of Gambling
Dimensions of Money
Money as a Motivation for Gambling
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Gambling is the process by which an individual puts his/her money or any other valuable item at stake for the hope of winning more money or goods (Strack and Deutsch, 2004). The outcome of winning or losing is always uncertain. This is because gamblers normally depend on chance to win.

The process of gambling is normally short. Once the results are out, a gambler has the choice of walking away with his winnings or restrain himself from playing as a result of losing (Houben and Wiers, 2006). The other choice is to continue playing. However, all these choices depend on the nature of an individual and the attitude and beliefs he/she has towards gambling.

Lottery tickets, board games, cards, slot machines and betting are just but examples of different types of gambles that are present (Allport, 2005). Each one of these games is different from the other. In addition, the stakes of each game is different. To protect the interest of all gamblers, the nature and extent of gambling is normally controlled by the law.

In many countries, this control lies under the gaming and betting board or gaming and licensing board (Allport, 2005). These laws clearly state the rules and regulations that should be considered while gambling, the variety of games that are permitted by the state and the procedures and guidelines that should be followed in the process of gambling.

However, this paper will not focus on the nature of gambling or its legality. Instead, it will focus on the contrasting attitudes and beliefs of gamblers and non-gamblers. It is a matter of fact that gamblers and non-gamblers have different views towards gambling. To understand this, the impacts of the various factors that affect the process of gambling shall be analysed.

This analysis shall be done on individuals who are either gamblers or non-gamblers. In the end, a conclusion shall be drawn with regards to the attitudes and beliefs that gamblers and non-gamblers have towards gambling.

Types of Gamblers

In life, we have the free will to make the decisions that we want. However, the outcome of these choices is always uncertain. Therefore, it will be true to say that we are all gamblers (Eagley and Chaiken, 1993). However, for the context of this paper, a gambler is an individual who gambles for the sole purpose of winning.

With this definition, it is possible to come up with two types of gamblers. There are those individuals who gamble for fun or entertainment. For this individuals, it does not matter whether they win or lose. What matters is the fun that they have while playing the game. Such individuals are referred to as non-gamblers. On the other extreme, we have problem gamblers. These individuals take gambling seriously.

This may be due to several reasons. This includes using gambling as a source of income, wealth, power and respect. For such individuals, winning is necessary. Such individuals tend to over-estimate their chances of winning. In addition, their rates of gambling are much higher as compared to non-gamblers.

The Essence of Gambling

The main essence of gambling is to win something that is valuable as compared to the stake that the gambler invested in the gamble. In many situations, money is the stake that is invested in a gamble. Money is also the reward that a gambler hopes to win. When other assets are used as the stake or winnings, their value is always quantified in monetary terms.

This may include land, jewellery, cars and houses. As a result, money plays a major role in the process of gambling. The winnings that an individual is hoping to win acts as the motivation for individuals to be involved in the process of gambling (Greenwald et al, 2002).

To fully understand the psychology of gamblers and non-gamblers, it is essential to understand the effect that money has on them and the manner in which it affects their character and perception. After this analysis has been done, it will thus be much easier for an individual to determine the attitudes and beliefs of gamblers and non-gamblers towards money and most importantly, towards gambling.

Dimensions of Money

Money is also multi-dimensional in nature. It has an emotional construct, an instrumental construct and a symbolic construct (Eagley and Chaiken, 1993). The emotional construct of money is determined by the manner in which money affects the behaviour, character and psychology of an individual.

Money is capable of affecting the level of anxiety and satisfaction in an individual. Money is also an instrument that is used to conduct a number of transactions in the world. It can be used to pay rent, debts and purchase goods. Finally, money is used as a symbol of value.

Many goods and services are valued in monetary terms for ease of exchange and convenience. The multi-dimension nature of money thus plays a critical role in determining how an individual will perceive the commodity and it may affect his psychology, attitudes and beliefs especially so when gambling is considered.

Money as a Motivation for Gambling

Winning money or something that is valuable is the main essence of gambling. Money has various value for what it really represents. In the mind of a gambler, it represents the opportunity to win something that is valuable. This thought in itself acts as a motivator for gambling.

Another reason why people gamble is to satisfy their need of acquiring intangible benefits that come about with money (Karpinski and Hilton, 2005). This includes wealth, power and prestige. However, the manner in which an individual perceives money and the attitudes and belief that accrue towards gambling mainly depend on the category an individual is.

If an individual is a problem gambler, there are high possibilities that he/she will be so obsessed to win in order to gain the benefits of gambling. On the other hand, non-problem gamblers are not so obsessed with winning. In addition, they do not have so much financial insecurities. As a result, they tend to view gambling as a recreation activity for fun and entertainment and not as a source of income.

To determine how money acts as a motivation of gambling and how it affects the attitudes and beliefs of individuals, the tool and drug theory will be used. According to this theory, money motivates individuals to actively participate in the process of gambling due to the winnings at hand (Lang, 2005).

The monetary value of these winnings acts as a motivation for actively participating in gambling. An individual has the desire to win the money due to several reasons. This may be to reduce his debts, improve his lifestyle (making it more classy), or to gain power and respect among his friends or the community.

However, the extent to which an individual perceives this notion depends on whether he/she is a problem gambler or a non-gambler (Boyer and Dickerson, 2003).

For instance, whether a non-gambler wins or loses his stakes, the chances of him/her continuing gambling after his reserve is exhausted are limited. Problem gamblers on the other hand will continue to gamble even after they have won. They tend to re-invest their winnings in the game so that they can win more rewards. Due to their over-ambition of winning, they tend to lose much of their winnings. In some circumstances, they may even borrow debts thinking that they will recover what they lost.

The incentive of re-investing their winnings and actively participating in gambling is due to the arousal effect that occurs after a gambler has won. Such an arousal brings about a feeling of high that is relatively similar to what people feel when they use drugs. To re-live the experience, a gambler will play more and more.

In the process, he will become addicted to the game. This therefore makes money to be like a drug while to a problem gambler. In the process, this situation affects the neural, psychological and behavioural aspects of an individual (Zack and Poulos, 2004). The resultant effect is that a problem gambler shall develop a positive attitude towards gambling.

Another factor that affects the attitudes and beliefs of individual towards gambling is their interpretation of money. Kassinove (1998), stated that people have the obsession of money, use money to get power, trust, self-esteem and reduce to their anxiety towards life (p. 765). However, the extent of these actions depends a lot on an individuals.

Kassinove concluded that problem gamblers had higher levels of anxiety towards money as compared to non-gamblers. This may be due to the cash flow problems that they keep experiencing. As a result, they tend to rely mainly on gambling to reinstate and maintain their financial stability. The same theory applies to the other constructs that had been mentioned.

It is this attitude that gamblers continue to invest more and more money into gambling. In the process, they tend to spend all their money and run into debt. However, even after running into debt, a problem gambler will continue to gamble. This time, however, will not be to win but to recover their debts. This condition is serious and this is the status that many problem gamblers are always stuck into (Zack and Poulos, 2004). They tend to gamble to chase their losses. However, this only makes the situation to become even worse.

Conclusion

For problem gamblers, money is a symbol of success. They therefore treasure money due to the influence, prestige and power that it has other than the security that it offers. As a result, these individuals are more anxious about money. To reduce this anxiety, a problem gambler will continue to gamble so that he gets more money.

This makes problem gamblers view gambling as an avenue of earning money and not a form of entertainment. This therefore makes them to have a positive attitude towards gambling.

Non-problem gamblers do not have a lot anxiety towards money. They treasure money for the security that it offers and not the success or the prestige that comes with it. With regards to these facts, the normally view gambling as a recreation activity for fun and entertainment. They therefore have a neutral to negative attitude towards gambling.

References

Allport, G.W. (2005). Attitudes. In C.M. Murchison. Handbook of social psychology Winchester, MA: Clark University Press.

Boyer, M., & Dickerson, M. (2003). Attentional bias and addictive behaviour: Automaticity in a gambling-specific modified Stroop task. Addiction, 98, 61–70.

Eagley, A., and Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Greenwald, A.G., Banaji, M.R., Rudman, L.A., Farnham, S.D., Nosek, B.A., & Mellot, D.S. (2002). A unified theory of implicit attitudes, stereotypes, self-esteem, and self-concept. Psychological Review, 109, 3–25.

Houben, K., & Wiers, R.W. (2006). Assessing implicit alcohol associations with the implicit association test: Fact or artifact? Addictive Behaviours, 31, 1346–1362.

Kassinove, J. (1998). Development of the Gambling Attitude Scales: Preliminary findings. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54, 763–771.

Karpinski, A., and Hilton, J.L. (2001). Attitudes and the implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 774–788.

Lang, P.J. (2005). The emotion probe: Studies of motivation on alcohol. American Psychologist 50, 372–385.

Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220–247.

Zack, M., & Poulos, C.X. (2004). Amphetamine primes motivation to gamble and gambling-related semantic networks in problem gamblers. Neuropsychopharmacology, 29, 195–207.

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