Determinants of gambling and problem gambling: Three theories.

Abstract

Although surveys show that 70 to 90 percent of Americans have gambled in their lifetime, the kinds of activities, frequency of action, reasons for gambling and prevalence of problem gambling vary across social groups and social settings. While occasional gambling is considered normative in American society today, intensive gambling occurs under more circumscribed conditions, and pathological or compulsive gambling may be considered a form of deviance. This study focuses on determinants of three dimensions of gambling behavior which are viewed as representing a progression towards deviance--simple gambling prevalence, more intensive gambling, and problem or compulsive gambling. It proposes that three different theories of deviance may be helpful in explaining each of these aspects of behavior. Opportunity theory implies that gambling is normative and that people have a natural attraction to it which is restrained only by lack of opportunity; it would thus explain why people gamble at all. Differential association or social learning theory posits that people must be socialized to gamble; it can therefore help explain more intensive or specialized gambling beyond the norm. Finally, anomie theory suggests that specific socio-structural conditions are more likely to be associated with deviance; it would therefore be most apt to explaining why and among whom pathological gambling occurs. This research addresses the following questions: (1) To what extent are theories of opportunity, differential association/social learning and anomie--originally formulated to describe other forms of behavior--useful in understanding the etiology of gambling and gambling problems? (2) What individual factors are most strongly associated with gambling, intensive gambling, and problem gambling? These issues are addressed using data from a telephone survey of a representative sample of adults in the general population of a large state (N = 6308). The implications of the findings for the development of social policy and the provision of services for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling are discussed.