Abstract
Gambling behavior is partly the result of varied motivations leading individuals to participate in gambling activities. Specific motivational profiles are found in gamblers, and gambling motives are closely linked to the development of cognitive distortions. This cross-sectional study aimed to predict cognitive distortions from gambling motives in poker players. The population was recruited in online gambling forums. Participants reported gambling at least once a week. Data included sociodemographic characteristics, the South Oaks Gambling Screen, the Gambling Motives Questionnaire-Financial and the Gambling-Related Cognition Scale. This study was conducted on 259 male poker gamblers (aged 18–69 years, 14.3% probable pathological gamblers). Univariate analyses showed that cognitive distortions were independently predicted by overall gambling motives (34.8%) and problem gambling (22.4%) (p < .05). The multivariate model, including these two variables, explained 39.7% of cognitive distortions (p < .05). The results associated with the literature data highlight that cognitive distortions are a good discriminating factor of gambling problems, showing a close inter-relationship between gambling motives, cognitive distortions and the severity of gambling. These data are consistent with the following theoretical process model: gambling motives lead individuals to practice and repeat the gambling experience, which may lead them to develop cognitive distortions, which in turn favor problem gambling. This study opens up new research perspectives to understand better the mechanisms underlying gambling practice and has clinical implications in terms of prevention and treatment. For example, a coupled motivational and cognitive intervention focused on gambling motives/cognitive distortions could be beneficial for individuals with gambling problems.
Highlights
Gambling is characterized as an activity whose outcome is based mainly or totally on chance, which involves an irreversible provision of money or an object of value beforehand
This close linkage enables us to hypothesize that gamblers with more motives to gamble are more likely to develop and maintain cognitive distortions during gambling, such as the failure to appreciate the independence of turns (GRCS predictive control) and expectancies that gambling will be exciting and/or relieve negative affect (GRCS gambling related-expectancies) for example
Gambling motives differ between gamblers depending on the intensity and severity of the gambling practice
Summary
Gambling is characterized as an activity whose outcome is based mainly or totally on chance, which involves an irreversible provision of money or an object of value beforehand. Different gambling types include games of luck (lottery, slot machines, scratch-cards and roulette) and games of skill (poker, blackjack, sports and horse betting). The outcome of games of luck is due only to chance, while games of skill depend on luck, strategy, experience and knowledge parameters. Few epidemiological data are available on European populations, which can be explained by the lack of research on the prevalence of gamblers in the general population. A similar prevalence was found in Canada and New Zealand (Costes et al 2011). These estimations are much lower than those found in the United States and Australia (around 5%). Accessibility to gambling and the materials used to obtain these data are some explanations regularly put forward
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