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Abstract
Tourists at the Koorana Saltwater Crocodile Farm in Coowonga, Queensland, Australia, including 62 males and 41 females, aged 18-66 (M = 34.2, SD = 13.3), were randomly assigned to play a laptop-simulated Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) either: (1) prior to entry, or (2) after having held a 1-m saltwater-crocodile. Gambling behavior; including bet-size, speed of betting, final payouts and trials played on the EGM; was investigated with respect to participants' assigned arousal condition, problem-gambling status, and affective state. At-risk gamblers with few self-reported negative emotions placed higher average bets at the EGM after having held the crocodile when compared to the control. In contrast, at-risk gamblers with many self-reported negative emotions placed lower average bets at the EGM after having held the crocodile. The results suggest that high arousal can intensify gambling in at-risk players, but only if this feeling state is not perceived as a negative emotion.
Highlights
Gambling can be an exciting activity, and the exhilaration of winning, or nearly winning, can be a potent motivating factor in reinforcing betting behavior on Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs)
In conformity with initial predictions, manipulated high-arousal that was interpreted as a negative mood state had a moderating effect on average bet size for both non problem and at-risk gamblers
High-arousal which was not interpreted as a negative mood state, but rather a “lucky” feeling, had the predicted effect of increasing bet sizes for at-risk gamblers
Summary
Gambling can be an exciting activity, and the exhilaration of winning, or nearly winning, can be a potent motivating factor in reinforcing betting behavior on Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs). The purpose of the present study is two-fold: 1) to corroborate the impact of arousal on EGM gambling intensity by recreational and at-risk gamblers using alternative methods to Rockloff et al (2007), and 2) to explore the potential moderating influence of negative affective states on betting behavior under high arousal. Participants, who were injected with adrenaline to raise arousal, were placed with an experimental confederate who acted either angry or playful Those participants who were not informed of the influence of the drug on their arousal-level tended to misattribute their emotional state to be the same as the “angry” or “playful” displays of the confederate
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