Psychophysiological and subjective responses of a community sample of video lottery gamblers in gambling venues and laboratory situations

Abstract

Physiological and subjective arousal in lounge and laboratory conditions were explored using heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SCL) and subjective ratings for a community sample (N=30) of video lottery terminal gamblers (14 non-pathological gamblers [NPG] and 16 probable pathological gamblers [PPG]). For all participants, mean heart rates and ratings of subjective arousal were higher in the lounge situation, while SCL did not differ between locations. SCL increased over baseline when gambling in both situations. HR initially increased over baseline in the lounge situation only, but by the end of gambling HR increased in both situations. HR, SCL and subjective reports were moderately correlated between venues. No correlations were found between subjective and physiological measures of arousal.