AN EXAMINATION OF PRECIPITATING AND PERPETUATING FACTORS OF GAMBLING BEHAVIOUR: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERS

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AN EXAMINATION OF PRECIPITATING AND PERPETUATING
FACTORS OF GAMBLING BEHAVIOUR A PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE

• Presenter Dragica Sarich
• Disclaimer
• Statements and opinions expressed or implied in
  this presentation do not necessarily reflect the
  opinions or views of the Office of Economic and
  Statistical Research, Queensland Treasury or the
  State of Queensland.
• All data and information in this presentation are
  believed to be accurate and have come from
  sources believed to be reliable. The State of
  Queensland does not guarantee or represent that
  the data and information in this presentation are
  accurate, up to date or complete, and disclaims
  liability for all claims, losses, damages or
  costs of whatever nature and howsoever occurring,
  arising as a result of relying on the data and
  information, regardless of the form of action,
  whether in contract, tort (including negligence),
  breach of statutory duty or otherwise.

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Background

• Sarich, D., Charker, J. (2008).  Understanding
  player loyalty systems A behavioural framework.
   National Association for Gambling Studies
  Conference Proceedings 2007. Cairns, Australia,
  p. 64-79.

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Agenda

• EGM Gambling
• Biopsychosocial model
• Behavioural processes
• Cognitive processes
• Social processes
• Impacts on Patrons who play EGMs
• Summary

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EGM Gambling
What psychological processes underlie factors
that initiate, contribute to and maintain EGM
gambling behaviour?
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The Biopsychosocial Model(Engel, 1977)

• General approach proposing that biological,
  psychological and social factors all play a
  significant role in human functioning
• Originated as a response to medical model of
  illness
• Recognises both a direct interaction between mind
  and body as well as indirect effects through
  other factors
• Now used in fields such as medicine, nursing,
  health psychology and psychiatry

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Applying the Biopsychosocial Model
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Classical Conditioning(Pavlov, 1903)

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) ? Unconditioned
  Response (UR)
• neutral Conditioned Stimulus (CS) ? no response
• Neutral CS UCS? UR
• After many repetitions
• CS ? Conditioned Response (CR)

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Impact on Patrons who play EGMs

• Classical conditioning
• Can influence the patrons perception of their
  reasons for EGM gambling.
• ? patron continues to play the EGM and spend
  their money on the EGM.

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Operant Conditioning (Thorndike (1911) Skinner
(1957))

• Responses can be made to occur
• more frequently (through reinforcement)
• less frequently (through punishment or
  extinction)
• Reinforcement
• use of consequences to modify occurrence and form
  of behaviour
• Different forms
• Positive favourable stimulus provided
• Negative Aversive stimulus taken away
• both increase response frequency
• Reinforcers
• Primary (unconditioned e.g., food, sleep)
• Secondary (conditioned e.g., clicker in clicker
  training with dogs clicker is known to be
  followed by a reward)

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EGM Gambling Reinforcers

• Primary reinforcers
• Arousal or excitement (either autonomic or
  cortical)
• Secondary reinforcers
• Lights, sounds and colour (e.g., pleasant sight
  and tones from EGM)
• Feedback (in the form of messages and praise from
  peers)
• Money (return to player, jackpots)

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Different schedules of reinforcement
• Continuous reinforcement
• Intermittent reinforcement
• Fixed ratio
• Fixed interval
• Variable ratio
• Variable interval
• Variable schedules produce higher responses,
  greater persistence, and are more resistant to
  extinction than most fixed schedules
• Variable ratio schedule produces highest rate of
  responding, and is the most resistant to
  extinction

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The Biopsychosocial Model - Behavioural Processes
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Impacts on Patrons who play EGMs

• Operant conditioning variable ratio
  schedule
• Increases patrons persistence in providing
  responses (or bets) to a feature game on an EGM
• Increases patrons resistance to reducing number
  of responses (or bets) on the EGM game within a
  session
• Makes it harder for patron to stop providing
  responses (i.e., placing bets) to the feature
  game
• ? harder to extinguish their behaviour of playing
  the EGM

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The Biopsychosocial Model -Cognitive Processes
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New Memory - How?
New Experience
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EGM Gambling New Memory
Thoughts
EGM (sight, sound)
Peers
Mood
New Experience EGM Gambling
Session Outcome overall win/loss
Venue sounds
Venue Directions
Venue (sight)
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The Biopsychosocial Model -Cognitive Processes
(contd)
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Common heuristics, biases and errors

• Availability heuristic
• The gamblers fallacy or representation heuristic
  
• Illusion of control
• Biased attributions (e.g., self-serving bias)
• Confirmation bias

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Impacts on Patrons who play EGMs

• Cue, association and memory
• Attention to meaning of stimuli featured in EGM
  gambling experience plus the experience itself
  may later on promote and facilitate memory
  retrieval of gambling experience
• Heuristics, biases and errors
• Influence and maintain a patrons EGM gambling
  behaviour, decisions, and thought patterns

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The Biopsychosocial Model -Social Processes
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Impacts on Patrons who play EGMs

• Peers behaviours can stimulate one to engage in
  EGM gambling and increase their how often and
  long a person plays on EGMs and the intensity of
  EGM gambling
• Peers (as models) can strongly influence a
  patrons attitudes, values, and decision to
  engage in EGM gambling.

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Summary

• Behavioural, cognitive, and social processes are
  of important consideration in terms of EGM
  gambling behaviour
• Through obtaining an understanding of these
  processes together with factors known to
  initiate, contribute to, and maintain gambling
  behaviour, we can gain a better understand of EGM
  gambling behaviour in its entirety.