Animal models can contribute significantly to our understanding of human gambling behavior. However, no proposed animal models of human gambling have been tested using human subjects. The purpose of the present paper was to validate an animal model of gambling with human subjects. Twenty undergraduate rehabilitation students (all women) were recruited and participated for extra course credit. Participants were presented with a concurrent choice between two different simulated slot machines; one machine with symbols and one machine without symbols. During the first 50 choice trials, the payout of the two machines was equated at 50% overall. For the remaining 50 choice trials, probability of winning on the machine with symbols was systematically decreased by 10% overall every ten trials until there was no probability of winning for the last ten trails. On average, participants showed a preference for the machine with symbols during choice trials when win rate was equated; allocating significantly more than 50% of responding to this machine. A repeated measures ANOVA indicated that response allocation to the symbol machine only significantly decreased in the final two conditions (10% and EXT) and did not decrease significantly across any other conditions. Results were also interpreted through behavioral economic analyses. Results indicate that conditioned reinforcement may affect the subjective value of probabilistic reinforcers in humans. These results are similar to those obtained with pigeons under similar conditions and may imply that animal models are relevant to the study of human gambling behavior.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Katelyn Louise Decker, Master of Science Degree in Behavior Analysis and Therapy, presented on April 30, 2015, at Southern Illinois University TITLE: EFFECTS OF GAMBLING OUTCOMES ON LEVEL OF IMPULSIVITY MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Mark R. Dixon The effects of exposure to winning and losing gambling outcomes on levels of impulsivity among non-gamblers were investigated in a within-subjects experimental design with randomization of treatment phases. Participants included 20 non-gamblers (10 male, 10 female), 18 years or older, selected from a sample of 40 volunteers who completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen (Lesieur & Blume, 1987) and received a score of 0, indicating no predictors of potential pathological gambling. Dependent measures of levels of impulsivity were recorded using an abbreviated version of the delayed discounting questionnaire described by Dixon et al. (2003). Derived k-values were calculated by fitting indifference points at each delay to the hyperbolic equation proposed by Mazur (1987) and average k-value was calculated for each participant across delays. Participants were exposed to both winning and losing outcomes by completing 25 trials within a slot-machine task programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic Express Edition 2008 (Maclin, et al., 2006, p. 127-154). Results were subjected to statistical analysis to determine whether a statistically significant, functional relationship existed between increases and decreases in level of impulsivity (k-value) in comparison to baseline. Across all participants, regardless of order of experimental conditions, results indicated a more than 26% decrease (-82.20-3133.33) in level of impulsivity (0-2.1694) following a losing outcome and a more than 24% decrease (-89.95-3300) in level of impulsivity (0-2.1694) following a winning outcome in comparison to baseline (0-2.3056). Results are consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to winning outcomes decrease impulsivity, but inconsistent with the hypothesis that exposure to losing outcomes increase impulsivity. Historical perspectives of pathological gambling, social impacts of gambling disorder, and trait and state-dependent perspectives of impulsivity are discussed. Potential implications for further research using delayed discounting measures are provided, as well as potential limitations of the present study. Keywords: gambling, impulsivity, delayed discounting, slot-machine, outcomes

It has been suggested that gambling behaviour may not be solely controlled by schedules of reinforcement, but may be under the control of verbal behaviour. Relational frame theory is a contemporary account of verbal behaviour which may be able to account for aspects of gambling behaviour that cannot be explained by a pure schedule of reinforcement account. Chapter 2 demonstrated that contextual cues may influence preferences for concurrently available slot-machines, thus overriding the contingencies of reinforcement in place. Chapter 3 demonstrated that the presence of accurate or inaccurate rules may influence slot-machine choice and affect gambling persistence. Participants that received inaccurate rules regarding the payout probability of a slot machine, gambled for longer than those given accurate rules. Chapter 4 reported that the discriminative functions of slot-machines could be transformed in accordance with derived same and opposite relations, such that participants showed preferences for slot-machines that had never been experienced before. Chapter 5 demonstrated that not only could preferences for concurrently available slot machines be transformed in accordance with derived comparative relations, but found that preferences for slot machines increased relative to the relational network that had been trained. In Chapter 6, ratings of wins, near-misses and losses on a computer simulated slot-machine could be altered in accordance with derived same and opposite relations, and could even override the non-arbitrary properties of a slot-machine. It was concluded that gambling is verbal behaviour and can be accounted for by derived relations and the transformation of function. These findings may explain instances of gambling behaviour which cannot be accounted for by the direct acting contingencies.

Cette étude porte sur la communauté des joueurs amateurs de poker en France. Qui sont-ils ? En quoi consistent leurs pratiques du jeu ? Comment se représentent-ils le poker ? Comment apprennent-ils à jouer le jeu ? Et qu’apprennent-ils en jouant ? Si ces questions de recherche renvoient essentiellement à la pratique et aux apprentissages du jeu lui-même, il s’agit bien in fine d’interroger les apprentissages associés à cette pratique dans la vie quotidienne des joueurs. Or, pour répondre à cette dernière question, encore nous fallait-il préalablement déconstruire l’idée selon laquelle le jeu est une activité séparée de la vie quotidienne. Tel fut l’enjeu du premier chapitre de notre thèse. Partant du traitement de la question du jeu dans l’histoire des idées, nous nous sommes d’abord tournés du côté des définitions socio-anthropologiques qui ont promu cette idée-force d’une séparation du jeu et de la vie courante. Un travail d’analyse critique fut alors nécessaire pour resituer le jeu dans l’économie des pratiques quotidiennes. Dans un second chapitre, nous nous sommes plus particulièrement intéressés au traitement de la question des jeux d’argent dans la littérature scientifique, en nous penchant sur la façon dont le poker y était étudié. Contrairement aux différentes études qui abordent la pratique de ce jeu d’argent sous l’angle de l’addiction ou de la déviance, nos propres recherches auprès des joueurs amateurs de poker nous conduisaient alors à étudier cette pratique sous l’angle du jeu lui-même. Dans un troisième chapitre, nous nous sommes donc intéressés à l’histoire et aux représentations du poker pour découvrir comment ce jeu avait progressivement produit sa propre mythologie, sa propre culture, ses propres médias, etc., jusqu’à ce qu’il devienne un loisir de masse pour des centaines de milliers de joueurs, notamment en France. Après cette plongée dans l’histoire du jeu, nous avons présenté, dans une deuxième partie de la thèse, le processus qui préside à la réalisation de notre enquête auprès des joueurs amateurs de poker. Sous la forme d’une ethnographie réflexive, nous sommes d’abord revenu sur l’enquête exploratoire que nous avons réalisée entre 2006 et 2007 auprès des joueurs de notre entourage (chapitre 4), alors que nous étions nous-même joueur de poker. Puis, nous avons successivement présenté les deux enquêtes menées en 2010 et 2011 sur les sites de poker en ligne et lors d’un tournoi de poker à grande échelle (chapitre 5). La troisième partie de notre thèse s’appuyait alors sur l’analyse des données empiriques issues de cette dernière enquête pour tenter de décrire la population des joueurs rencontrés sur le terrain (chapitre 6). Grâce à une analyse approfondie de leur trajectoire d’apprentissage et de leur récit de pratique, nous avons progressivement cherché des réponses à nos questions de recherche en nous interrogeant, d’une part, sur la façon dont ces joueurs amateurs apprennent à jouer au poker (chapitre 7) et, d’autre part, ce qu’ils en retirent dans leur vie quotidienne (chapitre 8). Nos analyses nous amènent finalement à remettre en question les définitions du jeu présentées dans la première partie de la thèse et à penser un nouveau cadre théorique pour penser les pratiques et les apprentissages du jeu. / This study focuses on the community of amateur poker players in France. Who are they? What do their practices of the game consist in? How do they picture poker? How do they learn to play the game? And what do they learn as they play? Although these research questions mostly refer to practicing and learning the game itself, they do ultimately aim at questioning the learning associated with this practice in the players’ everyday lives. But answering this question involved a previous deconstruction of the idea that the game is an activity apart from everyday life. That was what the first chapter of this dissertation has been about. Based on how the question had been addressed in the history of ideas, we first turned to the socio-anthropological definitions promoting this key idea of a separation between game and everyday life. Then a critical analysis was needed to place the game in the economy of everyday practices. In the second chapter we dealt with how the question of gambling was handled in scientific literature, looking into the way poker was studied there. Unlike various studies approaching the practice of this gambling game from the standpoint of addiction or deviance, our own research with amateur poker players led us to study this practice from the standpoint of the game itself. Thus, in the third chapter, we examined the history of poker to find out how the game had gradually built up its own mythology, culture, media, etc., until it became a mass entertainment for hundreds of thousands of players, especially in France. After this journey deep into the history of the game, in the second part of the dissertation we have set out the process through which our survey with amateur poker players was conducted. As a reflexive ethnography we first went back to the exploratory survey we had performed in 2006-07 with players we knew (chapter 4) at a time when we would play poker ourselves. Then we have successively shown the two surveys we did in 2010-11 about on-line poker sites as well as during a large-scale poker tournament (chapter 5). The third part of the dissertation is based on an analysis of the empirical data from the latter survey in an effort to describe the population of players we met in the field (chapter 6). Through an in-depth analysis of their learning trajectories and accounts of practice we have gradually tried to answer our research questions wondering how these amateur players learn playing poker on the one hand (chapter 7) and what they are gaining from it in their everyday lives on the other hand (chapter 8). Finally our findings led us to challenge the definitions of the game as set out in the first part of the dissertation and to offer a new theoretical framework for considering the practices and learning of the game.

AIMS: The aim of this thesis was to find out how pathological gamblers deal with stress situations and which particular coping strategies they use. The assumption based on previous research is that pathological gamblers tend to overuse negative coping strategies instead of positive strategies. METHODS: The research took place within ambulance treatment in the Clinic of Addictology of the General University Hospital in Prague and was realized with group of seven participants. The results were obtained using quantitative and qualitative research methods and the main tools were SOGS, SOC, SVF78 and anamnestic questionnaire which helped to identify the demographic data. RESULTS: The obtained outcomes correspond to previous studies and suggest that participants tend to overuse negative coping strategies such as self-blaming, resignation and perseverance in stressful situations. At the same time, their confidence towards the world is reduced, which means that they perceive the world as messy and incomprehensible. CONCLUSION: The research could be used to engage in professional practice in terms of training appropriate coping strategies that pathological gamblers could apply in stressful situations. In order to verify the outcomes, it would be necessary to carry out a complementary study to include...

In light of the findings of a pilot study by this researcher, entitled a study of the behaviour and strategies of responsible gamblers, it is vital that responsible gambling behaviour in the Eastern Cape be researched more thoroughly. The pilot study found that many ordinary gamblers experience cognitive distortions which may predispose them to varying levels of gambling problems, as well as specific biographical attributes that may determine such an outcome. The present study aims to address the limitations and recommendations put forward by the pilot study, namely its relatively small scale, and lack of generalisability as a result of sampling from a single gambling population. This project set out to assess gambling behaviour, and more so responsible gambling practices, to be able to conclude how, and in what form, responsible gambling takes place. The research was conducted USll1g a sample of one-hundred-and-thirty-seven gamblers from Hemingway's Casino in East London to develop data and establish norms on general gambling behaviour over a week, by administration of a survey questionnaire. The analysis of the data focussed on areas such as the link between gender and gambling behaviour, amount earned and amount spent on gambling, age and gambling trends as well as belief in luck and chances to win. Finally, the strategies (if any) used by gamblers to avoid problem gambling or overspending were assessed, and described by the gamblers themselves, and added to the results of the research. The results indicate that the majority of gamblers in the Eastern Cape are responsible, but many do still exhibit cognitive distortions and other behaviours that might put them at risk for problem gambling. With these results it is possible to provide basic data and information about the nature of gambling in the East London area that can be added to previous (as well as subsequent) studies, in order to build a clearer and more representative picture of the gambling situation in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Northwest Coast gambling paraphernalia are found in many museums and are usually accompanied by very meagre catalogue entries. The Accumulation of a number of sources pertaining to this category of material culture was therefore seen as a worthwhile task. Even a superficial examination of these gambling implements suggests that they were associated, with a very popular and possibly important activity, at least prior to European contact. This paper is an attempt to construct a profile of gambling on the Northwest Coast and to assess its importance in the culture. Three main sources of data were drawn upon for this purpose: (1) the material culture itself and the associated records located in museums; (2) the published ethnographic literature; and (3) the published myths. From these sources the analysis yielded a number of conclusions. The first is that gambling was a very popular activity. Secondly, a large degree of homogeneity can be seen to have existed in the areas considered. With a few exceptions, basically similar games of chance were played throughout the entire area, areal differences being quantitative rather than qualitative. A similar pattern is seen in the themes of gambling stated in the myths: there are a few main themes, but details differ from place to place. A third conclusion is that gambling usually involved very high stakes; and a fourth is that losing much was considered shameful, especially when a gambler lost other people's property. A fifth conclusion, supported by the data, is that serious gambling for high stakes was considered strictly a man's activity. A sixth conclusion is that cheating was common, expected, and accepted as part of the play as long as it was not discovered. The seventh conclusion is that the data stress the link between the supernatural and games of chance. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Legal regulation and taxation of gambling mechanisms in video games Abstract In connection with the development and spread of information technologies to most households, new questions arise regarding their legal regulation. The old legal norms cannot keep pace with this development, and therefore a new phenomenon may emerge, which at first glance seems to have been neglected by law. This work explores one of these phenomena of information technology, namely Loot boxes, as a new, modern form of gambling targeted at minors and other vulnerable groups. Some Member States of the European Union, in particular Belgium and the Netherlands, have already reacted correctly to Loot boxes and banned the operation of some Loot boxes on their territory. Other countries, such as the United States, have been talking about regulation for a long time, but it has not yet happened. Loot boxes are internally divided into several types, and for some we cannot talk about gambling. In particular, these are cases where the possibility of buying a Loot box for money or the possibility of selling acquired virtual items for money, or a similar value that can be expressed in money, is completely missing. In my reasonable opinion, some Loot boxes are essentially a game of chance. Despite claims by Loot box operators, many researches...

This study deals with sport's controversial dependence on the gambling market. The aim of the study is to analyse the comments of authorities, organisations and associations regarding the governmental public inquiry (SOU 2017:30) A re-regulated gambling market. The method used to collect and analyse data was a literature review in the form of a qualitative content analysis. The gambling market brings enormous amounts of money to the Swedish sports movement. The gambling policy that has been pursued in Sweden has encouraged the gambling market to return profit money to the sports movement. The problem has thus been to be able to apply national laws to foreign gambling companies. The advent of the Gambling Act (2018:1138) brought some significant changes, most notably the introduction of the licensing system and the 18 percent excise tax.  The results of the study show that the advent of the Gambling Act (2018:1138) has provided the opportunity for the state to collect taxes from foreign gambling companies and to be able to work more effectively against gambling abuse. Furthermore, it means creating a balance to meet the demand in the gambling market as well as being able to provide a high level of consumer protection.

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