The primary objective was to ascertain whether implementation of the e-tolling system will influence the spending on recreational activities by people staying in the Vaal Region. Thus the aim was to assess whether an incremental rise in expenses, leading to a decrease in available disposable income will impact people’s decisions to travel outside their residences to visit and engage in leisure destinations and activities respectively. A questionnaire was developed and distributed with the primary objective of determining whether people within the Vaal Region are aware of the costs associated with travelling using the e-toll Gauteng freeways, and whether it will have an impact on their decisions to travel from their respective residences to leisure properties elsewhere. It also probed the respondents for the type of leisure activities they engage in, frequency of visits and the reasons for participating in the respective activities. The study shows that the e-toll project will inevitably, from a monetary perspective, affect all road users travelling from the Vaal Region to the greater Johannesburg areas. This is significant and confirms that the e-toll project will be perceived to have an impact on people’s available and disposable income. With the implementation of the e-tolling project seemingly imminent, businesses and consumers will feel the belt tighten in the leisure and recreational (and in particular the casino) industry, which is dependent on the availability of disposable income, to be ultimately affected. Trends with regards to leisure activities were identified along with recommendations for future research. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one important response to the increasing amounts of criticism levelled at corporations. A number of studies have focused on CSR in a range of industries; however, some contentious industries, e.g. the gambling industry, remain unexplored. Mobilizing CSR in a novel setting not only enhances the knowledge of CSR and gambling, but also provides an overview of this industry itself. This thesis attempts to investigate three questions: to what extent does the gambling industry disclose CSR-related data, how is CSR understood in this industry and why does the gambling industry engage in CSR? This thesis provides a general overview of the international gambling industry and an in-depth investigation of Macao's gambling industry. The research design of the thesis employs mixed methods: content analysis and semi-structured interviews. The principal research is based on 49 interviews. This thesis advances three main arguments. First, it will be argued that there are relatively low volumes of Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) and Responsible Gambling (RG) disclosure in the international gambling industry, which can be viewed as a legitimising strategy. Second, in Macao's gambling industry, it is argued that organisations in this industry tend to place a greater emphasis on positive social impacts, while obscuring such negative impacts as gambling addiction and health-related issues. Third, this thesis holds that organisations in Macao's gambling industry engage symbolically, rather than substantively, with CSR and RG in order to manage stakeholders' perceptions in an attempt to gain different sources of legitimacy and in turn to enhance its economic interests. In conclusion, the gambling industry does not entirely conform to the institutional environment, which poses a challenge to the organisational legitimacy literature. This thesis introduces a necessary caution into the discussions about the extent of CSD, CSR, and RG in this industry more generally.

The purpose of this study is to examine in which way two Swedish tabloid newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen, most commonly frame gambling in the news coverage on their websites in a time when research reveals that it has become increasingly harder to determine what is journalistic material and what is advertisement. At the same time, gambling companies have taken over a large part of the advertising space at Swedish tabloid websites. There has, in its extent, been done insufficient research within the journalistic field of news coverage when it comes to gambling and this study seeks to fill in some of the investigative blanks. In order to analyze how frames emerge from the news coverage we collected articles from a six-month period, as close to the initiation of the study as possible, by using eight different words or short phrases that led to the total empirical data of 302 news articles. Methodologically the study uses quantitative content analysis mainly based on the theory of framing. Furthermore, we also apply the theoretical aspects of agenda setting and news selection. The result clearly shows that the Swedish tabloid newspapers frame gambling in a positive and non-problematic way and there is a remarkable over representation of articles that are based on what we call “the happy winner frame”. In the conclusion we discuss both social and media related implications of the newspapers way of framing gambling in their online news coverage. We also offer a couple of propositions for future research within this field of medial science.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

The current pair of experimental studies sought to further validate the role of positive urgency (acting rashly when in an extreme positive emotional state) as a risk factor for impulsive and maladaptive behavior. Previous research has supported the use of emotion-based dispositions to rash action in predicting a wide range of maladaptive acts. However, that research relied on self-reported behavior, thus lacking (1) tight experimental controls and (2) direct observation of risky behaviors. In the two experimental studies described here, I found that, among college students, (1) previous cross-sectional relationships between risk and positive urgency were supported (n = 104), (2) positive urgency significantly predicted negative outcomes on a gambling task following a positive mood manipulation (n = 94), and (3) positive urgency significantly predicted increases in beer consumption following positive mood induction (n = 33). Positive urgency's role was above and beyond previously identified risk factors; these findings combined with prior cross-sectional and longitudinal field studies provide strong support for the role of positive urgency in rash action.

<p>Studien var en kvantitativ undersökning som genomfördes vid Socialhögskolan i Stockholm. Syftet med denna C-uppsats var att öka kunskapen om socionomstuderandes kunskaper och attityder till spel och spelberoende. Forskningsfrågorna var: ”Vilka kunskaper och attityder kan socionomstuderande ha till spel och spelberoende?”, ”Finns det bland socionomstuderande några skillnader i attityder till spelberoende jämfört med attityder till alkoholberoende?” samt ”Finns det några skillnader, i kunskaper och attityder till spel och spelberoende, beroende på hur långt man har kommit i socionomutbildningen?. För att besvara forskningsfrågorna gjordes en enkätundersökning i två klasser ur termin 1 och två klasser ur termin 5. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att studenterna hade en viss kunskap på området samt att det fanns skillnader i attityder beroende på hur långt studenterna kommit i sin utbildning. Resultatet visade också att det fanns attitydskillnader i jämförelse mellan spel och alkoholberoende. Materialet analyserades med utgångspunkt från våra forskningsfrågor utifrån kognitiv teori och det socialkonstruktivistiska perspektivet.</p>

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community. / Department of Psychological Science

The overall aims of this thesis were to develop and evaluate a screening instrument designed to detect gaming addiction symptoms in adolescents, to study associations between problematic gaming and psychiatric symptoms, to investigate the stability of problematic gaming, and to examine possible associations between gaming at baseline (W1) with problem gambling three years later (W2). The study population consisted of adolescents from the Survey of Adolescent Life in Västmanland SALVe Cohort (adolescents in Västmanland born in 1997 and 1999, and their parents), in two waves (2012, n = 1887; 2015, n = 1576), and adolescents from child and adolescent psychiatric clinics in Västmanland (2014, n = 242). The development of the Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT) was based upon the research literature on gaming, gambling, and addiction. An expert panel estimated the content validity of the GAIT and found it to be excellent. Additional psychometric evaluations of the GAIT and the parent version, GAIT-P, were conducted and it was found that both versions showed promising psychometric results, with high internal consistency, high concurrent validity, high concordance, unidimensionality, and high factor loadings, although poor model fit in exploratory factor analysis. Self- and parent-rated prevalence of gaming addiction symptoms were estimated at 1.3% with the GAIT and 2.4% with the GAIT-P in 13- and 15-year-olds. Self-rated problematic gaming above the cutoff had a boy to girl ratio of approximately 5:1 in both the SALVe Cohort and the clinical sample, whereas more girls than boys reported symptoms above the cutoff for ADHD, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like-experiences. ADHD, depression, and anxiety symptoms were associated with odds ratios of 2.43, 2.47, and 2.06, respectively, in relation to coexisting problematic gaming. Furthermore, problematic gaming was stable over time, and problematic gaming at the first wave was associated with problem gambling three years later. It is important to screen for possible co-occurring symptoms among those who seek treatment and among those who appear to have symptoms of gaming, gambling, or psychiatric symptoms. Ongoing evaluation of adequate screening and diagnostic measurements, and the development and evaluation of treatments for problematic gaming, gaming addiction, and comorbid conditions are needed.

No description available.

This thesis is studying the current global as well as Czech gambling industry with the focus on internet gambling activities. The work begins with the description of various gambling activities. The focus is taken on the internet gambling activities with description of the specifics and the current European as well as US legal frame. Next part is dedicated to the psychology of gambling together with the pathological gambling addiction. In next part the thesis studies the current situation on the Czech market - history, main official legal providers as well as main grey market providers. Second part of the work is the case study of the launch of the internet lottery games by Fortuna Entertainment Group. This case study is based on a desk research of previous successful best practices in the internet gambling industry from all around the world.