Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Guelph (Canada), 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

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.

On multiline slot machine games, small “wins” often amount to less than the spin wager, resulting in a monetary loss to the gambler. Nevertheless, these monetary losses are still accompanied by “winning” (and potentially reinforcing) audio-visual feedback. Dixon, Harrigan, Sandhu, Collins, and Fugelsang (2010) termed these potentially reinforcing losses as losses disguised as wins, or LDWs. Dixon et al. previously showed that novice gamblers appear to somatically miscategorize LDWs as wins rather than correctly categorizing these outcomes as losses. Two studies are presented which investigated whether novice gamblers would psychologically miscategorize LDWs as wins as well. In both studies, we investigated participants’ categorizations of LDWs using two measures. First, we asked participants to recall how many times they had won during a playing session and predicted that if participants miscategorize LDWs as wins, then they should conflate LDWs and wins in memory. In Study 1, participants played 200 spins on a real slot machine game with either relatively fewer or relatively many expected LDWs. We found that participants who experienced more LDWs during the playing session recalled winning significantly more often than participants who experienced fewer LDWs, despite how many actual wins the participant experienced, or how much they won or lost overall. In Study 2, we found that participants recalled winning significantly more often in simulator games with more rather than fewer LDWs, despite identical numbers of real wins and identical payback percentages in both games. We referred to this type of memory error as the LDW overestimation effect. The second measure we used to investigate participants’ categorizations of LDWs was more immediate and direct. We evaluated whether participants would miscategorize LDWs as wins or correctly categorize these outcomes as losses by simply asking them to verbally label slot machine spin outcomes. In both studies, we found that the majority of participants miscategorized LDWs as wins rather than correctly categorizing the outcomes as losses. Implications for problem gambling are discussed.

On multiline slot machine games, small “wins” often amount to less than the spin wager, resulting in a monetary loss to the gambler. Nevertheless, these monetary losses are still accompanied by “winning” (and potentially reinforcing) audio-visual feedback. Dixon, Harrigan, Sandhu, Collins, and Fugelsang (2010) termed these potentially reinforcing losses as losses disguised as wins, or LDWs. Dixon et al. previously showed that novice gamblers appear to somatically miscategorize LDWs as wins rather than correctly categorizing these outcomes as losses. Two studies are presented which investigated whether novice gamblers would psychologically miscategorize LDWs as wins as well. In both studies, we investigated participants’ categorizations of LDWs using two measures. First, we asked participants to recall how many times they had won during a playing session and predicted that if participants miscategorize LDWs as wins, then they should conflate LDWs and wins in memory. In Study 1, participants played 200 spins on a real slot machine game with either relatively fewer or relatively many expected LDWs. We found that participants who experienced more LDWs during the playing session recalled winning significantly more often than participants who experienced fewer LDWs, despite how many actual wins the participant experienced, or how much they won or lost overall. In Study 2, we found that participants recalled winning significantly more often in simulator games with more rather than fewer LDWs, despite identical numbers of real wins and identical payback percentages in both games. We referred to this type of memory error as the LDW overestimation effect. The second measure we used to investigate participants’ categorizations of LDWs was more immediate and direct. We evaluated whether participants would miscategorize LDWs as wins or correctly categorize these outcomes as losses by simply asking them to verbally label slot machine spin outcomes. In both studies, we found that the majority of participants miscategorized LDWs as wins rather than correctly categorizing the outcomes as losses. Implications for problem gambling are discussed.

Between 1% and 1.4% of people who engage in gambling behaviors lead to disordered or pathological gambling (Whiting & Dixon, 2015), while 44% of all money spent on legal gambling is done so with slot machines (Choliz, 2010). Various behavioral concepts have been theorized as a possible source of gambling addition; losses disguised as wins (LDWs), near-miss, gamblers’ fallacy, illusions of control, and verbally constructed self-rules related to these topics. The current study sought to extend the previous research on condition discrimination in altering slot machine preference while also analyzing the effects of vocalized self-rules during slot machine selection. Conclusions are drawn regarding results comparing cumulative selection to various vocal statement categories. Limitations are expressed and future research is suggested.

This thesis examines gambling as one of the causes of poverty in households. Gambling is very widespread in Czech republic because of outdated legislation governing gambling. Higher availability of gambling causes higher incidence of pathological gambling, which is the worst type of gambling. Negative impacts of pathological gambling on society are described based on results of foreign empirical studies and statistics from the Czech gambling market. The following topic is the legislative regulation of gambling in Czech republic and abroad. Two approachs of regulation are described in detail and compared to each other. These are liberal approach and strict approach to the regulation of gambling. The practical part analyzes economic indicators of the Czech gambling market, approach of Czech municipalities to the regulation and upcoming drafts of mendments to the Lottery Act which should be valid in 2016 and 2017. The results of the analysis indicate that the current drafts of the new regulation do not effectively address the sissues of pathological gambling in Czech republic. In the conclusion of the thesis there are some recommendations which should be included in a new regulation. In this thesis, data published by the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Health Information from the period 2003 - 2013, is used. There are also used data published by various international bodies.

Legal regulation of lotteries and other similar games The thesis deals with legal regulation of lotteries and other similar games not limited in the legal system of Czech Republic, but also from the perspective of European law. The main objective of this work is to analyze the legal provisions of the Act No. 202/1990 Coll., on the Lotteries and other similar games. It is a valid law, the basis adjustments operation of lotteries and other similar games in our country. The thesis is divided into the three chapters. The first chapter is subdivided into two major parts. The first part deals with the legal regulation of the lotteries and other similar games in the Czech legal order and the second part is focused on the legislation of this part of industry in the European legal order. The first part begins with a brief overview into the history of the gambling. Consequently I analyze the private law regulation with a focus on key provisions of the Act No. 40/1964 Coll., Civil Code. The largest part of the first chapter is devoted to analysis of the public law regulation of the games of chance in the relevant provisions of the Act No. 202/1990 Coll., on the Lotteries and other similar games. These are the provisions that define special properties of gambling and the specific conditions for gambling...

El presente proyecto de tesis corresponde al desarrollo de un sistema móvil y web, enfocado al área operativa y administrativa. Por lo cual se espera maximizar el tiempo de juego del cliente, automatizando aquellas actividades que le hacen perder tiempo de juego. Tanto es así que el sistema propondrá promociones y sorteos enfocados en las preferencias del cliente, gracias a la herramienta “Machine Learning”. El documento está compuesto por ocho capítulos. En el primer capítulo, se detallan los fundamentos teóricos del proyecto en donde se describirá al objeto de estudio y los procesos de negocio. En el segundo capítulo, se describe la propuesta de solución planteada identificando los objetivos y beneficios del proyecto. En el tercer capítulo, se realizará el modelado del negocio según la metodología RUP en donde se identificarán los actores, trabajadores y casos de uso del negocio. En el cuarto capítulo, se especifican los requerimientos funcionales y no funcionales, modelo de casos de uso del sistema y el diagrama del modelo conceptual. En el quinto y sexto capítulo, se describe la arquitectura de software en donde se detallan las metas, restricciones, mecanismos arquitecturales y vistas de la arquitectura de software. Además, se detallarán los patrones de la solución propuesta y el modelo de datos. En el séptimo capítulo, se detalla el plan de calidad y las pruebas de software. El último capítulo especificará la gestión del proyecto, elaborando la EDT, el cronograma, los principales interesados, entre otros. / This thesis project corresponds to the development of a mobile and web system, focused on the operational and administrative area. Therefore, it is expected to maximize the client's playing time, automating those activities that make them lose playing time. So much so that the system will propose promotions and raffles focused on customer preferences, thanks to the “Machine Learning” tool. The document is made up of eight chapters. The first chapter, the theoretical foundations of the project are detailed, where the object of study and the business processes will be described. In the second chapter, the proposed solution is described, identifying the objectives and benefits of the project. In the third chapter, the business modeling will be carried out according to the RUP methodology where the actors, workers and business use cases will be identified. In the fourth chapter, the functional and non-functional requirements, the system use case model and the conceptual model diagram are specified. In the fifth and sixth chapters, the software architecture is described, where the goals, constraints, architectural mechanisms and views of the software architecture are detailed. In addition, the patterns of the proposed solution and the data model will be detailed. In the seventh chapter details the quality plan and the software tests. The last chapter will specify the management of the project, preparing the WBS, the schedule, the main stakeholders, among others. / Tesis

This thesis explores the part gambling plays in an urban setting in Highland Papua New Guinea. Gambling did not exist in (what is now) Goroka Town before European contact, nor Papua New Guinea more broadly, but when I conducted fieldwork in 2009-2010 it was an inescapable part of everyday life. One card game proliferated into a multitude of games for different situations and participants, and was supplemented with slot machines, sports betting, darts, and bingo and lottery games. One could well imagine gambling becoming popular in societies new to it, especially coming on the back of money, wage-work and towns. Yet the popularity of gambling in the region is surprising to social scientists because the peoples now so enamoured by gambling are famous for their love of competitively giving things away, not competing for them. Gambling spread while gifting remained a central part of the way people did transactions. This thesis resists juxtaposing gifting and selfish acquisition. It shows how their opposition is false; that gambling is instead a new analytic technique for manipulating the value of gifts and acquisitions alike, through the medium of money. Too often gambling takes a familiar form in analyses: as the sharp end of capitalism, or the benign, chance-led redistributor of wealth in egalitarian societies. The thesis builds an ethnographic understanding of gambling, and uses it to interrogate theories of gambling, money, and Melanesian anthropology. In so doing, the thesis speaks to a trend in Melanesian anthropology to debate whether monetisation and urbanisation has brought about a radical split in peoples' understandings of the world. Dealing with some of the most starkly ‘modern' material I find a process of inclusive indigenous materialism that consumes the old and the new alike, turning them into a model for action in a dynamic money-led world.

The goal of the thesis "The economic and social aspects of casinos and slot machines in the border areas" was to design an economically and socially beneficial policy towards gaming rooms and casinos in the area of the town Cheb. The work is divided into several parts. The first part deals with the experience of economic and social aspects of casinos and slot machines. In the practical part is described the situation of casinos, slot machines and gaming rooms in Cheb. Under the terms of economic factors of gambling was made the comparison of their incomes and expenditures, observations focused on tourism, the local multiplier calculation and proving the depending between unemployment and number of slot machines. In the section of social factors are characterized socio-pathological phenomena. In the last part there was suggested the policy for gambling in the town Cheb.