‘How Much Do You Spend Gambling?’: Ambiguities in Questionnaire Items Assessing Expenditure

Alex Blaszczynski, Robert Ladouceur, Annie Goulet and Cathy Savard

International Gambling Studies, 2006, vol. 6, issue 2, 123-128

Abstract: Expenditure is a dependent variable frequently used in gambling research to index involvement and intensity. However, as a previous study found, self-reported expenditure estimates are ambiguous and imprecise. This paper attempts to (a) replicate the original study, and (b) investigate if specific instructions on methods used to calculate expenditure lead to differences in reported estimates in response to the question, ‘How much money do you spend gambling?’ A total of 637 participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group 1 with no instructions; Groups 2 and 3 with instructions on calculating net and turnover. Results revealed that when heuristics were not specified, half the sample used net expenditure and the remainder used turnover. When heuristics were clearly specified, 30% failed to comply with instructions in calculating estimates. Results undermine the validity of reported gambling expenditure data and support the need for clear instructions on methods used to calculate expenditure.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14459790600927738 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:intgms:v:6:y:2006:i:2:p:123-128

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RIGS20

DOI: 10.1080/14459790600927738

Access Statistics for this article

International Gambling Studies is currently edited by Katie Donnelly, David Marshall, Bronwyn Stuart, Alex Blaszczynski and Jan McMillen

More articles in International Gambling Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().