Problem Gambling ‘Fuelled on the Fly’

Joseph Teal, Petko Kusev, Renata Heilman, Rose Martin, Alessia Passanisi and Ugo Pace
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Joseph Teal: Behavioural Research Centre, Huddersfield Business School, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK
Petko Kusev: Behavioural Research Centre, Huddersfield Business School, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK
Renata Heilman: Department of Psychology, Babeş-Bolyai University, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Rose Martin: Department of People and Organisations, Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
Alessia Passanisi: Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, UKE—Kore University of Enna, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy
Ugo Pace: Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, UKE—Kore University of Enna, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-14

Abstract: Problem gambling is a gambling disorder often described as continued gambling in the face of increasing losses. In this article, we explored problem gambling behaviour and its psychological determinants. We considered the assumption of stability in risky preferences, anticipated by both normative and descriptive theories of decision making, as well as recent evidence that risk preferences are in fact ‘constructed on the fly’ during risk elicitation. Accordingly, we argue that problem gambling is a multifaceted disorder, which is ‘fueled on the fly’ by a wide range of contextual and non-contextual influences, including individual differences in personality traits, hormonal and emotional activations. We have proposed that the experience of gambling behaviour in itself is a dynamic experience of events in time series, where gamblers anchor on the most recent event—typically a small loss or rare win. This is a highly adaptive, but erroneous, decision-making mechanism, where anchoring on the most recent event alters the psychological representations of substantial and accumulated loss in the past to a representation of negligible loss. In other words, people feel better while they gamble. We conclude that problem gambling researchers and policy makers will need to employ multifaceted and holistic approaches to understand problem gambling.

Keywords: problem gambling; risky decision-making; anchoring on recent events; construction of preferences; dynamic experience of events in time series (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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