Critical Gambling Studies

US Gambling Stagnation

Thomas Lambert — 2023-01-17

Much has been written recently in the popular press about the rise of sports gambling, historical horse racing or instant racing (HHR), and esports. However, despite this, some note an overall decline in the popularity of gambling and gaming in general as horse racing (pari-mutuel) wagering has declined dramatically over the decades and as casino and lottery revenues have fallen slightly since before the Great Recession. This exploratory research note examines the trends in US gambling over the last several decades and explores whether the new forms of gambling will stem and reverse overall gambling stagnation in the United States. Despite reports of new gambling outlet successes, it appears that sports gambling, HHR, and esports have not done much to stop the overall fall in gambling revenues. This is probably due to stagnant disposable personal income growth.

Book Review: Harris, Bob. (2022). Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. 316 pp. ISBN: 9781009067348

Folarin Ajibade — 2023-03-31

Book Review: Harris, Bob. (2022). Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. 316 pp. ISBN: 9781009067348

Mapping the Conceptualization of Gender in Gambling Literature

Sylvia Kairouz — 2023-03-31

This scoping review aims to map the existing conceptualization of gender in peer-reviewed gambling scholarship to locate areas of future inquiry for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between gender and gambling. It follows Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) framework for scoping reviews, updated by Levac et al. (2010) and Daudt et al. (2013). We located the relevant literature published between 2000-2020 by searching through eight academic databases using Boolean operators and various key search terms, yielding 31,533 results. After a thorough screening based on inclusion/exclusion criteria and excluding duplicates, we located 2,532 journal publications that addressed gender and gambling. Among them, 53.4% used gender as a descriptive demographic variable, 44.3% explored the comparative analysis between men’s and women's gambling behaviors, preferences, and risks, and only 2.3% focused on gender from a socio-cultural perspective. When articles mentioned gender, we found that it was primarily considered a descriptive demographic variable and an indicator of comparative analysis between men and women. Furthermore, the few articles that discussed the socio-cultural aspects of gender were mainly limited to a binary construction of gender. This scoping review concluded that there is a scarcity of socio-cultural studies of gender in gambling scholarship, indicating the need to expand socio-cultural analysis in research on gender and gambling.

Trauma and Gambling

Eva Monson — 2023-03-31

Both gambling-related problems and trauma have long been associated with substantial costs for individuals, their families, and society. Existing reviews of research on the relationship between trauma and gambling have thus far been limited to quantitative work. A scoping review of published peer-reviewed qualitative research was conducted to synthesize existing research concerning the relationship between trauma and gambling. Relevant articles were identified through database searches in Ovid MEDLINE, APA PsycNET, PubMed, Scopus, PTSDpubs, and through hand sorting methods. English and French articles that comprised original qualitative research with results exploring the relationship between trauma and gambling were included. A total of 22 articles published between 2007 and 2022 were included in this review. Four major themes emerged during the narrative and thematic synthesis of the articles: (1) gambling as a consequence of trauma, (2) trauma as a consequence of gambling behavior, (3) cyclical relationship of trauma and gambling, and (4) healing from trauma and gambling-related harms. Future research would benefit from the use of qualitative methods in exploring the complex relationships between trauma and gambling.

Gambling Advertising and Incidental Marketing Exposure in Soccer Matchday Programmes

Steve Sharman — 2023-03-31

Gambling is marketed in English soccer across various formats such as TV advertising, social media, pitch side hoardings, and shirt sponsorship. There have been recent reductions in TV advertising brought about by self-regulation, but gambling shirt sponsorship remains frequent, and can lead to a high frequency of incidental marketing exposure on TV. Knowledge is lacking on how gambling advertising frequency and marketing exposure have changed over time in other media, such as in matchday programmes. This study addressed this gap via a content analysis of programmes for 44 teams across 3 periods spanning 18 months (N=132). The number of gambling adverts decreased from 2.3 to 1.3 per-programme, while incidental exposure prevalence stayed constant, at a higher rate of 42.7 incidences per-programme. Teams sponsored by gambling companies had more adverts per-programme than those sponsored by other industries (2.3 versus 1.2), and also had more incidental exposure (58.8 versus 20.2). Incidental exposure to gambling marketing was consistently more prevalent (42.7) per-programme than alcohol (3.2) or safer gambling messages (3.1). Furthermore, across all timepoints, 56.8% of dedicated children’s sections contained incidences of gambling marketing. Researchers and policymakers should consider that sports fans can get exposed to gambling marketing through a number of channels outside of TV advertising. Indirect and incidental exposure to gambling marketing remains high, which can be particularly challenging for those experiencing gambling related harm. All forms of gambling marketing must be considered when making legislative changes.

Welcome Inside The Casino Cottage

Åsa Kroon — 2023-03-31

Gambling advertising’s use of celebrities, humor, and representations of happy people who Win Big, in narratives told in brash colored, high-pitched ads, are argued to increase the risk for gambling problems, or worse, addiction. Online casino ads have been subject to particular legislative attention partly for these reasons, as well as for being increasingly targeted to women who, by some, are judged to be especially vulnerable to such marketing. This paper presents a context-attentive, multimodal discourse analysis of a Swedish online casino brand’s advertising videos from 2014-2022. The study illustrates how general statements regarding risk in relation to (online casino) gambling ads’ content dramatically reduces their potential cultural significance to audiences. It is argued that one should, to a greater extent, treat these adverts as complex and socio-culturally rooted texts whose content may not so easily be written off as simply “risky,” to women or otherwise.

“It Always Depends on the Context”

Adèle Morvannou — 2023-03-31

While it is well recognized that gambling behaviours are shaped by the contexts in which they occur, less research has investigated the relationship between poker and substance use (i.e., alcohol and other drugs). The current study explores poker players’ perceptions of the relationship between substance use and gambling. This qualitative descriptive study is a secondary data analysis of 25 interviews with poker players conducted as part of a broader prospective cohort project. From the thematic analysis, players described how specific contextual factors, such as social setting and location (e.g., bars, casinos) influenced their substance use. Poker players reported a relationship between substance use and gambling practices. However, players differed greatly in their decisions about whether, and how much, to use alcohol and other drugs, with individuals’ choices depending heavily on contexts (e.g., more inclined to partake when alcohol was available) and motivations (e.g., remaining sober to remain sharp and not impair their intellectual capacity). For those players who considered poker earnings to be their main source of income, increased use of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis were reported as a way of dealing with stress, anxiety and a lack of motivation related to their play.

Interpassive Gambling

Pauline Hoebanx — 2023-03-31

Slot machines are recognized as a particularly risky form of gambling. However, there is a form of slot machine consumption that seems to have largely escaped the notice of regulators and scholars: the streaming of slot machine play on YouTube and other platforms. In this article, we present the results of our qualitative study of 21 slot machine videos. Our study examines how these videos portray gambling and how they align with the norms of YouTube’s platform economy. Our analysis underscores the representation of slot machine gambling in this under-regulated media, emphasizing different tactics of viewer manipulation. We introduce the concept of interpassive gambling to reflect the ways that user-generated videos are a form of diffusion of gambling mechanics beyond traditional gambling venues. We conclude by calling for more scholarly and regulatory attention to this gamblified site of media consumption.

Editorial

Kate Bedford — 2023-03-31