No abstract

The consumption of alcohol appeared to eliminate the strong associations found in placebo group between individual difference measures and persistence. The analogue game was accepted by participants as a valid form of gambling. The result showed that relatively small quantities of alcohol have a significant effect on the psychological processes that underpin self-control over gambling. This finding challenges the conceptual research paradigm of studying co-morbidity or dual-addicted clinical populations as the most appropriate method of understanding how two addictive behaviours interact.

Persistent gambling was studied as a function of the reinforcement of arousal and winning during normal poker machine playing sessions. Play rate, heart rate, winnings, subjective excitement and expectations of winning were recorded for five male and five female high-frequency players. Autoregressive regression analysis indicated that wins affect play rate for up to three minutes, while effects of the other variables were inconsistent. Markov chain analysis confirmed that wins smaller than 50 credits tend to elevate play rate, while larger wins cause a breakdown in the otherwise very regular rate of play. Results are discussed in relation to the development of impaired control of gambling behaviour.