Gambling and Video Game Playing Among Youth

Abstract

Gambling and video game playing represent two leisure activities in which adolescents and young adults participate. There are psychological and behavioural parallels between some forms of gambling (e.g., slot machines, video lottery terminals, electronic gambling machines) and some types of video games (e.g., arcade games). Both activities operate on behavioural principles of variable reinforcement schedules in order to reward and prolong play and use exciting and stimulating sound and light effects within game play. Additionally, both activities have similar negative effects associated with excessive play (e.g., poor academic performance, moodiness, loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed, and interpersonal conflict). Thus, there is concern that children and adolescents who are attracted to video games, for both psychological rewards and the challenge, may be at greater risk to gamble. We examined the gambling and video game playing behaviour among 1,229 adolescents and young adults. Results indicate that gamblers, relative to non-gamblers, were more likely to play video games. Video game players were more likely than nonplayers to gamble. Both social and problem gamblers had higher rates of video game playing than did non-gamblers, and addicted gamers had higher rates of gambling than did social and non-gamers. Results from the current study suggest significant overlap in youth participation in both gambling activities and video game playing. These results have implications for future research and the treatment of problem gambling and video game addiction.

A Systematic Review of the Co-occurrence of Gaming Disorder and Other Potentially Addictive Behaviors

“…Their results suggested that 37.2% of their participants had experienced the co-occurrence of problematic work, 36.6% had experienced problematic eating behaviors (i.e., eating too little or too much), 14.1% had experienced problematic sex (i.e., excessive sexual behavior), and 12.3% had experienced problematic gambling. The latter finding was in line with a study by McBride et al [85], which reported that 11.4% of disordered gamers within in their sample experienced problem gambling, and which is consistent within the wider literature [100,101]. Finally, a study by Ivory et al [83] on US college students (n = 533) suggested that gaming was not significantly associated with nicotine or substance use.…”

“…More specifically, while gaming, between 23.3-74.2% of gamers consumed caffeine [82,86], 21.7-25.3% smoked cigarettes [82,86], 41.2-44.6% smoked cannabis [28,82], 21.3-40.4% consumed alcohol [82,86], and 14.5% consumed illicit substances [86]. In regard to problematic and disordered behavior, the findings suggested that problematic gambling [85], problematic shopping, problematic sex, and problematic work [84] were associated with disordered gaming, while disordered exercise was not related [29,83].…”

“…Of the six studies that assessed proxy measures of potentially addictive behaviors [42,[82][83][84][85][86][87] (Table 2), two studies [84,99] examined general adult populations (e.g., national surveys) using proxy indictors of problematic use, two [85,86] considered both adolescents and adults, while the latter two [82,87] examined adolescent populations (e.g., secondary school students). A total of five of six studies [82-84, 86, 87] using proxy measures investigated alcohol use and substance use, while four considered smoking cigarettes [82,84,86,87], and one investigated gambling [85]. The geographical locations also varied with papers based in the USA (n = 2) [83,87], Italy (n = 1) [82], Canada (n = 1) [84], the Czech Republic (n = 1) [86], and France (n = 1) [85].…”

“…A total of five of six studies [82-84, 86, 87] using proxy measures investigated alcohol use and substance use, while four considered smoking cigarettes [82,84,86,87], and one investigated gambling [85]. The geographical locations also varied with papers based in the USA (n = 2) [83,87], Italy (n = 1) [82], Canada (n = 1) [84], the Czech Republic (n = 1) [86], and France (n = 1) [85]. In regard to prevalence within the adolescent populations, two studies showed a positive correlation between the frequency of video game use and substance use, demonstrating a strong association [82,87].…”

Introduction of a new instrument to measure motivation for gaming: the electronic gaming motives questionnaire

“…Because there are many structural similarities between gambling, especially electronic gambling machines, and electronic gaming (e.g. the use of variable reinforcement schedules to reward and prolong play, sound and light effects) , and both activities have similar negative effects associated with excessive play (e.g. poor academic performance, moodiness, interpersonal conflicts) , there may be reasons to believe that the four types of motivations identified among gamblers are also relevant to gaming.…”