Irrational Beliefs and Social Adaptation of Online Sports Gamblers According to Addiction Level: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in psychological characteristics (i.e., irrational beliefs) and social adaptation according to a participant’s level of addiction to online sports gambling (i.e., non-problem, low-risk, moderate-risk, and high-risk gamblers). A survey was completed by participants of online sports gambling, aged 19 years or older; 291 completed questionnaires were obtained and analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). As results of this study, according to the level of addiction to online sports gambling, there were significant differences on people’s mental state and social adaptation. Specifically, the more people are attached to a group that is exposed to high gambling addiction risk, the more they tend to become irrational while gambling, adopt an overconfident viewpoint, and overestimate their techniques. Moreover, as addiction to online sports gambling worsens, adaptation problems begin to appear in their work and family lives. This study demonstrated that people who are addicted to online sports gambling tend to find difficulties in thinking reasonably and logically and struggle to lead normal lives. By raising awareness on online sports gambling addiction, this study could suggest a way out of the difficulty.

Sports betting around the world: A systematic review

“…Overall, sports bettors tend to be young, impulsive, and engaged in sports betting, with those with problem and moderate-risk gambling being more likely to have greater levels of sports-betting involvement than those with non-problem and low-risk gambling ( Russell, Hing, & Browne, 2019 ). Other factors associated with sports-betting problems included stronger gambling urges, more erroneous cognitions, overconfidence, poorer self-control, and problematic use of alcohol ( Bum, Choi, & Lee, 2018 ; Russell, Hing, Li, & Vitartas, 2019 ). Comparably, for participants in sports lottery, level of sports-lottery consumption was associated with financial and social consequences and compulsive (disordered) gambling ( Li et al., 2012 ).…”