Vietnamese Australian Gamblers’ Views on Luck and Winning: Universal Versus Culture-specific Schemas

Abstract

This article examines Vietnamese Australian gamblers’ views on luck and winning to explore their subjective perspectives. Illusion of control beliefs have been identified as a predictor of gambling frequency and a risk factor for problem gambling. Culture-specific beliefs regarding luck and winning may further strengthen universal illusion of control beliefs. Twenty-one Vietnamese-Australian gamblers were interviewed with regard to their subjective views of luck and winning at gambling. It was hypothesized that regular gamblers would hold substantial illusion of control beliefs, that culture-specific schemas would be present in their beliefs about gambling outcomes, and that universal schemas commonly found in gamblers from other cultural backgrounds would also be present. The results indicated that Vietnamese Australian gamblers held both universal illusion of control beliefs and some culture-specific beliefs. The implications of culture-specific schemas in reinforcing illusion of control beliefs are discussed.

Views on luck and winning, self-control, and gaming service expectations of culturally and linguistically diverse Australian poker machine gamblers

“…They play until their money runs out or their friends decide to move. This subtype of social gamblers ("Followers" according to Ohtsuka & Ohtsuka, 2010) do not believe that skill matters in playing pokies. If they win, they are lucky; conversely, if they don't win, it was not their lucky day.…”

“…Gambler's fallacy often represents a metaphor of hope for working class gamblers. Gamblers believe that tough life and a spell of bad luck will eventually be compensated with a spell of good luck and fortune in the future (Ohtsuka & Ohtsuka, 2010).…”

“…Our previous research mainly focused on gamblers who participated in casino table games (Ohtsuka & Ohtsuka, 2010). In this article, we have extended our research by interviewing recreational electronic gaming machine gamblers who frequent suburban gambling venues such as bars, hotels 3 and social clubs.…”

“…Among theories concerning culture and gambling cognition and behaviour, there is a range of positions that uniquely emphasises the role of culture. Some researchers subscribe to the view that cultural influence on gambling behaviour is the most important component in the construction of the meaning of gambling (Papineau, 2005), whereas others identify culture as a substantial component that add to the universal mechanism of forming behaviour (Ohtsuka & Ohtsuka, 2010).…”

“…Gambling research literature suggests that culture influences gambling behaviour (e.g., Raylu & Oei, 2004) and that gamblers use different explanatory frameworks or schemas (e.g., Ohtsuka & Ohtsuka, 2010). Further, culture and gambling has attracted researchers' attention in recent years partially due to the globalisation of the commercial gaming industry.…”