Gender differences in gambling-related beliefs: The role of types of gamblin

Historically, gambling has been considered a male activity. However, in recent years, the increase and accessibility of gambling venues has led to an increase in female gamblers. To date, the "feminization" of gambling has not been reflected in the gambling literature therefore this study's aim was to contribute to this area of research in order to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of the female problem gambler. The purpose of this study was to explore whether there are gender differences in gambling-related beliefs among types gambling. Archival data collected at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health was used for this study. In the original study, a sample of two hundred and forty (240) subjects who were experiencing gambling problems was recruited from the Greater Toronto Area. Subjects were administered a battery of psychometric tests including the Gambler's Belief Questionnaire (GBQ), Gambling Attitudes and Belief Survey (GABS), Gambling Cognition Questionnaire (GCQ), Magical Ideation Scale (MIS), Irrational Belief Scale (IBS), and Belief in Personal Control Scale (BPCS) and a brief demographic questionnaire. Three approaches to classifying gambling types were evaluated: (a) six gambling types (bingo, lotteries, cards, track, sports, and slot machines, (b) perception of skill (skilled versus non-skill games), (c) perceived randomness (non-random, random, casino). The results revealed that there were some unique gender differences in gambling-related beliefs among individuals who have problems with gambling. More specifically, the outcome of this study revealed that female problem gamblers expressed higher scores on the IBS indicating a tendency to express dysfunctional beliefs about oneself, others, relationships, and the world, for all gambling activities except for lotteries. For the lottery problem gamblers, men showed higher IBS scores. For perception of skill, results showed little difference between genders for the non-skill games on the IBS. However, the skilled female problems gamblers had much higher IBS scores than did skilled males problem gamblers suggesting that this sub-sample of female problem gamblers tended to have more extreme dysfunctional beliefs about the self, others and relationships. Similarly, women who reported difficulty with skill games had higher scores on the GABS than did men. A reverse pattern was observed on the non-skill games with the men who reported difficulty with these games showing higher scores on the GABS. Results from the perceived randomness classification revealed little difference between genders for casino games (i.e., slot machines, card games) on the IBS. However, for the non-random (i.e. sports, track) and random games (i.e. bingo, lotteries), the female non-random gamblers had much higher IBS scores than did men non-random gamblers. These results suggest that female non-random gamblers have more extreme dysfunctional beliefs about the self, others and relationships when compare to male non-random gamblers. Similarly, the male gamblers who preferred random games tended to have higher IBS scores than the females who preferred random games. On the GABS, results showed that female non-random gamblers tended to score more severe than did the male non-random gamblers therefore suggesting that female non-random gamblers believe gambling to be exciting, socially meaningful and strategies (even illusory one), as well as luck, are important. Likewise, the male random gamblers tended to score more severe on the GABS than did the female non-random gamblers. Lastly, females non-random gamblers tended to endorse stronger beliefs regarding illusion of control and luck than did male-random gamblers.