Hello all!

So, I just finished reading an article by Bronwyn Herbert. Allegedly, new research suggests that teens who play video games on a regular basis are at a higher risk to develop anti-social behaviors, which in turn may increase his or her chances of developing a problem with gambling, later on in life that is (Herbert, 2009).

This research was conducted at the University of Adelaide. Researchers there surveyed over two-and-a-half-thousand adolescents and found that 56% had gambled in the past year and 2% had developed a problem with gambling by the time they reached the age of 18 (Herbert, 2009).

Moreover, the researchers found this correlation between video game play and gambling to be significantly more profound among adolescents who played on consoles such as Xbox 360, and ones similar to that, and/or play arcade games. It was suggested that those adolescents who did not have a structured home life (e.g., did not partake in recreational sports such as playing an outdoor sport or being in an after school club) had a higher risk of choosing video games as their habitual game of choice. Researchers suggested that teens without structured activities (as aforementioned, after school activities) that allowed for social interaction, led adolescents to find other means to ’socially interact’. This included being involved in things such as playing an online video game, or going to the local arcade to feed the arcade games all his and her hard earned quarters (Herbert, 2009).

When research like this is published, you always have to wonder if the correlation is strong enough, in this case, between video game play and later pathological gambling. Also, it’s important to consider if the correlation is switched, say, does a predisposition to gambling (e.g., the individual has a greater likelihood of developing a gambling problem, possibly due to genetics or due to modeling- their parents did it, and so they learned they could do it), lead an individual to pursue video gaming, only to strengthen their need to gamble later on? I hope this is making sense…

Anyway, what do you think? Do you think that there is a correlation between video games leading to later gambling? Do you think the link may be between a predisposition to gambling, and it manifesting in gaming (i.e., Xbox 360, arcades) at first, you know to escape social interaction, only to be strengthened (e.g., they are reinforced by online friends and online prizes in the game, etc.) and then later pursued as gambling? Or could it be that video game play later leads to an interest in gambling, and then pathological gambling? Interesting to think about, but what’s your take on it?

More later,

-Anna DiNoto

*Note: The opinions are my own, Anna Dinoto’s, only. Thank you and I hope you enjoy and keep on reading as well as commenting- it is greatly appreciated !*

References:

Herbert, B. (2009). Study links video games with gambling. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from The World Today Web site: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2009/s2663222.htm