Cognitive Distortions as a Major Risk Factor in Online Gambling

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Cognitive Distortions as a Major Risk Factor in
Online Gambling
Terri-Lynn MacKay Addictive Behaviours
Laboratory, University of Calgary tlmackay_at_ucalgar
y.ca
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Prevalence

• General
• Canada-1.5-3.1 (2007)
• US-4 (2006)
• UK-7.2 (2006), 8.8 (2007), 9.7 (2008), 10.6
  (2009).
• Among sub-populations
• Guest entering a US casino-36.5
• Undergraduate US-23
• Undergraduate UK-22

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Problem Gambling

• Internet gamblers are more likely to be problem
  gamblers (Griffiths Barnes, 2008 Griffiths,
  Parke, Wood Rigby, 2009 Griffiths, Wardle,
  Orford, Sproston Erens, 2009 Ladd Petry,
  2002 McBride Derevenski, 2008 Petry, 2006
  Petry Weinstock, 2007 Wood Williams, 2007,
  Wood Williams, 2009)
• Why?
• Characteristics of the Internet?
• People that gamble online possess a number of
  general risk factors for problem gambling?

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Why gamble online?

• Accessibility, convenience, event frequency,
  money value, and demonstration games (Griffiths).
• Primary reasons individuals reported for
  preferring online gaming over land-based gaming
  were because of the convenience, ease, comfort,
  accessibility and privacy (Wood, Williams,
  Lawton, 2007).
• Main reasons reported for gambling online were
  convenience, entertainment, comfort,
  accessibility, monetary incentive, anonymity and
  privacy (American Gaming Association, 2006)

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Risk factors for online gambling(empirical
findings)

• Being male and younger
• Scoring lower on general health measures (mental
  and physical)
• Drinking at least twice the recommended amount in
  one day

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Main Research Questions

• What makes online players more susceptible to
  problems?
• Do online gamblers initiate via the Internet or
  are they land-based gamblers?
• What factors contribute to problems among online
  gamblers?

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Sample, method, analysis

• 377 undergraduates (46 male)
• Completed online questionnaire
• 38.7 online gamblers
• Significant univariate analyzed
• via logistic regression
• Multiple regression analysis
• for problem gambling level
• among online gamblers

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Domain Risk Factor Instrument
Demographic Age (younger) CPGI
Demographic Gender CPGI
Demographic Ethnicity (Asian) Statistics Canada
Demographic Academic GPA
Problem Gambling Severity (higher) CPGI
Medium related Frequency (higher) CPGI
Medium related Expenditures (higher) CPGI
Medium related Age of onset CPGI
Medium related Early wins (yes) CPGI
Cognitive Distortions (higher) Gamblers Beliefs
Cognitive Erroneous beliefs (higher) Gambling Fallacies Scale
Concurrent Alcohol abuse AUDIT
Concurrent Drug use DAST
Concurrent Depression BDI
Concurrent Anxiety Leibowitz Anxiety Scale
Concurrent Impulsivity Barratt Impulsivity Scale
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Results

• Internet gamblers are primarily land-based
  gamblers who are also using an online medium.
• The most significant predictors of online
  gambling are the number of activities
  (particularly land-based) and cognitive
  distortions.
• Cognitive distortions predict severity above and
  beyond medium related variables.

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Results (for those who like stats..)

• The full model correctly classified 76 of
  gamblers (84 land-based, 63 online).
• Two variables made independent contributions
  number of gambling activities and cognitive
  distortions.
• Only 3 of online gamblers began by gambling on
  the Internet and 13 started both at the same
  age.
• When problem gambling severity was analyzed for
  Internet gamblers with a multiple regression
  analysis in blocks demographics (1) , play
  variables (2), cognitive distortions (3) the
  final model was significant.

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Next Steps

• Collaboration between the U of A Poker Research
  Group.
• Looking at skill vs. luck component of poker.
• Are online players really distorting?

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BURNING QUESTIONS?