Does playing video games influence the way people think about gambling?
Does playing video games influence the way people think about gambling?
Does playing video games influence the way people think about gambling?
By Ana Klock
February 15, 2021
Summary
Video game-related gambling is often associated with esports, for example sportsbook-style betting on the outcome of matches and tournaments.
Contemporary digital games often include chance-based mechanics which have led to concerns about the promotion of gambling and gambling-like behaviours.
Truly novel forms of gambling have also emerged from the video game community, ones such as crash betting which have no analogues in established forms.
Researchers have theorised that the combination of skill-based video gaming and chance-based gambling may result in cognitions which differ from those endorsed by non-gaming gamblers.
The role of skill development in video game play may serve to reduce superstitious beliefs, such as the influence of a "Lucky" colour, or routine.
"GamCog: Adapting the Gambling Related Cognitions Scale for video game-related gambling" aimed to examine the suitability of an extant measure for use with those video gamers who gamble.
"Gamblification" is a rapidly emerging form of media convergence between the more chance-based activity of gambling and the more skill-based activity of gaming, for example in the competitive video gaming known as esports.
The marriage of video gaming and gambling has been theorized as bringing about new forms of gambling-related cognitive processes in individuals and affecting the ways in which they approach and evaluate gambling situations.
The study implies that the most significant cognitive differences between video game players and the wider population are the ways in which concepts of skill and luck are perceived, potentially due to the sense of personal agency engendered by video games. Macey, J., & Hamari, J. Investigating relationships between video gaming, spectating esports, and gambling.
Reference
Klock, A. (2020, February 15). Does playing video games influence the way people think about gambling? Retrieved June 21, 2021, from https://webpages.tuni.fi/gamification/2021/02/22/games-and-gambling/