Social Worlds of Gambling

Gambling in the United States can be divided into five basic types--- horse race gambling, sports betting, poker playing, casino gaming, and lottery ticket purchasing.

Almost all gamblers specialize in one of these five types.

Contrary to the common perception that gamblers will bet on anything, most concentrate their efforts in one specific area.

Although they may experiment with a variety of of games, once gamblers find a game they favor they tend to stick with it.

The comment of a longtime gambler reflects the game loyalty that characterizes gambling behavior.

Several demographic studies of gambling participation lend empirical support to the contention that gamblers typically specialize in one gaming activity and that the various games are not interchangeable.

The major gambling games have all fostered the development of activity-related social worlds.

Within these worlds, gambling holds center-stage; more accurately it is the stage. Relationships that develop in these contexts provide the participants with important sources of social interaction.

Gamblers can be divided into two broad categories--- occasionals and regulars.

Although these categories are based to some extent on frequency of participation, they are essentially self-designated groupings.

Regulars would agree that their lives have been changed and influenced by their gambling; occasionals would not.

Obviously, within the two categories, there are various stages and levels; these general terms can nonetheless be useful.

The categories are fluid, and movement between them is possible. Advancing from an occasional to a regular is the most common move.

Occasionals are basically recreational players who don't form significant relationships with other gamblers; regulars are serious players who often develop significant relationships with other participants.

In the move from occasional to regular, the social rewards derived from gambling relationships become an important part of continued participation.

The concept of social worlds has been advanced by social psychologists to identify those groupings of individuals compelled altogether by such medium of communication or macrocosm of dissertation, and who are in this belief of the sharing the same real-time viewpoints.

According to this concept, mass society breaks down into individual units or worlds as people who define who they are, and what they do.

Anselm Strauss, a leading proponent of the concept, contends that all social worlds are organized around a specific activity and recognizes countless worlds--- those of opera, baseball, literature, surfing, stamp collecting, medicine, law, science, and Catholicism.

In any case, on the basis of researchers' observations of other gambling locales and on a review of pertinent literature, the social worlds developed around gambling at such places appear to be typical of those found in other areas.