Attitudes, beliefs and impulsivity in online gambling addiction

Abstract

Gambling research often refers to attitude and belief measurements to distinguish between problem and non-problem gamblers. Past studies also indicated that problem gamblers have a tendency to steeply discount rewards. We join both research streams and investigate the relationships between attitudes and beliefs on gambling addiction with the moderating effects of delay discounting using a novel methodological approach of double-hurdle model. We hereby differentiate the five subdimensions of the Gambling Attitude and Belief Scale (GABS): emotions, chasing, luck, attitudes and strategies. Findings show that emotional predispositions and chasing tendencies are positively related to the severity of online gambling addiction, independent of gamblers´ impulsivity. In contrast hereto, gambling attitudes act as inhibitor for gamblers willing to wait for some time to receive higher reward. Findings show that money-related impulsiveness influences the relationship between sub-dimensions of GABS and gambling addiction: Gambling attitudes and beliefs do not necessarily harm online gamblers but that their positive or negative relationship to addiction depends on online gamblers’ impulsivity.