Most research on the causes of pathological gambling looks at gamblers, including their family histories, personality features, experiences with gambling, attitudes toward risk, motives to bet, and genetic characteristics. These studies can help us understand the unique risk factors for pathological gambling and improve our ability to identify and handle gambling issues.
Gaming Organizations and Technology Types
1-Nature and Structure
Numerous studies indicate that modern gambling technology and locations prey on people’s natural reactions to reward contingencies as well as their cognitive biases, perceptions of risk, and propensity to classify the mental records of their expenditures.
2-Deformities of the Mind
Gambling preferences and choices, as well as the kind of technology that can promote compulsive or chronic gambling, have been made more explicit by research on the cognitive processes involved in judgment and choice.
3-Game Design
The characteristics of game technologies appear to impact players’ preferences and behaviors. These are as follows:
- the number of wagers offered per time period
- the physical and informational environment of games
- the rules of the games
- the speed at which the games are played
- the probabilistic structure of the games
- the cost per wager
- the size of the jackpot
4-Game “Stimulus” Context
The physical and informational context in which games are presented is a game-related aspect that has not gotten much study attention. This environment comprises information disparities in advertisements and instructions, aesthetically distinct casino architecture, and what interface designers refer to as the “form factor” of games.