To gamble or not to gamble? The role of gender, sociality, and attitudes toward risk

Gambling has become a leading leisure activity in many developed and emerging countries, and its popularity continues to increase. Although research on gambling is extensive, several gaps remain, in particular as regards the identification of the exogenous and endogenous factors that explain why some individuals develop a propensity to gamble. In this exploratory study, we seek to integrate the sociopsychological analysis of gambling behavior with the economic one. In particular, on the basis of a questionnaire administered to 855 young adults, university students, we construct a variable measuring the individual’s attitudes toward risk, or, more precisely, the amount at stake at which preference for certainty prevails. We can thus integrate the analysis of the determinants of gambling with an element deriving from the economic analysis of behavior under uncertainty.