The Effects of the Presence of Others on Risky Betting in a Laboratory Gambling Task Among High-Risk Gamblers: A Cross-over Randomized Controlled Trial.

We explored the effects of the presence of and cooperation with others on risky betting in a laboratory-based gambling task among high-risk gamblers. Specifically, we compared risky betting under solo, parallel, and cooperation conditions using a stratified randomized, cross-over design. Stratification was conducted according to participant age and gender. The participants were 40 Japanese adults (20 women, 20 men; mean age = 46, SD = 12.80). In the experiment, each participant conducted the Game of Dice Task (GDT) individually (solo condition), in parallel with another participant (parallel condition), and working together with another participant (cooperation condition). Linear mixed modeling results showed that when we controlled for previously specified covariates, there were no significant differences among the solo, parallel, and cooperation conditions regarding risky betting (parallel: estimates = 0.10, SE = 0.79, p = .900; cooperation: estimates = 0.95, SE = 0.79, p = .232). However, post-hoc analysis showed a significant difference between the solo and cooperation conditions regarding the number of times participants chose the riskiest bet (parallel: estimates = 0.18, SE = 0.52, p = .739; cooperation: estimates = 1.13, SE = 0.53, p = .035). Thus, we found that neither the presence of nor cooperation with others decreased risky betting in the GDT among high-risk gamblers. However, we did observe that participants displayed the riskiest betting behavior (i.e., selecting the single choice) in the GDT during the cooperation condition, compared with the solo condition.

Gambling symptoms, behaviors, and cognitive distortions in Japanese university students.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between symptoms of gambling problems, gambling behaviours, and cognitive distortions among a university student population in Japan ages 20 to 29 years. We aimed to address the gap in knowledge of gambling disorders and treatment for this population. METHODS: Data were obtained from 1471 Japanese undergraduate students from 19 universities in Japan. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical multivariate regression analysis were used to investigate whether the factors of gambling cognitive distortions would have predictive effects on gambling disorder symptoms. RESULTS: Results indicated that 5.1% of the participants are classifiable as probable disordered gamblers. The bias of the gambling type to pachinko and pachislot was unique to gamblers in Japan. Of the students sampled, 342 self-reported gambling symptoms via the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Hierarchical multivariate regression analysis indicated that one domain of gambling cognitive distortions was associated significantly with gambling symptoms among the 342 symptomatic participants: gambling expectancy (ß = 0.19, p < .05). The multivariate model explained 47% of the variance in the gambling symptoms. CONCLUSION: This study successfully contributed to the sparse research on university student gambling in Japan. Specifically, our results indicated a statistically significant relationship between gambling cognitive distortions and gambling disorder symptoms. These results can inform the development of preventive education and treatment for university students with gambling disorder in Japan. The report also describes needs for future research of university students with gambling disorder.