Why Women Gamble

¶ … male and female gamblers. For example, unlike their male counterparts, more women gravitate to less competitive games where there is a larger element of luck such as bingo, casino slots or video poker machines. Gambling problems have long been explored by psychologists as impulse control disorders characterized by an inability to resist impulses to gamble. Yet, gender differences among gambling preferences indicate that areas other than psychology such as a sociological point-of-view would prove helpful in explaining the gambling habits of women.

This paper explores these social issues and describes implications for the need to incorporate social factors in the treatment of female gambling addicts. The findings indicate that women warrant both psychological and social considerations in their recovery process. Studies have shown that the majority of escape gamblers, seventy percent, are women. In contract, only ten percent of action gamblers are women. An escape gambler is primarily trying to avoid thoughts, feelings, pain, addiction, and trauma. In other words, they are seeking a safe haven from their real-world problems.

The action gambler is seeking the thrill of competition and an adrenaline rush. Several social factors may explain the escapist gaming habits of women according to research on female pathological gamblers. Women have a tendency to be overwhelmed by problems. For them, gambling serves to function as a safe haven to alleviate anxiety by the mental absorption required by some gambling games and provide the autonomy they are denied in their lives.

Common reasons for gambling problems in women that are related to escapism include: Minimizing feelings of loneliness Escaping mentally and emotionally from past or current traumas and unresolved grief Escaping physically from chronic pain or other health conditions Avoiding conflict or abuse at home Relieving stress or tension in other areas of her life The male problem gambler usually has an outgoing, talkative, and gregarious personality. He often seems self-assured and in control.

In sharp contrast, the female problem gambler is more often withdrawn, socially isolated, and suffering from extreme feelings of guilt, shame, and low self-worth. As a devastating consequence, women progress through the gambling continuum more rapidly than men. A man may gamble for years or decades before experiencing negative consequences directly related to gambling. But, a woman may have gambled for only a short time, perhaps just a few months and yet have already reached the desperation stage.

Further, studies have revealed that the characteristics of women gamblers are different because of their role in society. Researchers believe that women are not action gamblers because of cultural and historical factors. Culturally, women are socialized to believe that the pursuit of gratuitous action is inappropriate to their gender. And, women have historically undertaken mundane occupational and family roles. Therefore, less fateful experiences than gambling may suffice to break the monotony of everyday life.

As previously stated, women typically play different games than men, ones that are played alone and require little skill or knowledge such as bingo, slot machines, lotteries, scratch tickets, pull-tabs, and raffles. Existing research reveals that the diverse concrete settings of gambling games and the social functions which they fulfill, provide a powerful motivating mechanism for a variety of social groups." The bingo community meets the needs appropriate to a lower class females seeking leisure.

And, there is another group referred to as rent-a-spacers who gamble to gain access to the arcade venue to meet and socialize with their friends. Rent-a-spacers are mainly female teenagers who have little interest in machine playing skills, but instead seek to explore their gender role as a spectator within their peer group. To treat all gamblers as a homogenous group with the same underlying psychological impulse control disorders would do a great disservice to the effective treatment of women with gambling problems.

Clearly, women have different gambling habits including addictions to different types of activities and reasons for gambling participation. Their divergent behavior from males arise from a plethora of sociological issues including the need to seek a safe haven from the unique pain they encounter in society as well as their gender-specific roles in society and the way they prefer to interact in social settings. The sociological implications for the treatment of women are significant.

Most problem gamblers suffer from guilt and shame over the problems gambling creates, but women do so much more deeply. According to experts, women entering treatment are more likely to be subdued, withdrawn and frightened, and are more hesitant to talk about their gambling experience. Perhaps discussing gender-specific issues would go a long way in helping women to understand their unique circumstances so that they can better cope with their problem.

Certainly, there needs to be a balance of treatment that includes socio-economic and psychological considerations to foster a complete picture of challenges faced by women. Although sociological explanations are useful for understanding gender-specific motivation, generalization can be problematic because primary observations among individuals can be different. And, women's roles have changed over time, introducing the possibility for differences in gender among age.