Myth of Problem Gambling in America - Preface to my study - Page 3

458 Lott · #21 04-23-2007, 01:33 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Actually, I like being a sinner. Maybe that is why gambling has always been there for me. I like women capable of wild sex and fast cars and big firearms and all the drama that goes with it. Sometimes it's an adventure just to get broke.

[/ QUOTE ]
Wow, you sound like a winner.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL Actually, I hate to be broke, and have been married to the same wild woman for 22 years and the fast car sits in the garage. But it sounded good.

HSB · #22 04-23-2007, 02:05 PM

"Problem gambling is a greater population problem percentage wise than problem drug use in most countries where there is comparable data."

If it's at 2% then it's not a societal problem.

Rottersod · #23 04-23-2007, 02:29 PM

[ QUOTE ]
"Problem gambling is a greater population problem percentage wise than problem drug use in most countries where there is comparable data."

If it's at 2% then it's not a societal problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

According to his data it's at 6.1%.

CardSharpCook · #24 04-23-2007, 02:53 PM

you can't just tack on the 4% to the 2%. "problems with their gambling" could mean:

a) my girlfriend doesn't like my job as a Pro Player
b) I'm a cook and I just blew $1000 on the Wizards-Cavs last night. That was stupid. Now I can't do anything for the next two weeks.
c) My wife is upset that I come home smelling like beer and cigars every wednesday when I come home from the weekly $20 poker night.
d) As a college student, I spent 25 hours last week playing poker - $5 SNGs, I made $78 last week. Ironically, I got a 78 on my Sociology exam.

I think all of these would qualify as "a person experiences problems with their gambling but does not fulfill the conditions for a diagnosis of the psychiatric condition called pathological gambling"

However, 2% is a pretty big portion of the population to be "pathological gamblers," and probably should count as a "societal problem." I'd love to see comparable numbers for Alcoholics, Addicts, Shopoholics, Nymphos, etc. I'd also be curious to see a Venn Diagram to see how much these categories overlap - if it is just 4% of the country who are prone to "oholicism."

HSB · #25 04-23-2007, 03:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"Problem gambling is a greater population problem percentage wise than problem drug use in most countries where there is comparable data."

If it's at 2% then it's not a societal problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

According to his data it's at 6.1%.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not clear to me what that other 4% is. If it's people who at one time in their lives gambled a little too much, suffered some negative consequences, and didn't make a habit of it then I don't think those people count as part of a societal problem.

HSB · #26 04-23-2007, 03:06 PM

And quite frankly, I'm not sure that 4% of "problem but not the worst kind of problem" gamblers qualifies as a societal problem even taken on top of the other two percent.

Paul Levy · #27 04-23-2007, 03:14 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know what your study is for, I'm assuming you're either a 1st year college student or in high school because what you wrote is so utterly devoid of any informed research.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. A very good non-technical book on the subject is "Easy money - Inside the gambler's mind", written by the late David Spanier, who was a passionate poker player, friend of Tony Holden ("Big Deal") and Al Alvarez ("The biggest game in town").

Gelford · #28 04-23-2007, 03:49 PM

OP ... if you are interested in this subject, then the place to start is

Becker & Murphy - A Theory of Rational Addiction
Journal of Political Economy, vol 96, no 4, aug 1988

There been several critics of their approach, most notably Akerloft

Also been conducted several empiral tests of their theory based on different addictive substances, from the top of my head Patricia Mobilia comes to mind for looking solely at gambling.

But I guess this is not what you where looking for [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

BarryLyndon · #29 04-23-2007, 04:04 PM

OP signed up on 2+2 in an attempt to be clever. He wrote a critique that uses a one-sided argument to criticize one-sidedness. He then edited the article for spelling and grammatical errors. OP was next found playing .25/.50NL, where the 4 buy-ins he won a week before was lost on bad beats and a failed semi-bluff with the K high flush draw.

Somewhere 204 miles away from OP, a conservative policitian is getting a blow job in his hotel room while his 23 year old Yale Grad speech writer is drafting something up about how gambling is bad. And some gambler is not receiving a blow job at the moment, but is tipping a cocktail waitress large in the hope for one.

Riina · #30 04-23-2007, 04:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
OP signed up on 2+2 in an attempt to be clever. He wrote a critique that uses a one-sided argument to criticize one-sidedness. He then edited the article for spelling and grammatical errors. OP was next found playing .25/.50NL, where the 4 buy-ins he won a week before was lost on bad beats and a failed semi-bluff with the K high flush draw.

Somewhere 204 miles away from OP, a conservative policitian is getting a blow job in his hotel room while his 23 year old Yale Grad speech writer is drafting something up about how gambling is bad. And some gambler is not receiving a blow job at the moment, but is tipping a cocktail waitress large in the hope for one.

[/ QUOTE ]

great stuff...depressing, but great stuff.