Development of the Drake Beliefs about Chance Inventory

The present research describes the development and validation of a cognitive assessment instrument, the Drake Beliefs about Chance (DBC) inventory, designed to determine and quantify erroneous beliefs about games of chance. Principal components analyses showed that the DBC assesses two primary dimensions, Illusion of Control and Superstition. Correlation analyses showed that scores on these two dimensions are related to higher frequency of gambling behaviors in both adults from the general population and clients from gambling treatment centers. Of the two sets of erroneous beliefs, Illusion of Control was a better predictor of gambling than Superstition. This investigation provides additional evidence that participants in games of chance such as casino gamblers possess certain classes of erroneous beliefs regarding the games they play.