Gambling motivations and superstitious beliefs: a cross-cultural study with casino customers

The expansion of legalized commercial gaming in Macau has motivated stakeholders to explore opportunities in other Asian countries. However, there is a lack of research focusing on casino customers in these markets. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore gambling superstitious beliefs and motivations of those visiting a casino in South Korea, and how these factors are different across four ethnic groups. The researchers surveyed 323 casino customers in the lounge area on the casino floor, including Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans living abroad. This study found American gamblers could be characterized as more superstitious than Japanese gamblers, while the Chinese and American gamblers exhibited many similarities regarding the pattern of superstitious beliefs that they were most likely to endorse. The findings also suggest the culture and the area around the casino might be more important to Chinese, while novelty to Japanese and winning money to Korean gamblers are seen as most important. This study contributes to gambling literature by examining gamblers’ beliefs and motives in a different setting with more diverse populations than those in previous studies. The findings of this study will help casino operators properly develop and adjust strategies to thrive in the Asian marketplace.     

Measuring the Prevalence of Sector-Specific Problem Gambling: A Study of Casino Patrons

This study is the first attempt to measure the prevalence of problem gambling attributable to a specific sector of the gambling industry. One thousand, one hundred and five casino patrons in 40 casinos in the UK were interviewed, face-to-face. Respondents were screened for problem gambling using a multiple response version of DSM-IV (DSM-IV-MR). The study found support for Eadington's (1988) hypothesis, that UK casinos could be largely sustained by regular players, among whom the prevalence of problem gambling is high. The study also found support for the hypothesis that, to the extent different gambling sectors are patronised by demographically different client groups, so the problem gamblers associated with them will reflect these client groups. The problem gamblers among the regular casino patrons were demographically distinct from the problem gamblers in the sample who showed a preference for other gambling forms. Other key findings support those found in other jurisdictions. Sector-specific prevalence studies may be the next step forward in epidemiological research on problem gambling. They have the major advantage of netting significantly more problem gamblers from much smaller samples than similar studies in the general population. They also have the potential to reveal the proportion of problem gamblers attributable to each sector, along with their demographic characteristics. Such information would result in more specific information being available for regulators seeking to minimise the social impact of problem gambling and those involved in the development of prevention and treatment strategies.     

Paradoxes of risk management: Social responsibility and self-exclusion in Dutch casinos

This article deals with the basic contradictions of risk management and responsibility regarding problem gambling and self-exclusions, and draws special attention to the role knowledge production and science play in the construction and evaluation of gambling risks. This remarkable case of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is analyzed from a risk-governance perspective. It is grounded on a case study of the CSR practice of the Dutch casino monopoly, in particular the problem gambling mitigation and self-exclusion program of this corporation. The intentions and operations of this ‘responsible gambling’ practice constitute new business values and working norms. At the same time empirical evaluations of the self-exclusion program reveal that despite all the efforts put in the risk-management strategies, a significant part of the problem cannot be addressed at all. This points toward a major paradox of risk management. Overall the article highlights the ambiguous nature of risk management and responsible gambling.     

Beyond goffman: Some notes on life and theatre as art

This paper discusses two events: a scene from a performance of ‘Waiting for Godot’ and an incident from a team development meeting for a group of senior managers. The focus is upon the nature of the experiences of the respective audiences not upon the instrumental value of the performances. Drawing upon the work of Heidegger and Shklovsky in particular, the author comments, compares and contrasts the two events. Particular emphasis is given to the notion of art as an “unconcealment” and upon the notions of imaginative and present truth.     

房卡类网络棋牌游戏刑事责任及边界

棋牌文化属于民俗文化,源远流长。移动互联网的深度应用创新了传统棋牌游戏,促使棋牌游戏网络化。早期的网络棋牌游戏通常只能实现陌生玩家随机匹配的功能,随着移动互联网和通讯群组的发展,熟人线上组局进行棋牌游戏也成为可能。近年来,基于用户需求而开发的房卡类网络棋牌游戏上线并在短时间内呈现燎原般发展势头。与此同时,房卡模式涉赌案件进入司法机关视野,且具有多发、频发势头。为培育社会主义核心价值观和治理网络犯罪,亟须对房卡类网络棋牌游戏进行刑法学评价,剖析其涉赌模式及其他刑事责任风险。根据犯罪构成理论,需要区分“真房卡”模式和“伪房卡”模式。对前者应坚持以出罪为原则,以入罪为例外,对后者应入罪化,且罪名宜为开设赌场罪。     

American Indian Poverty in the Contemporary United States

Little sociological attention over the last two decades has focused on the deprivation experienced by indigenous people. Fusing insights from American Indian history and the race and labor market inequality literatures, we address this gap in this article through a historically informed labor market analysis of poverty—an analysis that considers the pervasiveness of contemporary Native poverty, its potential basis in labor market opportunities, and the extent to which it has been patterned by two major demographic and economic shifts: (1) the rapid urbanization of the American Indian population and (2) the proliferation of tribally owned casinos. Findings reveal, most notably, the incredibly rigid and durable character of poverty for this population, historically and currently and across geographic space, and with little overall impact of local labor market opportunity. The presence of tribal casinos reduces such poverty, but only to a small degree and not nearly enough to compensate for sizable American Indian and white poverty differentials. Group history is key, we conclude, to shaping how space, labor markets, and economic development reduce or buttress relations of inequality.