ATTRIBUTIONS AND THE ORIGINS OF PROBLEM GAMBLING

There is a growing concern with identifying the behavioral components of problem gambling. Using clinical data, advocates of a compulsion model indicate that a big win stimulates an unrealistic optimism that eventually leads to destructive gambling. However, drawing upon ethnographic data from a natural gambling group, I demonstrate that a bad beat (a significant monetary loss resulting from a seemingly inexplicable turn of events) often is the catalyst for the development of problem gambling. The attempt to cope with bad beats can disorient perceptions and lead to a continuing pattern of financial loss. Attribution theory provides a useful framework for understanding this process.