Ethnographic Research of Online Gambling
Introduction
Gambling is an activity that has been practiced for centuries. Whether it be a personal bet between two individuals or a more organized structured game in an establishment, there is something about human personality that causes many people to get involved in this risk taking practice. While gambling has always traditionally been practiced in person for many years, today we are seeing a whole new virtual world of gambling. Online gambling has been continuing to gain popularity ever since the creation of the internet which gave gamblers a new platform to play. With this new platform, however, there seems to be a much different personality within the gamers of online gambling sites compared to those who go to a physical location to a casino to gamble. These websites are showing that they provide a much bigger community environment for gamblers to interact with each other whereas physical location casinos tend to be much more isolating for players. This striking contrast in social environment between online and in person gambling offers a compelling investigation into why this difference exists.
The goal of this paper will be to find out why there is a better sense of community in the virtual world of gambling and hypothesize ways in which this can be transferred to physical casinos. By examining the online gambling site Vegas World as well as the psychology behind gambling in general, we will receive a better understanding of why people enjoy gambling in an online space. Furthermore, we will be able to see just what the future of gambling might become and how location casinos can benefit from what is going on in the virtual world of online gambling.
Gambling is an activity that has been practiced for centuries. Whether it be a personal bet between two individuals or a more organized structured game in an establishment, there is something about human personality that causes many people to get involved in this risk taking practice. While gambling has always traditionally been practiced in person for many years, today we are seeing a whole new virtual world of gambling. Online gambling has been continuing to gain popularity ever since the creation of the internet which gave gamblers a new platform to play. With this new platform, however, there seems to be a much different personality within the gamers of online gambling sites compared to those who go to a physical location to a casino to gamble. These websites are showing that they provide a much bigger community environment for gamblers to interact with each other whereas physical location casinos tend to be much more isolating for players. This striking contrast in social environment between online and in person gambling offers a compelling investigation into why this difference exists.
The goal of this paper will be to find out why there is a better sense of community in the virtual world of gambling and hypothesize ways in which this can be transferred to physical casinos. By examining the online gambling site Vegas World as well as the psychology behind gambling in general, we will receive a better understanding of why people enjoy gambling in an online space. Furthermore, we will be able to see just what the future of gambling might become and how location casinos can benefit from what is going on in the virtual world of online gambling.
Personality
Looking deeper into the personality of online gamblers we can get a better understanding of why playing these games online is so popular for many people. The act of gambling, in general, has for a long time carried a negative stigma. For people who may feel ashamed for being seen gambling in public could be using online gambling websites to gamble more comfortably. Having the anonymity of the internet allows people to be themselves in a virtual setting while masking their real life identities. This can also be beneficial for when the player loses a game as other players are not able to see the actual face of someone who has just lost. By being in an environment that allows players to feel more comfortable, these players, in turn, will feel more optimistic about playing longer and with larger bets (Griffiths 2015). Excitement seeking is generally what all gamblers are seeking when they play and the comfortability that online users experience could help feed what they are looking for while online. But beyond excitement seeking, sensation seeking, in general, may be the biggest cause for people to gamble.
A study conducted at the University of Paris Descartes, Institute of Psychology sent out a questionnaire to online poker players and received 180 replies. From the results of the questionnaire, they were able to see that sensation seeking was the biggest cause for the participant’s interest in playing poker (Burralt & Varescon 2013). But while these results certainly speak for poker players, does it correlate to other games found at casinos as well? Professor of Gambling Studies at Nottingham Trent University, Mark Griffiths, believes that the personality trait called locus of control could be a more plausible motivation for gamblers. Locus of control is a personality trait that is described as a person’s perception that their own actions affect events. This is to say that if a gambler tries harder to win the game they are playing then they will have better odds (Griffiths 2012). Taking in these different psychological factors and examining them against a current online gambling website, we can get a better understanding of whether or not these traits are active among online gamblers.
Looking deeper into the personality of online gamblers we can get a better understanding of why playing these games online is so popular for many people. The act of gambling, in general, has for a long time carried a negative stigma. For people who may feel ashamed for being seen gambling in public could be using online gambling websites to gamble more comfortably. Having the anonymity of the internet allows people to be themselves in a virtual setting while masking their real life identities. This can also be beneficial for when the player loses a game as other players are not able to see the actual face of someone who has just lost. By being in an environment that allows players to feel more comfortable, these players, in turn, will feel more optimistic about playing longer and with larger bets (Griffiths 2015). Excitement seeking is generally what all gamblers are seeking when they play and the comfortability that online users experience could help feed what they are looking for while online. But beyond excitement seeking, sensation seeking, in general, may be the biggest cause for people to gamble.
A study conducted at the University of Paris Descartes, Institute of Psychology sent out a questionnaire to online poker players and received 180 replies. From the results of the questionnaire, they were able to see that sensation seeking was the biggest cause for the participant’s interest in playing poker (Burralt & Varescon 2013). But while these results certainly speak for poker players, does it correlate to other games found at casinos as well? Professor of Gambling Studies at Nottingham Trent University, Mark Griffiths, believes that the personality trait called locus of control could be a more plausible motivation for gamblers. Locus of control is a personality trait that is described as a person’s perception that their own actions affect events. This is to say that if a gambler tries harder to win the game they are playing then they will have better odds (Griffiths 2012). Taking in these different psychological factors and examining them against a current online gambling website, we can get a better understanding of whether or not these traits are active among online gamblers.
Vegas World
One online gaming website that has a large community aspect attached with it is called Vegas World based out of Seattle, Washington. What this website offers is a variety of casino games as well as character customization for your online avatar. With this character customization, users can choose from different body features, clothes and living environments for their characters to live. They also allow for different users to interact with one another through the avatars they create. Users can interact together in each other’s rooms or common gathering places like a pool or nightclub. The avatars can talk, dance, and even give gifts with each other making the online environment of Vegas World a very sociable place.
A big aspect of Vegas World that helps fuel the social atmosphere that it has created is through their profitable icons called charms. These charms allow for users to gain more coins from their winnings when they play the casino games. There are different payouts for different charms which allow for a variety of charms at multiple price points. With these charms, a popular activity amongst users of Vegas World is to throw charm parties. These parties consist of different users gathering together in one room and having everyone buy one charm for everyone in the room. This results in users gathering multiple charms from other users at the price of only one charm. These parties really reflect the community aspect of Vegas World with all these users coming together to help everyone gain an advantage while gambling. Co-creator of Vegas World, Doug Pearson, notes that with their website, the community is key. A lot of people that come to Vegas World are those with not a lot of social contact and their website provides them with a community they may be lacking outside of online gambling (Pearson 2017).
One online gaming website that has a large community aspect attached with it is called Vegas World based out of Seattle, Washington. What this website offers is a variety of casino games as well as character customization for your online avatar. With this character customization, users can choose from different body features, clothes and living environments for their characters to live. They also allow for different users to interact with one another through the avatars they create. Users can interact together in each other’s rooms or common gathering places like a pool or nightclub. The avatars can talk, dance, and even give gifts with each other making the online environment of Vegas World a very sociable place.
A big aspect of Vegas World that helps fuel the social atmosphere that it has created is through their profitable icons called charms. These charms allow for users to gain more coins from their winnings when they play the casino games. There are different payouts for different charms which allow for a variety of charms at multiple price points. With these charms, a popular activity amongst users of Vegas World is to throw charm parties. These parties consist of different users gathering together in one room and having everyone buy one charm for everyone in the room. This results in users gathering multiple charms from other users at the price of only one charm. These parties really reflect the community aspect of Vegas World with all these users coming together to help everyone gain an advantage while gambling. Co-creator of Vegas World, Doug Pearson, notes that with their website, the community is key. A lot of people that come to Vegas World are those with not a lot of social contact and their website provides them with a community they may be lacking outside of online gambling (Pearson 2017).
With this community in Vegas World, it is logical to find connections between the psychological aspect of gambling and why Vegas World is so popular. The avatars that you can create allows you to emulate yourself while being in this online environment while keeping your anonymity. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable with gambling at a casino in person because of the negative stigma surround gambling, they can go to Vegas World to feel more comfortable. This, in turn, causes the user visiting Vegas World to spend more time gambling in their virtual world than they would at a real life casino. The average playtime for a user is roughly 35 minutes. But to reach this average of 35 minutes, there have to be some users that are playing for significantly long stretches of time (Pearson 2017). With these long sessions in Vegas World, the anonymity of online gambling could be a significant factor.
The popularity of charms in Vegas World, as we see from the charm parties that users throw, offer a strong correlation to excitement seeking and locus control. The charms essentially give users bigger payouts when they win at the casino games. Bigger wins give users a much more exciting feeling when they win. These charms also don’t last forever which causes the user to continually want to gather more charms. This fuels the excitement cycle of users attending charm parties and continuing to gamble with these charms until they run out. With users actively contributing to their larger payouts through these charms, the theory of locus control fits well here as the user has a feeling of control over their winnings. By continuing to give the user a sense of control through these charms, it makes sense that they want to come back and gamble at Vegas World.
Conclusion
The community aspect of Vegas World offers a much more social environment online than a physical casino does in the real world. Whether it be the anonymity of the online world or the online environment itself, there seems to be a lot of aspects in the online gambling world that physical casinos could use to bring more people to casinos in person. Casinos could do something similar to Vegas World and have their own online gambling website associated with their casino. If they are able to create a community driven environment like Vegas World has, they could then give incentives for the online players to come into the casino and gamble in person. These incentives could either be gambling credits to the casino or have organized meeting events for other online gamblers of their site to meet in person to all play games together. By doing this, people are able to get the excitement seeking of playing with a group of people in person. This could also cause people to feel like they have more control over their gambling by being associated with a bigger group of people and feel as if they have better odds through that control.
Having a community aspect surrounding physical casinos will help significantly with the negative stigma surrounding gambling and casinos. There is clearly a market for online gambling and with today’s tech based world, the mover for casinos to offer a virtual space for its customers is a logical move. As long as customers find themselves in a comfortable space that is surrounded by positive incentives, people will want to play more at casinos as they have shown online. Changing the atmosphere of physical casinos from the isolating experience that it currently sits at to a sociable place for people to interact with one another more frequently while they play will make people want to go to casinos much more frequently.
The community aspect of Vegas World offers a much more social environment online than a physical casino does in the real world. Whether it be the anonymity of the online world or the online environment itself, there seems to be a lot of aspects in the online gambling world that physical casinos could use to bring more people to casinos in person. Casinos could do something similar to Vegas World and have their own online gambling website associated with their casino. If they are able to create a community driven environment like Vegas World has, they could then give incentives for the online players to come into the casino and gamble in person. These incentives could either be gambling credits to the casino or have organized meeting events for other online gamblers of their site to meet in person to all play games together. By doing this, people are able to get the excitement seeking of playing with a group of people in person. This could also cause people to feel like they have more control over their gambling by being associated with a bigger group of people and feel as if they have better odds through that control.
Having a community aspect surrounding physical casinos will help significantly with the negative stigma surrounding gambling and casinos. There is clearly a market for online gambling and with today’s tech based world, the mover for casinos to offer a virtual space for its customers is a logical move. As long as customers find themselves in a comfortable space that is surrounded by positive incentives, people will want to play more at casinos as they have shown online. Changing the atmosphere of physical casinos from the isolating experience that it currently sits at to a sociable place for people to interact with one another more frequently while they play will make people want to go to casinos much more frequently.
Works Cited
Barrault, Servane. & Varescon, Isabelle. 2013. “Impulsive sensation seeking and gambling practice among a sample of online poker players: Comparison between non pathological, problem and pathological gamblers.” Elsevier.
Griffiths, Mark. 2012. “Is there a ‘gambling personality’?” DRMARKGRIFFITHS, February 1a. https://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/is-there-a-gambling-personality/.
Griffiths, Mark. 2015. “The Psychology Of Live Online Casino Gambling.” Last modified July 28. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-excess/201507/the-psychology-live-online-casino-gambling.
Pearson, Doug. 2017. “Vegas World.” Interview by Jeff Bigler. Seattle University, July 27.
Barrault, Servane. & Varescon, Isabelle. 2013. “Impulsive sensation seeking and gambling practice among a sample of online poker players: Comparison between non pathological, problem and pathological gamblers.” Elsevier.
Griffiths, Mark. 2012. “Is there a ‘gambling personality’?” DRMARKGRIFFITHS, February 1a. https://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/is-there-a-gambling-personality/.
Griffiths, Mark. 2015. “The Psychology Of Live Online Casino Gambling.” Last modified July 28. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-excess/201507/the-psychology-live-online-casino-gambling.
Pearson, Doug. 2017. “Vegas World.” Interview by Jeff Bigler. Seattle University, July 27.