Chasing, Arousal and Sensation Seeking in Off‐course Gamblers

Abstract

Summary Off‐course belling agency customers (N = 172) were assessed by a brief structured interview and by a questionnaire that included; the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS Form V), a short form of the State portion of the State‐Trait Anxiety questionnaire designed to assess subjective reports of levels of arousal after betting but prior to the race result, a question assessing the frequency of chasing and questions about other aspects of betting behaviour. Contrary to the hypothesis of Zuckerman (1979) the results showed that male bettors as a group were significantly lower on SSS scores than existing population norms. Despite the restricted range of these scores weak but significant relationships were shown between SSS subscales and level of involvement in betting. Chasing was shown to be a central feature of a group of out‐of‐control betting behaviours. Sensation Seeking scores were positively correlated with level of involvement and the relationship found between the Boredom Susceptibility subscale and arousal was tentatively highlighted as an individual difference that would predispose a person to greater loss of control and possible problematic levels of gambling.