Bread, milk and a Tattslotto ticket: the interpretive repertoires of young adult gambling in Australia

An individual’s intention to engage in behaviour can be predicted from their attitudes, subjective norms and control beliefs (e.g., Ajzen 1991; Ajzen and Madden 1986; Fishbein and Ajzen 1975). Gambling, often regarded as impulsive behaviour, is not an exception (Moore and Ohtsuka 1997, 1999a, b). Young people are more likely to gamble if they have a positive attitude towards gambling, a subjective norm that normalises gambling, and erroneous gambling-related beliefs (EGRBs) (Moore and Ohtsuka 1997, 1999a, b). Although these factors predict gambling behaviour in a general sense, how individuals gamble and regard their gambling is subjective and supported by personally and socially derived meanings attached to the act of gambling. Qualitative research on gambling in the UK has demonstrated the important role of social networks and community activities in the formation of gambling culture (Reith and Dobbie 2011, 2012, 2013). This article aims to further the understanding of gambling in Australia by using discourse analysis to examine the subjective meanings of gambling held by young adult gamblers.

Young adults have a greater propensity for thrill seeking and risk taking compared to older adults. Therefore, it is not surprising that the literature finds the prevalence rate of problem gambling is substantially higher among youth and young adults in many countries. About 18 % of problem gamblers reported their problems with gambling started before the age of 20 years (Productivity Commission 2010). Although not all patrons visiting hotels and bars would gamble, young adults are an important market for the hospitality industry (e.g., Kingma 2004). Since the 1980’s commercial gaming in Australia has grown dramatically. Today’s young adults (18–25 years old) grew up in an environment where easy access to gambling was a norm. About 80 % of Australians gamble at least once a year. The most popular gambling activity is lotteries (participation rate 60 %) while Australians bet the most on “pokies” (electronic gaming machines; EGM) attracting the highest per capita expenditure (Delfabbro 2011). EGMs have been ubiquitous in local bars and social clubs in Victoria since 1992 (Marshall and Baker 2002). Today, 27,633 EGMs are deployed in 530 gaming venues in Victoria and the average annual loss per venue has reached $4,699,063 (Livingston 2013).

In today’s world of instantaneous communication, attitudes and subjective norms are influenced by the information about gambling fed through news media and increasingly social media, making younger people particularly vulnerable due to their high level of connectivity. For example, social media often promote gambling advertisements and online games with gambling themes, some of which require credit purchases to play. Television advertisements of sports betting also target TV viewers around the sports broadcast of professional sporting events (see Gainsbury et al. 2014).

Growing up in a permissive gambling culture, young Australians have positive attitudes towards gambling as an entertainment option, with positive social norms that endorse their gambling participation (Moore and Ohtsuka 1997, 1999a, b). However, harm minimisation and public health messages have largely been dismissed by young adults who do not see the relevance of the warnings to their situation (Hing and Dickerson 2002). Therefore, it is paramount to investigate how young adults conceptualise their involvement in gambling and how this understanding influences current and future behaviour. Exploring their discourse is one way to do this because by focusing on the language they use we can better understand their lived experience of gambling.

Although only a fraction of young people identify that they have a problem with gambling (2–8 %), their prevalence rate is twice as high as that of the adult population. Predictors, antecedents, and correlates of problem gambling include individual characteristics, an early big win or a devastating loss (Rosecrance 1986), cognitive distortions (e.g., Delfabbro and Winefield 2000), illusion of control/impaired control (O’Connor and Dickerson 2003), erroneous statements or gambler’s fallacy (Toneatto et al. 1997), erroneous gambling-related beliefs (Ohtsuka 2015; Ohtsuka and Ejova 2014) and beliefs in fate and destiny (Ohtsuka and Ohtsuka 2010). Further, addictive disorders (Parke and Griffiths 2005), addiction theory (Peele 2001) and personality disorders (Blaszczynski and Steel 1998) suggest genetic predispositions for addiction (Blaszczynski et al. 2005; Reith 1999).

Research literature makes it abundantly clear that gambling is not motivated merely by the pursuit of financial gain or the desire to beat the system (Salkovskis 1996). Otherwise, why would gamblers continue playing despite repeated losses? Nor is the aim of gambling to beat the system, as they continue to gamble after they have won (Reith 1999). The cultural and historical analysis of language use and its influence on gambling through discourse analysis would further address the gap in knowledge about subjective views and meanings associated with gambling (Scott and Trethewey 2008).

Young adult gamblers aged between 18 and 25 years are a vulnerable population. They can participate in any commercial gambling activity freely and may exhibit high levels of adventuresomeness and impulsiveness (Gupta and Derevensky 1998) that predict gambling disorders, yet we do not know much about what problem gambling looks like within this population. Young adults have life goals, lifestyles, and financial demands different from those of older gamblers. Problem gambling may be more prevalent but not as readily visible because they have relatively large disposable incomes, little family or financial obligations, and lack financial assets of significance. However, the negative impact on their personal life is still significant¹ (Moore and Ohtsuka 1997, 1999a, b). The commonly described gambling harms such as a marriage breakup or a mortgage foreclosure are unlikely to be relevant to young adults. Although warnings are most effective when they are personal, relevant and immediate, there is a deficit in the area of warnings targeting young adults (Mills 2002).

Further, difficult childhood experiences predict addictions including problem gambling (e.g., Jacobs 1988) and gambling behaviour learned early in life tends to be repeated (Sullivan 2001). Converging evidence suggests that young adult gambling is an important phase of gambling history that needs further investigation. In the current investigation, the aim of the research was to investigate how young adults understand and legitimise their involvement in gambling. The findings will contribute towards the creation of effective targeted harm minimisation strategies directed at young adult gamblers to minimise potential gambling harm (Rossen 2001).

Discourse analysis was utilised as a way to explore the language that participants used to describe gambling and their involvement because of its focus on language as the producer of phenomena. Hence, the current investigation views language usage not as a neutral medium to describe individual accounts of a phenomenon but emphasises the constructive power of the language use and the origin of language in conversations and cultural traditions. If we perceive reality in this way, as constructed and interpreted through discourse and social interaction, then discourse can be understood as the primary organising principle in the construction of reality (Potter 1996).

When a person expresses an opinion or describes an event, the speaker does not merely describe retrieved information but uses their words to construct the meaning actively. When their accounts are constructed, it is highly context-specific because the interlocutors perform a wide variety of social actions (Edley 2001). Discourse is hence a set of “meanings, metaphors, representations, images, and stories, etc. which is used within a culture and shaped by history. It constructs objects, supports institutions and has ideological effects” (Burr 2003). Through discourse, multiple versions of the single event, interpretive repertoires, arise, which may often conflict each other.

Three culturally dominant repertoires were identified: ‘Culture not self,’ ‘If it makes you happy,’ and ‘No problem here!’ All three were readily accessible to all participants and were taken as ‘truth’, however, ‘Culture not self’ showed more variation in expression.

This study indicates that the way in which young adults understand gambling and acknowledge their involvement is complex. Their discourse reveals how they feel positioned, position themselves and position those around them in relation to gambling. The three dominant repertoires ‘Culture not self,’ ‘If it makes you happy,’ and ‘No problem here!’ reflect the introduction of gambling through family tradition, gambling as a means of socialising, and as a way to describe themselves as rational, intelligent decision makers separating themselves from problem gamblers. In different ways, all three repertoires acknowledge that gambling could lead to problems and include behavioural description of high risk behaviours. However, the image of risk is not well grounded as it describes behavioural characteristics of problem gambling in a different generation, behaviours they believe are qualitatively different from their own. The participants’ assumption and self-definition of social recreational gambling, which is the opposite end of problem gambling, could be problematic. This assumption of “immunity” could delay their help seeking if they develop problems in later years (Sullivan 2001).

Although the participants dismissed the notion of luck because of its known association with problem gambling (e.g., lucky charms), the knowledge and familiarity regarding the gambling forms may lead to higher levels illusion of control (Moore and Ohtsuka 1999a, b). Setting limits was a good sign, but they admitted they would gamble more if they could afford to and their repertoires rely on others to define gambling harms (e.g., it is alright to gamble so long as it does not hurt anybody). These misunderstandings could reflect their age and naiveté or a form of rebellion as a process of establishing their own identity. Personal disengagement from harm minimisation warnings in discourse repertoires shows only partial understanding of the harm minimisation message. The young recreational gamblers do not believe that harm minimisation messages apply to all gamblers—not just for “them,” problem gamblers. Since harm minimisation warnings are more effective when they are personal, relevant and immediate (Mills 2002), the future challenge is how to make harm minimisation messages relevant to young recreational gamblers.

Further, the repertoires also included approval of risk-taking behaviour, which is a common personality trait found in this age group (Gupta and Derevensky 1998). Social norms in favour of gambling, i.e., the family and social acceptance of gambling, was evident in the repertoires. The theme of gambling as social activities and their needs to please family and friends while seeking acceptance from a social group of friends was most evident in the testimony. The current findings are consistent with research on youth gambling showing the influence of social norms for young gamblers (Derevensky et al. 1996).

The three repertoires contradict each other in that they use their language to both alleviate personal responsibility for gambling and take credit for practicing responsible gambling. More emphasis is placed on the former as gambling is a social act that defines their identity as a member of a family and community where social norms in support of gambling normalise and encourage gambling. In such environments, readdressing their understanding of responsible gambling is difficult without the involvement of significant others and the community. The young adults, although as independent as they would like to be, develop and define their idea of self in a relational term in the context of a network of relationships with significant others. Therefore, any intervention would have to target families and friendship groups and even recreational clubs where many young people’s friendships are made.

The current research on the discourse of young adult gamblers in Australia has many theoretical implications to help understand how gambling forms part of a culture and is maintained as a social activity that binds the members of social groups. The three interpretive repertoires of young adult gambling capture the subjective meanings and cultural values of the informants and have presented rich qualitative information in the context of the Australian urban culture. Despite young adults constituting large numbers of gaming venue clients, gaming venue managers are least sympathetic towards young gamblers, more specifically young men, concerning the provision of responsible gambling (O’Mahony and Ohtsuka 2015). Young gamblers’ strong self-identification which distances themselves from problem gambling further prevents them from receiving necessary due attention from the gaming staff, thereby increasing gambling risk.

The current investigation has made a significant contribution to a growing body of knowledge on subjective meanings of gambling, which informs the interpretation, understanding, and values of people who gamble. Furthermore, harm minimisation strategies targeting young recreational gamblers could be fine tuned to increase their understanding. The current investigation also highlighted the importance of social interactions, context, and perceived shared cultural values for young recreational gamblers.

Social norm is a powerful predictor of intention and human behaviour (see Theory of Reasoned Action, Ajzen and Fishbein 1975, 1980; Ajzen and Madden 1986; Theory of Planned Behaviour, Ajzen 1991) including gambling behaviour (Martin et al. 2010; Moore and Ohtsuka 1997, 1999a, b). This qualitative enquiry also highlights the role of the social norm in which the family introduction to gambling is positively remembered. Not surprisingly, the family introduction to gambling was reported as a predictor of gambling behaviour (Ladouceur et al. 1994; Ladouceur and Mireault 1988). Longitudinal studies on gambling “career” highlight the importance of social influence on trajectories of gambling in a UK community where gambling forms part of core activities (Reith and Dobbie 2011, 2012, 2013). In these cases, social norms and perceived subjective norms are predominantly positive towards gambling. For the participants in the current study, gambling was associated with family activities in the past and was regarded as a positive recreational activity.

Perhaps, gambling is regarded in such positive light for some participants to the extent that problem gambling is condemned not so much because of its negative impact on the life of problem gamblers but to bring disrepute to otherwise wholesome entertainment and social activity. While their participation in gambling is responsible, lack of information and insight in detecting signs of problem gambling may be problematic for some in the future. Another clear identity described in their discourse was the belief that young adults have less financial obligations and a strong sense of self-control. This optimistic assumption that they are not at risk of problem gambling may be problematic if their circumstances change in the future.

Cultural factors were often investigated only for gamblers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities (e.g., Ohtsuka and Ohtsuka 2010; Ohtsuka 2013; Stevens and Golebiowska 2013). The current research suggests that the “mainstream” group (e.g., Anglo Australians) also have a distinct “culture” with cultural traditions, values and beliefs. Further, the “mainstream” culture is not necessarily a uniform mass but consists of diverse subgroups with their own different identities and subcultural values. Such is the case of young adult Australians who socialise at pubs—a segment or subgroup within the mainstream Australian gamblers.

In-depth interviews and discourse analysis reveal that the participants share common threads that weave a tapestry of the subculture which may not be well documented if due attention is directed to their cultural imports. The current study has demonstrated the relationships between gambling as shared social activities, family, and a sense of belongingness and identities of the young Australian gamblers.

In a sense, the current findings compliment Ohtsuka’s (2013) qualitative research on electronic gaming machine players in suburban clubs from CALD backgrounds. Through the discourse analysis, the current investigation has explored subjective views of young adults who gamble in Australian suburban clubs. Although their demographics may vary, through their social network and their family backgrounds, they shared their stories using similar discourse repertoires allowing a glimpse into subjective worlds of a sub-group with similar outlooks concerning gambling participation, values and understanding of gambling.

To summarise, discourse analysis of young gamblers shows that gambling originated from family culture and tradition. It formed a focal point of social interaction among family members and friends. Hence, young adult gamblers hold positive attitude and regard it with affection. They also see themselves as belonging to a privileged phase of their life when the freedom to gamble is legitimised as an act of rebellion and a reward for their effort to live up to family expectations. They are aware that their lifecycle allows them to engage in little risk-taking for fun. Although young gamblers are aware of problem gambling risks, their understanding is stymied by the dissociation between themselves and the older problem gamblers from different socioeconomic strata.

The current study demonstrated the potential benefits of qualitative research focused on discourse repertoires to explore subjective meanings and values of gamblers. The emphasis on cultural values and tacit agreements share common approaches to cultural enquiries on gambling. Beyond examining specific meanings associated with gambling, an important aim was to establish discourse analysis as a possible theoretical framework for studying gambling and in doing so, allowing researchers to look beyond the quantifying extent of young adult gambling to an in-depth understanding of how gambling is understood among young adult gamblers. While further study is needed to establish the relationships between discourse and gambling practices, this case study underscores the need for both researchers and policymakers to consider how discourse shapes experiences among young adults.