Gambling: Sometimes Unseemly; Not What It Seems

Gambling offers opportunities for basic research and theory, and has hugely important applied implications. As Fantino (2008) said recently, “The current view of pathological gambling as an addiction cries out for a functional analysis of the controlling variables and for strategies of behavioral intervention.” This view echoed that of Dixon (2007) who called out for behavior analysts to apply their very relevant skills to discovering the causes of gambling disorders. To understand the behavior of gambling, one must understand the basic processes and variables involved in making the decisions gamblers make. Behavior ana-lysts, those experimental psychologists who approach psychological phenomena from a behavioral (or functional) perspective, have long concentrated on the choices organisms make. Thus, they should be in a strong position to contribute to our appreciation of the factors controlling gambling. In this paper we will examine some of the advances already made, and also propose some directions for future research