Decision-making in a risky environment : insights from the UK horserace betting market

Each section explores a different aspect of the decision-making behaviour of offcourse bettors and all provide support for the view that the behaviour of bettors in their naturalistic environment differs from the reported behaviour of naive subjects involved in laboratory investigations.The extent to which different motivations for betting can be discerned from bettors' behaviour is discussed in Section One and the betting characteristics of those primarily pursuing excitement and financial gain are explored in some detail. These issues are considered in Section One since motivation is of primary importance in helping to explain bettors' subsequent decision-making behaviour. Having decided for whatever reason to engage in betting, the degree of environmental complexity to which bettors choose to expose themselves, is an important element of their betting strategy.Section Two analyses the impact which different types and degrees of task complexity have on bettors' decision-making behaviour. Explanations for the research findings are offered in relation to previous decision process research and in relation to the varying motivations for betting. The research method employed in Sections One and Two prevented most individual characteristics of bettors from being discerned.Section Three is comprised of papers which seek to focus on one potentially important characteristic of bettors which can be discerned without compromising the research method - their gender. Consequently, gender differences amongst horserace bettors in terms of performance, risk-taking and confidence, are explored. The empirical research discussed in the first three sections suggests that bettors do not always behave in a manner consistent with rational economic objectives.The final section explicitly identifies and examines examples of non-rational economic behaviour. The incidence of such behaviour is used to relate these results to the motivation for betting, by explicitly assessing the consumption value of gambling.