Beginning gambling The role of social ne

Addiction Research and Theory, December 2011; 19(6): 483–493
Copyright ß 2011 Informa UK Ltd.
ISSN: 1606-6359 print/1476-7392 online
DOI: 10.3109/16066359.2011.558955

Beginning gambling: The role of social networks and environment
Gerda Reith1 & Fiona Dobbie2
1

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School of Social and Political Sciences, Glasgow University, Adam Smith Building,
Glasgow G12 8TT, Scotland, UK, and 2National Centre for Social Research, 73 Lothian Road, Edinburgh
EH3 9AW, UK
(Received 24 September 2010; revised 21 January 2011; accepted 24 January 2011)

Much research to date has focused on the associations between a number of mainly psychological and
demographic factors with the onset of gambling and
problem gambling (see, e.g. Derevensky & Gupta,
2004). For example, a number of studies have found

that individuals whose parents gamble, especially at
problematic levels, are more likely to develop problems themselves when they reach adulthood (Abbott &
Volberg, 2000; Derevensky & Gupta, 2007; Raylu &
Oei, 2002). Other research has demonstrated the role of
parents in introducing their children to gambling (see
Kalischuk, Nowatzki, Cardwell, Klein, & Solowoniuk,
2006 for a review). Through their own participation in
gambling games, they may display attitudes that
normalise and condone the activity and through
behaviour such as, for example, providing money to
gamble or buying tickets for games, may actively
encourage it. This social learning or ‘modelling’ of
behaviour has also been illuminated through a limited
number of small-scale qualitative studies, which found
that families established norms within which gambling
was regarded in a positive light, and provided an
environment in which the techniques for playing could
be learned (Orford, Morrison, & Somers, 2003; White,
Mitchell, & Orford, 2000). A New Zealand study found
that problem gamblers were twice as likely as recreational ones to report they had been introduced to

gambling by their families, followed by friends
(Abbott, 2001); a finding that has been reported
elsewhere (Gupta & Derevensky, 1998; Jacobs et al.,
1989). Research from Great Britain has found that
problem gamblers are three times more likely than
recreational ones to report a parent with gambling
problems (Fisher, 1999). This trend has been described
as the ‘intergenerational multiplier effect’ (Abbott,
2001), with repeated generations of individuals adopting the habits of those before them. This has been

This article reports findings from the first phase of a
longitudinal, qualitative study based on a cohort of
50 gamblers. The overall study is designed to explore
the development of ‘gambling careers’. Within it,
this first phase of analysis examines the ways that
individuals begin gambling, focusing on the role of
social relationships and environmental context in
this process. Drawing on theories of social learning
and cultural capital, we argue that gambling is a
fundamentally social behaviour that is embedded in

specific environmental and cultural settings. Our
findings reveal the importance of social networks,
such as family, friends and colleagues, as well as
geographical-cultural environment, social class, age
and gender, in the initiation of gambling behaviour.
They also suggest that those who begin gambling at
an early age within family networks are more likely
to develop problems than those who begin later,
amongst friends and colleagues. However, we
caution against simplistic interpretations, as a
variety of inter-dependent social factors interact in
complex ways here.
Keywords: Gambling, qualitative sociology, social learning,
cultural capital, social networks, environment

INTRODUCTION

While it is recognised that gambling is an intrinsically
social activity, research relating to its social contexts
and meanings remains scarce. In particular, the ways

that gambling behaviour is begun and learned tends to
be framed within ‘deficit’ models that focus on the
individual psychological factors that lead to problematic behaviour early in the life course.

Correspondence: G. Reith, School of Social and Political Sciences, Glasgow University, Adam Smith Building, Glasgow G12 8TT,
Scotland, UK. Tel: 44 (141) 330 3859. Fax: 44 (0141) 330 3554. E-mail: gerda.reith@glasgow.ac.uk

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G. REITH & F. DOBBIE

found to follow gendered patterns, although fathers
appear to increase the risk of their sons developing
gambling problems more than mothers do their
daughters (Walters, 2001). In addition, the younger

an individual is when they begin playing, the more
likely they are to have problems in adulthood
(Fisher, 1993; Gupta & Derevensky, 2008; Wood &
Griffiths, 1998).
Peer groups can also play a role in the development
of gambling behaviour, with some young people
playing to socialise, display identity and demonstrate
skill to friends (Fisher, 1993; Griffiths, 1995; Huxley &
Carroll, 1992). Many studies have found that adolescent gambling is more common among males; that
boys begin earlier than girls, play more often and are
more at risk of developing problems (Fisher, 1999;
Jacobs, 2000). This mirrors adult patterns of gambling,
which are also highly gendered (Volberg, 2001; Wardle
et al., 2007). Whereas considerable evidence links
problem gambling to lower socio-economic status and
low income (e.g. Orford, Sproston, Erens, White, &
Mitchell, 2003; Shaffer, LaBrie, LaPlante, Nelson, &
Stanton, 2004), the evidence on adolescent gambling
and socio-economic status is less clear cut, with some
studies suggesting a relationship between increased

participation and lower social class, and others refuting
this (Fisher, 1993).
As we have seen from this brief overview, a
considerable body of research has focused on the
influences upon adolescent gambling (and particularly
problem gambling) behaviour. However, less attention
has been paid to the wider social and cultural contexts
within which individuals begin gambling, and even less
to the experiences and attitudes associated with those
early beginnings. So, while we know about some of the
individual determinants of beginning gambling, we
know far less about the actual meanings and contexts of
such crucial early behaviour.
DISCUSSION

At this point, it is helpful to consider studies that have
explored the ways that individuals begin to use drugs.
Classic studies by Becker (1953, 1963) and Zinberg
(1984) in particular, have shed light on processes of
beginning drug use, and we argue that these can be

used to illuminate some themes related to beginning
gambling. For example, Becker (1953, 1963) focused
on the process of ‘becoming’ a drug user in terms of the
learning and labelling of new roles and identities.
Contrary to explanations that relied on the idea of
intrinsic traits that predisposed individuals towards
particular types of behaviour, Becker showed that
behaviour was learned through interaction with the
social environment, and therefore variable. Learning
how to smoke, learning to recognise the effects of such
smoking, and finally, interpreting these as pleasurable
were necessary steps towards becoming a drug user.
He argued that this was a fundamentally social

process that involved translating a neutral experience
into a recognisable ‘drug experience’ involving the
appropriate social surroundings, prompts and guidance
from more experienced users.
Rather than the notion of ‘antecedent predispositions’, Becker (1953) argued that ‘the presence of a
given kind of behaviour is the result of a sequence of

social experiences during which the person acquires a
conception of the meaning of the behaviour and perceptions and judgements of objects and situations, all of
which make the activity possible and desirable’ (p. 235).
In a similar vein, the ethnographic studies of
Zinberg (1984) and Zinberg and Shaffer (1985, 1990)
found that the experience of drug-taking was created at
least as much through social interaction as by the
physical properties of substances themselves. Zinberg
(1984) highlighted the importance of a triad of factors –
‘drug’: the activity in question; ‘set’: the personal
orientation of the individual involved with it, and,
crucially, ‘setting’: the social, cultural and geographical contexts – that behaviour went on in. Social
sanctions, rituals and settings were crucial and, even in
the case of reputedly ‘addictive’ drugs like heroin, he
found that beginners had to actively ‘learn’ how to get
high, usually through an intermediary who taught them
the appropriate ways of interacting and responding to
the drug. Such learning involved the transmission of
information in which experienced users ‘introduced
newcomers to the drug, provide[d] guidance . . . and

sooth[ed] the neophytes fears’ (p. 137).
In addition, little attention has focused on the microcultural milieux in which gambling goes on in. Here,
the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of ‘cultural
capital’ can be invoked to suggest ways in which
apparently individual tastes might be products of wider
social factors. Bourdieu (1984) argued that dispositions
and tastes and competencies are not natural or inherent
but are in fact ‘products of learning’ (p. 29) generated
through social relations. His notion of cultural capital
refers to the informal accumulation of such knowledge,
which is embedded in particular configurations of class
where it confers status and legitimacy on those who
possess it, as well as distinguishing them from others
who do not.
Accounts of beginning drug use have been influential in advancing understanding of the social contexts
and meanings of drug-taking behaviour, as has the
notion of cultural capital in furthering understanding of
the ways that different types of culture are legitimated
(e.g. Thornton, 1995). However, similarly nuanced
understandings have not been applied to gambling.

Despite a considerable body of research, understandings of gambling tend to be framed predominantly in
terms of individual and psycho-social deficits, with
lack of competency in these areas invoked as explanations for behavioural problems (Reith, 2007).
As we have noted in the ‘Introduction’ section, few
studies have considered the social context of early
gambling behaviour in terms of its interactions with

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BEGINNING GAMBLING

factors such as social and environmental networks,
and with social class and gender. In particular, the ways
that the behaviour and attitudes of wider social
networks, as well as the general availability and
acceptability of gambling within them, influence the
initiation and development of gambling has not been

fully explored. In addition, qualitative accounts of the
meanings and motivations that are involved in these
early experiences of gambling – of how and why
individuals start to play and continue with their
behaviour – are lacking.
Greater understanding of these issues is central to
understanding why some individuals encounter and
become involved in gambling at an early stage in the
life cycle; why for some this encounter may become
problematic, while for others, less so. It is with this in
mind that the qualitative study presented here sets out
to explore the broader social context of this crucial
phase in individuals’ gambling careers from the point
of view of players’ themselves.
A I M S A N D ME T H O D S

The research presented here is part of a larger
longitudinal ESRC-funded study of ‘gambling careers’
designed to explore the social context of behaviour and
the ways that it begins and changes over time. The
study is based on a cohort of 50 recreational and
problem gamblers interviewed three times between
2006 and 2009. Gamblers were recruited from around
the greater Glasgow area, a large post-industrial
conurbation in the West of Scotland, UK which is
characterised by relatively high levels of unemployment and pockets of social deprivation.
The overall aim of the research was to place
problem gambling in its social context, examining it
as a particular phase within broader ‘gambling careers’
which are embedded in social and geographical
environments and which change over time. In this
context, it focused on key stages of change, such as
beginning gambling, moving towards and away from
problematic behaviour, entering treatment and natural
recovery. This initial piece of analysis focuses on the
first stage of this process: beginning gambling.
Sample and recruitment
We recruited three main groups of individuals: problem
gamblers in contact with treatment services (‘Group 1’
n ¼ 12), problem gamblers not in contact with services
(‘Group 2’ n ¼ 21) and regular/heavy recreational,
gamblers (‘Group 3’ n ¼ 17). Problem players were
defined as those scoring three or more on the NODS
screen,1 while recreational gamblers had to play at least
once a week to be included in our sample. However, it
is important to recognise that these were not entirely
discrete groups, and that some participants moved from
one group to another during the course of the study as
behaviour became more or less problematic, or as
individuals entered or left treatment. This will be

explored in further analysis, but for now we should
note that when we talk of problem gambling or
recreational gambling, this refers to a respondents’
status at the time of first interview.
In order to recruit our sample, and to ensure as much
demographic diversity as possible within it, we adopted
a bricolage approach, utilising a variety of recruitment
techniques. We negotiated access to gambling venues
from a major industry provider, and approached
individuals in casinos, bingo halls and betting shops
themselves. We also recruited individuals from a local
counselling service and from Gamblers Anonymous, as
well as advertising in a local newspaper and displaying
posters in local community venues.
At the time of first interview, 23 respondents were
considered to have or have had gambling problems,
and 17 were classified as recreational players. The
predominant games played were sports betting, bingo
and machines (in bingo halls, arcades and betting
shops). The majority of our sample is social class C2,
D, E (lower class), which includes skilled, semi-skilled
and unskilled manual workers, with the remainder A,
B, C1, (higher class) which includes professionals,
senior managers and top-level civil servants.2
Table I. Overview of the sample.
Sample variable

Number in sample

Gender
Male
Female

33
17

Age
18–34
35–54
55þ

9
26
15

Ethnicity
White Scottish/British
Asian
Black
Chinese

43
4
2
1

Marital status
Married/cohabiting
Divorced/separated
Single
Widow
Other

18
19
6
3
4

Employment status
Working
Not working
Retired
Other

22
16
10
2

Social class
A, B, C1
C2, DE

13
37

Gambling group
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3

12
21
17

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G. REITH & F. DOBBIE

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A profile of the 50 gamblers who took part in the
study is shown in Table I.
Interviews and analysis
Interviews were carried out in various locations: most
often respondents’ homes, but also within gambling
venues and treatment centres. They were loosely
structured by topic guides designed to cover a range
of themes and drew on a ‘narrative’ approach, with the
interviewer acting as a facilitator to tease out the
factors that had influenced respondents gambling
behaviour and the place that it had in their lives.
In the first of these interviews, respondents were
encouraged to tell their ‘gambling story’: retrospective
accounts of how they began to gamble and how their
playing developed, including details on how they
developed problems and/or controlled their play,
recovery and experiences of treatment. Current behaviour, attitudes and experiences were also explored.
Interviews were digitally recorded and later transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed using
‘Framework’, a system of data management which
allows for the rigorous analysis of qualitative data,
developed by the National Centre for Social Research
(Ritchie, 2003). Framework is a systematic and transparent method of analysis that ensures thorough and
rigorous treatment of the data and reliability in
interpreting findings. Using a matrix-based approach
to analysis, it allows researchers to synthesise and
condense transcripts; to treat cases consistently and
allow within- and between-case investigation.
The purpose of qualitative research is to explore
issues in depth within individual contexts rather than to
generate data that can be analysed numerically. Thus,
the sample was designed purposively to achieve range
and diversity and was not intended to be representative
of the wider gambling population. The aim of the
interviewees was to go beyond the kind of information
provided by numbers to explore meanings and themes
in a series of rich narrative accounts. With this in mind,
we deliberately avoid expressing findings in numerical
terms (Kuzel, 1999).
RESULTS

This article presents findings from the first phase of the
research: ‘beginning gambling’, where we explore
respondents’ accounts of their first memories and
experiences of gambling. We should note from the
outset that the focus of this article is not on the general
development of a gambling career: i.e. the situations,
triggers and events that influence the dynamic of
individuals’ behaviour over time, which will be the
topic of future analysis. The focus here is on the more
limited period of respondents’ introduction to gambling
and the social context of those early beginnings. That
said, we did however begin to identify certain situations that appeared to facilitate the development of
gambling problems later in the life cycle; namely the

combination of starting gambling at an early age,
within the family unit and among respondents of lower
socio-economic status.
In most cases throughout this analysis, we are
dealing with retrospective accounts of respondents’
childhoods and early years. Given the age profile of our
sample, this means that accounts cover roughly the
period late 1960s to early 1990s in which gambling in
Britain was tightly regulated by the 1968 Gambling
Act. This placed limits on types and availability of
games, restricted access to venues and prohibited
advertising. It has recently been superseded by the
2005 Gambling Act, implemented in 2007, which eases
these restrictions and liberalises the market in this
country.
Finally, a methodological point should be noted.
Clearly, all research that is based on respondents’
recounting of past experiences suffers from issues
relating to memory, bias, post-hoc rationalisation and
the problems of corroboration. This is especially so if
individuals are being asked to recall events from
childhood. Although attempts were made to limit these
shortcomings (including for example, checking for
inconsistencies in interviews), such issues inevitably
also apply to our research, and readers should bear this
in mind when reading the accounts presented here.
However, one thing that we found striking when
analysing these narratives was the vividness with
which many respondents described their early gambling experiences, and the seemingly effortless recall
that illuminated these apparently significant moments
in their lives. Although the processes involved in
beginning gambling are often diverse, two key themes
emerged as key across all accounts: the influence of the
environment and of social networks. In addition, we
found that these contexts influenced the development
of problems later in life: Those who were introduced to
gambling by their family – who also tended to be
younger and belong to lower socio-economic groups –
were more likely to develop problems later on, while
those whose first experience of gambling was with
colleagues or friends – who were also somewhat older
and tended to belong to higher socio-economic groups
– were less likely to have done so.
Throughout the discussion, details of respondents’
gender, age, socio-economic status and the group they
were assigned to (1: problem gamblers receiving
treatment, 2: problem gamblers not receiving treatment
and 3: recreational gamblers) are given in parentheses
after quotations.
Environment
Local geography features strongly in respondents’
accounts of early experiences, quite literally embedding gambling in local communities and neighbourhoods. The geographical clustering of certain health
behaviours such as smoking and drinking is wellestablished (MacIntyre, McIver, & Sooman, 1993), and
research has also found that higher concentrations of

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BEGINNING GAMBLING

gambling outlets as well as higher expenditure on
games is correlated with low-income neighbourhoods
(Livingstone, 2001; Welte, Wieczorek, Barnes,
Tidwell, & Hoffman, 2004). Our study begins to
show how these kinds of associations are experienced
or ‘lived’ by respondents.
There is a traditionally high concentration of bingo
halls and betting shops in lower socio-economic
neighbourhoods in urban areas in Britain, which
serve as social hubs for local residents (Dixey, 1996;
Neal, 1998). In our study, these venues tend to be
located on High Streets, close to bars, shops and fast
food outlets where they can be dropped into on a
regular basis as part of daily working, shopping and
socialising routines. With venues that are easily
accessible and which often serve as meeting places
for locals, respondents were quite literally surrounded
by gambling. Reflecting on the geographical and
temporal ubiquity of gambling over the course of his
life, one 50-year-old male voiced a situation that
applied to most of our respondents, saying simply: ‘it
was always something around me’ (M, 50, DE.
Group 2).
It is not just physical availability that is important
here, but also special knowledge of the settings where
gambling goes on, available only to ‘insiders’, that is
crucial. The following quote from a respondent recalling the era of illegal bookmakers and their ‘runners’
describes the awareness of the hidden networks of
illegal betting spaces that only locals and insiders were
privy to:
I lived in the XXX Road in XXX, that’s where I was brought
up. Gambling was illegal then and bookmakers were illegal
and they [bookies’ runners] stood in street corners and that’s
how you got bets on and I knew they were there from a very,
very young age . . . . Then there was other places around [the
local area] that you could gamble, illegal bookmakers,
different places, different points and I knew where they all
were and I started to get interested in horses and my gambling
started then. [M, 68, CD. Group 1]

This labyrinth of illegal gambling dens running
throughout the local neighbourhood was invisible to
outsiders, but provided an alternative, ‘underground’
geography to those who knew what to look for.
It is part of a wider geographical and cultural
environment, in which heavy alcohol consumption is
also common. It has frequently been noted that
problem gambling occurs alongside problematic
patterns of drinking (Feigelman, Wallisch, &
Lesieur, 1998; Orford et al., 1996), and this interdependence features regularly in our respondents’
accounts of their gambling. However, we found the
two behaviours connected to a third element: the
broader socio-economic and cultural environment in
which they are situated. Regular, heavy alcohol
consumption is a habit that is integral to British
working class male culture, and is also something
that provides another public place – in the shape of

487

bars – where gambling can be carried out, in terms of
playing card games and making private bets as well as
discussing the results of games and spending winnings.
This relationship was articulated by one respondent
who explained:
In the West of Scotland you’re brought up in a gambling and
a drinking environment and I when I was young I drunk as
well [as gambled] from an early age. [M, 51, C2. Group 1]

In addition, public bars and betting shops are
frequently located next door to one another in towns,
providing easy access from one to the other. One male
provided an evocative account of the physical interrelation of gambling and alcohol, describing the
proximity of both types of venues to his home:
I lived above the bookmakers . . . there’s a pub called the
Horse and Barge and there’s a betting shop right next to it;
well I lived on the first floor. This would be the pub [points
down] and that would be my living room there [points
directly above] so all that was missing was the fireman’s pole
to slide me in. [M, 43, DE. Group 2]

Social networks
Within these gambling spaces, respondents learned to
gamble through social networks. This process involves
the acquisition and transmission of a form of gamblingspecific knowledge, attitudes and behaviour: what the
sociologist Bourdieu (1984) might describe as ‘cultural
capital’. In our study, we saw the reproduction of
certain kinds of knowledge, or gambling-related ‘cultural capital’, from an early age. It occurred through the
transmission of knowledge about the (often quite
complex) language, rules and rituals involved in the
gambling. In order to take part in many types of games,
it is necessary to understand at least some often quite
specialised terminology: for example, the workings of
‘accumulators’, ‘lines’ ‘place’ and ‘each way’ bets; the
specific rituals involved in placing bets and collecting
winnings, as well as the complex calculation of odds
and probabilities. As we saw in the previous section, it
is not only necessary to know where gambling takes
place; to take part in games of chance it is also
necessary to be aware of the sometimes arcane social
rituals and etiquette that govern the activity. Not
handing cash directly to cashiers, monitoring nods and
eye contact to control the flow of chips in a casino,
avoiding specific seats reserved for regulars in bingo
halls, knowing where to cash out tokens in the ‘puggy’
(fruit machine) arcade – all are crucial social rituals
that govern involvement in games of chance. All of this
has to be learned, and for the individuals in this study,
such knowledge was passed on through relationships
with family, friends and colleagues.
The remainder of this section includes discussion of
these three key social groups – family, friends and
colleagues – and their inter-relationship with age,
social class and the development of gambling problems
later in life. Overall, we found that those whose first

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experience of gambling was facilitated within the
family tended to be younger than those whose first
experience was with friends or colleagues, with an age
range between 5 and 22 years, and some clustering
around age 8–12. They also tended to be made up of
individuals from lower socio-economic groups; i.e. C2,
DE. In addition, those who were introduced to gambling by their family were also more likely to develop
problems later in life, while those whose first experience of gambling was with colleagues or friends were
less likely to have done so. In contrast, those who
started playing with friends and colleagues tended to
start at a later stage than those who first gambled in
family networks, with average ages ranging from late
teens and early twenties to thirties. They were also
slightly more likely to belong to higher social classes
and to be members of ethnic minority groups.3 In
addition, they were less likely to have developed
gambling problems later in their gambling careers.
Family
Interviews revealed the importance of the family, and
particularly the working class family, as a key site for
the transmission of gambling related cultural capital
and for the reproduction of behaviour, norms and
attitudes. We found a process whereby gambling
knowledge and behaviour was passed on through
households in the routines of everyday life. It is a
pattern in which respondents’ parents regularly visited
gambling venues and participated in games, so that
participants themselves were surrounded by an environment where gambling was normal, acceptable,
enjoyable and fun – or, on the other hand, could also
be the source of arguments, tension and worry, which
as children, they absorbed. Awareness of gambling was
generated through observation of other people’s behaviour, where respondents watched and heard family
members doing and talking about their gambling, and
sometimes joined in with it.
This reproduction of behaviour and attitudes
involves a ‘generational transmission’ of cultural capital
from parents and grandparents to children. As one said:
‘my father gambled, and he passed it on to all of us’
[M, 54, DE. Group 1]. From a bio-medical perspective,
this inheritance could be taken to imply a transmission
of genetic information. However, we can see that in this
context, it refers to socio-cultural conditions, and the
passage of cultural capital – of competencies, habits
and norms – which, as Bourdieu (1984) would put it,
is passed through the generations: ‘hand[ed] down
to . . . offspring as if in an heirloom’ (p. 66).
Encounters with gambling were transmitted through
families in gendered ways. A common pattern was for
female respondents to become aware, and often have
their first experience of, gambling, through their
mothers; males through their fathers – or, to a lesser
extent, through other family members of the same
gender: women through aunts, sisters and grandmothers; men through uncles, brothers and

grandfathers. The games that respondents were introduced to in this way were also gendered, with women
introduced mainly to bingo and machines, men to
sports betting.
For example, a female respondent had been aware of
gambling: ‘from as far back as I can remember’, ‘about
ten, eleven . . . [when] I was younger and my mum used
to go to the bingo’ [F, 29, C2. Group 2]. She
remembered going to meet her mother at the local
bingo hall twice a week, standing outside and hearing
the caller, and enjoying the atmosphere around the
venue. She absorbed the atmosphere and camaraderie
of the adult world around the bingo hall, and was aware
of its sociable aspect from an early age:
You used to see her [her mother] coming out of the bingo and
she used to have a carry on [a laugh] with the staff . . . . I think
it was just standing outside, hearing the caller and things like
that, that I just . . . it was quite . . . it was the atmosphere of the
people coming out as well do you know what I mean, it
looked quite enjoyable and that’s when I just thought ‘I’ll
give it a go’. [F, 29, C2. Group 2]

For males, similar processes of transmission
occurred. A common pattern involved fathers introducing their sons to sports betting, especially horse
race betting, both in the home on television and outside
in betting shops. For example, one respondent
described watching televised wrestling on Saturday
afternoons, wagering biscuits with his father on the
winner. He also recalled: ‘I always remember sitting on
my grandfather’s knee and he would put on a line [on
the Grand National]’ [M, 72, DE. Group 1]. This is the
inheritance of cultural capital, passed down the generations through biscuits and bets.
Families actively facilitated many of our respondents’ gambling in various ways: for example, by
asking children (especially boys) to take their bets to
the betting shop for them; helping them to pick
numbers, horses or teams for sports betting, and by
giving them money to gamble with. For some respondents, putting on the family ‘lines’ (bets) was part of
their daily chores along with tasks such as going to the
local shop for groceries. For example, one male’s first
experiences of gambling were actively facilitated by
his family when he was asked to take the family bets to
the betting shop for them:
I used to take the family lines to the street bookie and he used
to give all the kids that took the lines an old penny . . . That’s
when my gambling started [aged six]: I would have a bet with
the penny . . . it was fun in those days and I always thought
I could win. [M, 50, C1. Group 1]

His mother continued to facilitate his interest in
gambling by writing him sick notes to stay off
school when racing was broadcast on television.
He recalls that it was fun at the time, and his mother
never considered it harmful. He developed a serious
problem later on, however, gambling on sports and in
casinos.

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Another account describes what appears as almost a
rite of passage in which a respondent was initiated into
an adult, masculine world through the betting shop and
the bar:
I can remember the first time that I really won any money,
I was in the betting shop in X, I think I won £85 and I
probably wasn’t eighteen . . . .[the legal age for gambling] [so]
I ran all the way along the road [to my grandfather’s
house] . . . . . . . I’ll never forget it, . . . .he was sound asleep, I
said, ‘Grandda, I’ve won £85,’ and he just slid into his shoes
and put his jacket on, . . . and he says to me, ‘I’ll show you
what to do with the money, boy’, he says, ‘you look after your
enemies because your friends will never do you any harm’.
And he took me to the pub . . . .and he told me to buy this one
[man] and that one a drink and he was kinda teaching me
about the people who will loan you money when you’re
skint, . . . It was exciting, getting in the company, and I loved
that day and he took me back to stay with him that night . . . so
it was quite an exciting day and I think that’s what I chased
forever, days like that to come back you know, just feel as if
you were . . . I felt important. [M, 43, DE. Group 1]

In this narrative, we can see the development of
positive associations of gambling for this individual,
and his process of ‘becoming’ a gambler through the
learning of new roles and social practices. As Becker
(1963) pointed out, the role of experienced users (in
our case, gamblers) can be crucial in converting an
experience into something meaningful ‘who in a
number of ways teach the novice to find pleasure in
this experience’ (p. 54). This respondent’s grandfather
provided approval and articulated the positive meanings of games, so that winning money became translated into gaining respect and initiation into an adult,
masculine world. For this player, the game itself
became associated with self-worth and status central to
the creation of a ‘gambling’ identity. Not only was a
family member integral to the process of playing, he
was also part of the pivotal moment in ‘becoming’ a
gambler: in creating a feeling and a situation that the
respondent spent the rest of his life chasing.
Friends
The category of ‘friends’ can include a variety of social
networks (Spencer & Pahl, 2006). Some friends are
childhood companions, and these are often inter-linked
with family and neighbourhood networks, while others
involve relationships made later in the life cycle, when
individuals leave school and the family home and move
away to further education or work.
In some cases, a close link between the gambling
that went on in the family and gambling with friends
existed. For example, family and friends are interdependent in one respondent’s account of the first time
he bet for himself. Although he had been around
gambling all his life – ‘Grew up with it and watched
my father . . . . It wasn’t anything new’ – he was
indifferent to it. He regularly accompanied friends to
the betting shop, but did not place bets. However, one
day they were late and to fill time he placed a bet for

489

the first time. He won a lot of money, describing his
response as: ‘Ecstatic!’. This response was encouraged
by his social network:
My mates couldn’t believe that I had actually put a bet on in
the first place never mind won it. And the more they patted
me on the back . . . it bums you up [encourages you]
and . . . the first thing I did was . . . .take my mother and my
two sisters out that night. [M, 42, DE. Group 2]

In this example, friends were not directly involved
in the respondents’ first gambling attempt, but their
reaction to it was what encouraged him to continue.
As well as money, the rewards of winning included
esteem and respect, which was conferred on the player
by the congratulations of his peer group, as well as an
opportunity to demonstrate status by treating female
relatives with his winnings. Their congratulations and
encouragement were crucial, and evoke a rite of
passage: the respondent had finally joined them in
their activity. More than the acquisition of technical
knowledge and skills, however, this player had to learn
how to actually enjoy gambling in its own right.
An analogy can be drawn with learning to enjoy drugs.
Becker (1963) points out that marihuana users often
failed to get high the first few times they consumed
drugs, and thus did not ‘form a conception [of the drug]
as something that can be used for pleasure’ (p. 48).
Similarly, this individual had never personally experienced the pleasures of gambling, having never played
(and therefore never won) for himself. Now that he
had, however, his whole perception of the activity
changed. Looking back on the episode, he told us:
‘I think that set me on the road to being a gambler’.
In slightly older friendship networks, we often found
starting to play tied up with increasing independence,
moving away from the family unit, starting employment, developing new friendship networks and establishing work-based roles and identities. This applied
particularly to males, for whom the temporal rhythms
and spaces of work appeared to interact with the
primarily masculine gambling settings of betting shops
and race tracks.
One respondent first started gambling when he
began an apprenticeship at the age of 17 and became
friendly with a workmate who was a heavy gambler.
This friend introduced him to dog racing, and he started
going to the racetrack four nights a week. Here, the
colleague/friend division is blurred, but again, beginning gambling is tied up with learning complex social
rituals and behaviour as well as learning to derive
enjoyment from them:
I left school and went to work, I didn’t gamble at school
I suppose I didn’t have the money. When I went to work I got
friendly with my pal and he was a great gambler and he started
going to the dogs, dog racing at night, that’s really when
I started gambling . . . .I enjoyed the atmosphere and I enjoyed
the excitement. I never won as much as my wee pal; he was a
real, real gambler . . . . But it was exciting, even if you got beat

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G. REITH & F. DOBBIE

you still got a kick . . . I used to go four nights a week, to the dog
racing. He got me into it. [M, 60, C1. Group 3]

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Having money from a job, as well as being friends
with someone who already went to racetracks and
could show him how to place bets, are central here. The
excitement and atmosphere of the activity are more
important than winning – ‘even if you got beat you still
got a kick’ – and this is what kept him going back. This
respondent remained a controlled player all his life,
gambling regularly but recreationally on horse races
and football pools.
Colleagues
Respondents who had their first experience of gambling with individuals they specifically identified as
colleagues tended to be in their late teens to thirties,
and were also more likely to be higher social class.
Significantly, here gambling appears to be interwoven
with the temporal routines and schedules of work, as
well as with the social networks that employment
creates.
One recreational gambler who currently gambles
regularly on sports and in casinos had his first bet with
workmates when he was 19. He worked upstairs from a
betting shop, and put on a sweepstake with colleagues,
before going to the bar next door:
The first real time I ever had a bet would be when I was
working up the town for this Firm and there was a wee
bookies down the stairs actually inside the building. We were
in an office and about a dozen of us I think, we all went down
to this place and put our bets on and we had a sweepstake
upstairs, and then we all retired to what was the Empire Bar
round in X Street [for a drink]. I can remember that well.
[M, 64, C1. Group 3]

Here, the proximity of the betting shop and bar with
the workplace mirrors the situation we saw in the
earlier section on family, where gambling venues, bars
and homes were embedded in local communities.
Similarly, it is this environmental context that contributes to the accessibility of gambling for this individual.
For others, the routine of work is something that
gambling activity fits around, in terms of both temporal
breaks, and the proximity of gambling venues to
work ones.
This was particularly noticeable among our ethnic
minority gamblers, many of whom had their first
experience of gambling with colleagues, often for
example, visiting casinos after working shifts. A
Chinese player, for example, first gambled with
colleagues after work when he was in his forties. He
explained that after finishing a shift, it would be too
early to go to bed, but nowhere was open and so he,
along with others who worked in the restaurant trade,
would visit one of the nearby city-centre casinos to
meet friends, have some food or win money – ‘maybe
get lucky’. He has followed this routine for over
20 years, visiting the casino two or three times a week

and making small bets without experiencing any
problems [M, 70, C1. Group 3].
A similar pattern of introduction, whereby gambling
is interwoven with patterns of work and socialising, can
be seen with a 61-year-old male who first gambled with
a colleague when he moved to Britain from North
Africa in his twenties. His colleague showed him how
and where to play:
During the lunchtime we would go and have something to eat
and on the way back he would go into this [betting] shop and
place a bet . . . . [M, 61, AB. Group 3]

They lived close to each other, which encouraged
them to spend time together around betting:
I had a flat and his flat was facing mine. So after we were
going home, we would go into this [betting] shop and . . . I
said how do you do that? So he said to me you just look at the
board [where odds and results are displayed] and pick a horse
and if it wins you get paid. I said, just as easy as that? He said
yes. And well . . . that’s how I placed my first bet.

In this narrative, we can see the significance of the
colleague who taught the respondent how to play. Also
important is location: both the proximity of the betting
shop to the workplace, as well as the respondent’s
home to his colleague’s home.
In all of our examples where respondents had their
first experience of gambling with colleagues, we found
that the activity was woven around the temporal
patterns of employment, in terms of breaks and
routines, as well as the physical location of gambling
and work venues. Both these work-related aspects are
in turn connected to patterns of socialising and
friendship that revolve around employment itself.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Contrary to research which has focused on the
psychological and individual determinants of gambling
behaviour, this study shows up the fundamentally
social nature of the activity. It shows that respondents
are not born gamblers, but rather ‘become’ gamblers
through complex processes of observation, facilitation
and learning. Significantly, our respondents are all
introduced to the world of gambling through their
social networks. They do not ‘fall upon’ gambling
in isolation, but grow up surrounded by it and learn
it through networks of social interaction, which are
in turn rooted in particular social, cultural and
geographical environments.
Gambling is an activity imbued with cultural capital
(Bourdieu, 1984) that is actively learned and reproduced
through relationships between gamblers, their social
networks and wider environmental settings.
In particular, the family is a key site of social
reproduction where many individuals encounter games
of chance for the first time. This is where they become
familiar with the mechanics as well as the social rituals
and etiquette of games; familiarity that is passed down

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BEGINNING GAMBLING

through generations of families ‘as an inheritance’.
In our study, this inheritance of dispositions and
competencies applies particularly strongly to respondents from lower socio-economic groups.
The family is also a common site for the development of gambling problems. When family relations,
rather than friends or colleagues, are the primary
facilitators of gambling involvement at an early age,
individuals are more likely to develop gambling
problems in later life. However, this does not imply
that the relationship between the family as a site of
early gambling behaviour and the development of
problem gambling in later life is necessarily straightforward or linear. As we have seen, other factors are
involved here, including age and social class, with
individuals who began gambling in family environments also tending to be younger and of lower socioeconomic status than those who did not.
More than simply encountering games of
chance, individuals must also actively learn to participate in and – crucially – attribute meaning to and
derive pleasure from them. More experienced players
guide novices through this process, teaching them how
to play and showing them (often through example) the
rewards and pleasures of games. Family networks are
again central to this ‘sequence of social experiences’
(Becker, 1953, p. 235), although friends and colleagues
also play an important role, particularly among
respondents from higher socio-economic groups. In
many narratives, beginning gambling appeared as a rite
of passage through which individuals were initiated
into the adult, gendered social worlds of betting and
bingo. For others, it was associated with increasing
independence and the development of friendship
networks and work-based roles and identities.
As well as the intrinsic rewards of games themselves – which include, among other things, winning
money, excitement and social status – it is apparent that
the setting of games is crucial, and that gambling is
interdependent with the social environment (Zinberg,
1984). The ‘place’ of gambling in many individuals’
lives is in many cases quite literal. Gambling venues
are interspersed throughout local communities and
woven into the fabric of everyday life as part of wider
patterns of living, working and socialising. Both public
and private spaces – from gambling venues themselves
to workplaces, homes and bars – are crucial arenas
within which gambling is encountered and learned.
However, the importance of place extends beyond the
simple accessibility of gambling opportunities –
although these are important – to encompass the
ways that locations interweave with social relations and
the daily routines and cultures that are created around
them. It is not enough that gambling opportunities are
simply ‘there’: social relationships are the crucial
conduit through which they are endowed with meaning and made to matter to the individuals who
encounter them.

491

We are aware that, to some extent, the patterns we
have identified here are reflective of the age and social
class of our sample. We are also aware that, given the
age of many of our respondents and the retrospective,
longitudinal aspect of this research, the narratives of
gambling that we have presented here cover a period
from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, which represents
a different policy climate to what exists today. This
period of gambling in Britain was given its distinctive
character by the 1968 Gambling Act which restricted
the availability and promotion of commercial gambling
with its principle of ‘unstimulated demand’. This has
recently been superseded by the 2005 Gambling Act
which was implemented in 2007. This legislation
heralds an era of increased liberalisation in Britain,
including easier access to a range of gambling opportunities and the increasing normalisation of the activity.
Advertising is now permitted and gambling operators
are able to promote themselves as commercial premises, and are seeking to attract new demographic
groups, particularly women and higher socio-economic
groups. In addition, new types of games (such as a
national Lottery) and new mediums for gambling (such
as the Internet and mobile phone technology) have
appeared in recent years. This changing climate raises
the question of whether we might expect to see a
corresponding shift in early experiences of gambling.
Indeed, there is some evidence of this already, with
recent research finding that young people gamble on,
for example, lottery products (Moodie & Finnegan,
2006; Wood & Griffiths, 1998), which were