The Motivation of Chinese Disordered Gamblers: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

In a recent prevalence study conducted on Macao, gambling researchers Wu et al. (2014) concluded that “materialism may continually promote people’s gambling motive to win money in order to satisfy their materialistic need, thus making them vulnerable to gambling disorder” (p. 1196). Here, the authors argued that the major motivation of gambling for the majority of Chinese gamblers is winning money. Materialistic concerns are the basic reasons for Chinese to participate in gambling activities. This assertion negates the psychodynamic explanation of gambling to displace inferiority in childhood (Rosenthal 1986) and the behaviorist view of gambling to escape from personal problems (Brown 2002; Jacobs 1986). Is winning money the principal motivation among the majority of Chinese disordered gamblers? What are the factors that make gambling the favorite pastime in Chinese communities? Before we can realistically approach this question, we need to have an understanding of the particular cultural aspects of Chinese heritage that contribute to the development of gambling. The present chapter will address the list of questions from a cultural perspective.