Choice of Gambling Activity and Belief in Locus of Control

A recent review of research on gambling (Lester, 1980) suggested that gambling behavior might be related to belief in an internal locus of control. People who gamble in ways that involve skill in judgment might be expected to believe in an internal locus of control, whereas those who gamble in ways that involve luck might be expected to believe in an external locus of control. Sixty-five students enrolled in a large general education course (33 males and 32 females; M,,, = 24.3 yr., SD = 7.4; MI.E = 11.14, SD = 4.11) were given the belief in locus of control scale (Rotter, 1966) and asked whether they had gambled in the last 15 mo. on the lottery, race track, slot machines, craps, roulette, blackjack, poker, numbers, or bookies. As predicted, belief in an external locus of control was positively related to gambling at craps (point biserial T = 0.30) and roulette ( r = 0.30) and negatively to gambling at poker ( r = -0.39) for the 33 males. Belief in an external locus of control was positively related to gambling at the lottery ( r = 0.36) and slots ( r = 0.30) for the 32 females. For all subjects combined, belief in an external locus of control was positively related to gambling at slots ( r = 0.28), craps ( r = 0.27), and roulette ( r = 0.2 1 ) and negatively related to gambling at poker ( r = -0.22). Thus, it appears that externally oriented college students are more likely to gamble at activities in which chance plays a large role, e.g., lotteries and slot machines, and less likely to gamble at activities in which skill and judgment can play a large role, e.g., poker. The correlations reported here, however, are quite small, accounting for only about ten percent of the variance.