• Psychiatry investigation
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1181-1187
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• 2018

Objective In Korea, online board games, such as "flower cards," are played using virtual money. In contrast, Internet-based gambling (ibGambling) concerns the use of real money to gamble online. We hypothesized that online board gamers using virtual money show less risky behaviors than do gamblers who use real money, and that, in regard to psychological aspects, online board gamers are less depressed and more introverted than online gamblers are. Methods For this study, 100 online board gamers, 100 ibGamblers, 100 offline gamblers (offGamblers), and 100 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited by an online research company. Gambling behavior and self-efficacy were assessed using the Korean Gambling Behavior Scale-high/low factors (KGBS-H/L) and the Gambling Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale (GASS). Additionally, introversion, depression, and mania tendency were assessed. Results Online board gamers had good intentions gaming, as evidenced by their higher KGBS-L scores than ibGamblers and offGamblers, and they showed less risky behaviors, as evidenced by their lower KGBS-H scores than offGamblers. Additionally, online board gamers were less introverted than ibGamblers and less depressed than offGamblers. Conclusion Online board gaming could be a gateway to the world of gambling (ibGambling or OffGambling). However, the higher tendency of online board gamers to engage in good intentioned gaming could help prevent online board gaming from progressing to online or offline gambling.

• Korean Journal of Health Psychology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-26
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• 2009

This paper deals with fundamental questions how we should understand and approach the gambling addiction problems optimally. We attempted to define the nature of gambling behaviors first and to understand gambling addiction as an extreme class of behaviors on a behavioral continuum. This frame of reference would allow researchers to diagnose, classify, and evaluate gambling problems clearly, and to estimate prevalence rate and incidence rate more accurately from a perspective of behavioral sciences. Also, we emphasized to get out of a dichotomy in classifying gambling behaviors(i.e., either pathological or non-pathological). In addition, we introduced multi-agent and multi-level approaches to understanding gambling problems. With these approaches, each of the agents pertinent to the gambling problems can take its own responsibility and collaborate with other agents to solve the problems together. Also it is a proper time to develop a new scale overcoming the limitations of existing scales. So we presented several cautions in developing new scales for evaluating gambling problems. Lastly, in building a gambling policy, the estimation of prevalence and incidence rate is an important issue. So we suggested various ways for accurate estimation of prevalence and incidence rates reflecting the nature of gambling problems.