Online Poker Bullies Discovered as Part of UNLV Study
UNLV study finds online betting areas thick with bullying, foul-mouthed players, repelling some, enticing others. These were the shocking results discovered following 90-minute interviews with 30 Las Vegas gamblers who enjoy playing poker online.
The experience can be a negative environment dominated by bullying, foul-mouthed players who prowl gambling chat rooms, writes Liz Benston of the Las Vegas Sun.
Donna - participants' last names were withheld by researchers to protect their identities - reported being harassed while gambling online, including by one player who stalked her by phone. She said she learned to ignore the live chats that accompany online games but still gambled only when her husband was sitting nearby to "protect" her.
"When I clicked off (a poker game), I was crying," Donna told researchers. "I let a complete stranger who was online, who didn't know me, I didn't know him, hurt me. If it was in person, it would be different."
Another online gambler told researchers she was often called derogatory names in the accompanying chat area after winning a poker hand. Unlike some study participants who shied away from online bullies, Alice said she thrived on confrontation and enjoyed the heightened atmosphere of competition online.
"There's this guy online that I can't stand," she said. "So that's a challenge, and whenever I do beat him I feel great."
Of course some would argue this mimics the real live antics displayed on the professional poker circuit a la individuals the likes of Phil Hellmuth, a celebrity poker player for UltimateBet.com
But the online community is accustomed to bullying and foul language, not just in online poker rooms but in chat rooms that span just about every aspect of the Internet.
Poker players have a name for such online anarchists (trolls) and their bullying (flaming), writes Benston.
The study was not funded by the casino industry but rather a grant from the UNLV's William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.
Gamblers in the UNLV study weren't asked about gambling addiction, Benston points out, but rather what gambling meant to them and what motivated them to gamble online versus in bricks-and-mortar casinos. Researchers asked gamblers, 20 of whom primarily visited casinos and 10 of whom mostly gambled online, to create visual collages representing their feelings about gambling. Alice, to illustrate how she felt about gambling online, showed a cartoon character fighting off a pack of bulldogs.
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Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
Originally published July 23 2008 10:18 am EST
