Il gioco con premi in denaro: motivazione e comportamenti

The present paper aims at investigating motives and behaviors towardsgambling of young adults (18 to 20 years of age). In Italy younggamblers are poorly investigated. This paper represents a first attemptto bridge this gap, contributing to formulate, as a first draft, a causalmodel able to catch significant antecedents of motives and behaviors relatedto the aforementioned target.To this aim, a causal model linking motives and situational factors togambling behaviors was hypothesized and subsequently tested; a multiitemscale was specifically prepared. Sem (Structural Equation Modeling)was adopted to verify the model in question.The analysis revealed that socializing and sensation seeking driveyoung gamblers, in addition to the desire of economic enrichment. Furthermore,it was possible to assess that the depicted attitudes patterngenerates a positive impact on the availability to spend money for gamblingand to recommend gambling to others. Finally, it emerged thatthe accessibility of gambling influences the propensity to spend moneyin such an activity.Young gamblers have specific motives and behaviors and, as such,gambling operators should put in place proper marketing strategy todeals with this particular target. More precisely, focusing communicationstrategies simply on prize money benefits rather than on emotionaland amusement drivers appears reductive.