I attended the National Conference of Social Policy at the University of Tampere (FI).
With a research subject such as mine, it is not always easy to find an appropriate
working group. I was lucky, because Professors Leena Eräsaari (University of
Jyväskylä, FI) and Eeva Jokinen (University of Eastern Finland) organized a working
group on gender and marketization of services.
I presented a working paper on problem gambling from the intimates' point of
view. My purpose was to understand better women's habitus and agency
when the problem gambler is a husband/partner, child (underage or adult),
an elderly parent (mother or father) or a friend/colleague. It is quite interesting
to analyze how women take responsibility of the gambling problem and how
they seek help or treatment for the problem gambler. In the message data
that I use, women rarely ask help for themselves or for their children.
Gender is still a relatively invisible topic in gambling studies. Gender research
could benefit those who are interested in studying gamblers, problem gamblers,
intimates and other family members, youth gambling, elderly gambling and
marketing of gambling products. By gender I don't mean only women. It would
be interesting to study poker playing and its ideal of masculinity from a gender
perspective. It would also be interesting to study motherhood or fatherhood when
the child is gambling and losing. And what about the elderly problem gambler
who is chasing losses: how can an adult child help an old father who has
discovered online scratch cards?
Including gender into gambling studies would benefit researchers, but also
professionals who treat problem gamblers. If we think that girls don't gamble
and a typical female (problem) gambler is a little old lady at the bingo hall
or playing on a slot machine, we cannot understand why young good looking
women have become new faces of gambling advertisements. These young
women are not anymore simply part of poker players' entourage and hostesses
of online poker rooms. No, they are part of the gambling operators' dream world:
gambling is fun and girls just want to have fun!
Fortunately, gender itself is not considered as a funny (laughable?) research topic.
Perhaps it is less appreciated as such than public policy, gambling operation or
EU regulation in the gambling research field, but gender becomes an important
variable when we want to create typologies of gamblers and understand the context
in which gambling is made possible. Yes, a poker bot does not have a gender
and gender swap is common online. Nevertheless, the topic of gender gives us
new perspectives on social life (i.e. socialization, social relations, attitudes and
opinions), gambling operation and treatment. It also promises a deeper
conception of social norms, cultural values and habits. A society cannot exist
without individuals and gender is not simply biology - it is a social
and cultural construction.
With a research subject such as mine, it is not always easy to find an appropriate
working group. I was lucky, because Professors Leena Eräsaari (University of
Jyväskylä, FI) and Eeva Jokinen (University of Eastern Finland) organized a working
group on gender and marketization of services.
I presented a working paper on problem gambling from the intimates' point of
view. My purpose was to understand better women's habitus and agency
when the problem gambler is a husband/partner, child (underage or adult),
an elderly parent (mother or father) or a friend/colleague. It is quite interesting
to analyze how women take responsibility of the gambling problem and how
they seek help or treatment for the problem gambler. In the message data
that I use, women rarely ask help for themselves or for their children.
Gender is still a relatively invisible topic in gambling studies. Gender research
could benefit those who are interested in studying gamblers, problem gamblers,
intimates and other family members, youth gambling, elderly gambling and
marketing of gambling products. By gender I don't mean only women. It would
be interesting to study poker playing and its ideal of masculinity from a gender
perspective. It would also be interesting to study motherhood or fatherhood when
the child is gambling and losing. And what about the elderly problem gambler
who is chasing losses: how can an adult child help an old father who has
discovered online scratch cards?
Including gender into gambling studies would benefit researchers, but also
professionals who treat problem gamblers. If we think that girls don't gamble
and a typical female (problem) gambler is a little old lady at the bingo hall
or playing on a slot machine, we cannot understand why young good looking
women have become new faces of gambling advertisements. These young
women are not anymore simply part of poker players' entourage and hostesses
of online poker rooms. No, they are part of the gambling operators' dream world:
gambling is fun and girls just want to have fun!
Fortunately, gender itself is not considered as a funny (laughable?) research topic.
Perhaps it is less appreciated as such than public policy, gambling operation or
EU regulation in the gambling research field, but gender becomes an important
variable when we want to create typologies of gamblers and understand the context
in which gambling is made possible. Yes, a poker bot does not have a gender
and gender swap is common online. Nevertheless, the topic of gender gives us
new perspectives on social life (i.e. socialization, social relations, attitudes and
opinions), gambling operation and treatment. It also promises a deeper
conception of social norms, cultural values and habits. A society cannot exist
without individuals and gender is not simply biology - it is a social
and cultural construction.
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