Gambling Brings out the Superstition in us

Filed in archive Gambling General on September 8, 2005

Gamblers are more superstitious than the average person - according to a new piece of research by Mark Griffith of Trent University.

80% of Bingo players would look for lucky seats, lucky numbers, lucky friends or lucky nights to try to gain more gambling wins - this is compared with just one third of the population that are thought to be superstitious

Griffiths surveyed 412 bingo players to find that 4% reported having a lucky friend, 5% a lucky night of the week, 6% a lucky mascot (such as a rabbit's foot), 13% lucky and unlucky numbers and 21% a lucky seat they would prefer to sit in.

Amazingly, 29% reported that they believed changing to a lucky bingo pen, or "dobber", was a common strategy to reverse a losing streak. These beliefs are based on "illusory correlations" between random events and gambling success, says Griffiths.

Griffiths also found that heavy spending gamblers -- those who spent more than �20 in a bingo session -- where those most likely to be superstitious. This could be because they have more at stake, he adds.

However - all this superstition doesn't exactly make gamblers more successful. Unfortunately

Article: Gamblers are a superstitious bunch