When cannabis users elect to gamble under the influence, they vary widely in how they expect their session to go, yet those conflicting expectations also guide their decision to do so. According to recent research, more than half of cannabis users said they expected the drug to have a positive effect on their gambling experience, yet just as many agreed gambling while high could have negative consequences. In fact, every statement about the possible effect of cannabis use was endorsed by more than half of the respondents.
The team behind the study also found negative expectations for the effects of cannabis grew with the severity of the user’s habits.
Similarly, the findings showed both positive and negative expectancies correlated with problem gambling indicators and time spent gambling while high.
In other words, the more people gamble and the more cannabis they use, it seems the stronger their beliefs become about how it affects their play.
As the study details, the findings indicate that expectations “influence the decision to consume cannabis and gamble simultaneously.” As a result, the researchers argue there’s a need to address cannabis expectations when treating people dealing with gambling problems.
One of the study’s authors, James P. Whelan, Ph.D., professor & executive director of the Tennessee Institute for Gambling Education and Research (TIGER) at the University of Memphis, spoke with Bonus about the findings. Study co-authors are E. Halle Smith, Abby McPhail, Marcos Lerma, and Rory A. Pfund.
Beginning the conversation, Whelan reiterated how expectations often drive decisions of whether to partake in a particular activity. He also noted that, over the past decade, TIGER has undertaken a series of studies looking at the effects of alcohol on risk-taking and gambling.
For this latest research, TIGER shifted focus to deciphering the ideas gamblers hold about how cannabis affects their gambling experience.
They started with a simple question, he said:
What do they think is going to happen?
Gambling and Cannabis Often Entangled
As the paper points out, emerging research suggests cannabis use often intertwines with people’s gambling.
Per a previous TIGER study, nearly 50% of gamblers wagering at least once per week used cannabis half of those times. This result, researchers wrote, is unsurprising given a United Nations report from 2020 found that 20% of Americans partake, making cannabis the US’s “most consumed illicit psychoactive substance.”
The new study’s primary goal was to investigate how those who gamble frequently expect cannabis to impact their experience. These expectations, researchers theorized, could produce implications for gambling behaviors.
To participate, respondents recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) had to be over 18, from the US, and gamble at least once a week.
The final cohort included 472 people with an average age of just over 35. Most were male (58%), white (95%), heterosexual (67%), and married (86%), while 96% had a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Positive Expectations Edge Out Potential Negatives
As anticipated, findings showed that gamblers have strong expectations about cannabis’s impact on their betting experience, said Whelan.
They have beliefs about what’s going to happen. And, those beliefs are related to their gambling behavior and the likelihood of gambling problems.
Unsurprisingly, Whelan said, the results indicate people hold both positive and negative cannabis-related expectations. Over 50% of participants showed some degree of agreement with every expectancy presented.
However, unlike previous studies on alcohol use, the team found that positive associations drove the gambling-cannabis crossover more than negative ones.
Consider the three most endorsed expectancies on each extreme:
Positive:
- “I feel calm when I gamble under the influence of cannabis” (61.4%)
- “It is more enjoyable to gamble under the influence of cannabis” (61.0%)
- “My skills increase when I gamble under the influence of cannabis” (60.6%)
Negative:
- “I lose control and become careless when I gamble under the influence of cannabis” (56.4%)
- “I feel anxious when I gamble under the influence of cannabis” (54.8%)
- “I cannot concentrate when I gamble under the influence of cannabis” (53.7%)
Most of the cohort’s cannabis users also agreed they were more focused (60.3%) and felt they won more (57.5%) when under the influence.
Of the results, Whelan added:
People think that it’s going to make them calmer. It makes them more relaxed, willing to gamble, and lucky in certain circumstances.
Changing Mores Shifts Pot’s Acceptability
Whalen told Bonus that this finding agrees with the previous scholarship.
He referenced a Harvard study funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that found the growing acceptability of cannabis has led Americans to over-value the drug’s positive outcomes while overlooking possible negatives.
He said these latest findings run “sort of parallel” to that.
However, he also acknowledged TIGER’s work focuses on individuals experiencing gambling harm. As a result, it’s not appropriate to generalize the results beyond that group.
In our samples, we’re not chasing general populations. Usually, we’re looking for those people who are really engaged in the behavior and perhaps experience harm related to it. So, our sample this time ended up being very clinical, meaning that people had problems.
Further highlights bear this out.
On average, each week, participants reported gambling for:
- 4.31 days
- 10.11 hours each time
And they spent an average of:
- $413 per session
Problem Gambling, Cannabis Disorder Dominate Study Sample
As Whelan noted above, according to the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) of 472 study participants, 94% (444) showed indications of gambling problems. Additionally, both positive and negative expectancies positively correlated with PGSI scores.
Likewise, nearly half (55%) of all respondents reported lifetime cannabis use, with 99% of those partaking during the previous month. Of lifetime users, on average, the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R) classified 81.4% as experiencing cannabis dependence.
This result aligns with the finding that negative expectations were “significantly associated” with a higher CUDIT-R score, while positive associations were not. Given the prevalence of positive expectations, this could be good news. The higher the score, the greater the indication of a cannabis use disorder.
Finally, PGSI results also indicated an increased problem gambling risk for those reporting lifetime cannabis use, something not seen in those who didn’t consume the drug. Strikingly, only 3 of 259 subjects (1%) who reported using cannabis indicated having not gambled while high.
Both findings support the paper’s call to clinicians to consider cannabis use when confronting and treating gambling problems.
Gambling Funding, Cannabis Laws Blunt US Research
The purpose of this study was not to argue we know people’s expectations, explained Whalen.
Instead, it was to lay the groundwork for future scholarship on cannabis and gambling behavior by establishing proof of a psychological component. Confirming people believe cannabis will alter them in some way that modifies their gambling experience.
He said establishing the baseline will allow researchers to ask more precise questions about what’s happening.
The literature examining cannabis use on gambling, or cannabis use while gambling is highly nascent, he added.
We’re just asking some real proof-of-concept questions. The real science will come. We’re just beginning to understand how these two behaviors intertwine.
He said that one problem standing in their way is that the federal government doesn’t fund gambling research. As an example, he noted that in 2022, the feds spent $276 million on alcohol addiction programs and zero on gambling.
Research funding largely depends on the states, and what’s available is patchwork at best. However, he says TIGER’s been fortunate in Tennessee, and another cannabis study is already on the horizon. For the next go, McPhail, working towards her doctorate in clinical psychology, intends to track cannabis-using gamblers over time to measure any influence on the amount or type of gambling.
Still, due to American laws, Whalen says he’s not sure when US researchers will be able to do full-fledged cannabis research without jumping legal hurdles.
I have no idea when our Congress will change anything, but it prohibits an institution that receives federal dollars from doing human research on cannabis. You have to get a special license, even to do animal research. Changing the legal status [of cannabis] will allow people to ask more questions.
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