In Spain, more and more people are investing in financial assets such as cryptocurrency. This trend is also seen in the gaming industry, where the purchase of applications and digital content is now the largest source of revenue in a market with a total size, for Europe, of some 23 billion euros per year. And although they might appear to be separate industries, trading and gaming seem to have one thing in common: it is increasingly common to find mechanisms in them that are imported from the world of betting.

In the gaming industry it has become popular to buy loot boxes. These virtual boxes are acquired with real money and contain “loot” consisting of items for gameplay, the value of which is unknown until the player opens the box. In other words, they have a random reward mechanism whereby, as in gambling, there may be losses or gains for the player. Money outlays on activities with a component of chance or in which the player’s skill is not a factor has also reached streaming platforms (real-time or live broadcast platforms), such as Twitch, where some spectators bet on characters in online games or broadcasts of games of chance.

Along the same lines, in the world of investment, more and more non-professionals are using web platforms or trading applications to make small short-term investments of financial assets. This type of investment, commonly called trading, also bears structural similarities with gambling. As occurs with online betting, often the trader seeks to make a quick profit, running a greater risk of losing money and on many occasions making decisions on the basis of limited information or knowledge.

Gambling can cause addiction. Despite this, in Spain there is limited data available on the impact that the incorporation of gambling into the areas of trading and gaming may have on the population. Most surveys to date have been conducted online among users of trading platforms or video gamers, where behaviours of this sort could be more common than in the population at large. For this reason, the research reported here employed two parallel studies – telephone and online surveys – to obtain adjusted data for the frequency of trading and betting on video games in the general Spanish population. It also sought to analyse their possible relationship with pathological gambling, i.e., the addictive disorder in which sufferers exhibit problematic gambling-related behaviours that affect their personal, working or social life. To this end, the chosen population profile was that with the highest risk of engaging in problematic trading and betting behaviours on video games.

In order to obtain adjusted data on the frequency of use of betting on video games and trading, a telephone survey was conducted on a general population of 1,011 people aged between 18 and 64, of which 51% were women.

Of the respondents, 2.8% stated that they had bet on video games or streaming platforms over the past year. Purchasing loot boxes (1.5%) and betting on skins (a character’s appearance) or improvements in gaming equipment (1.1%) are the main modes of betting used.

Age and sex are determining factors in the prevalence of these behaviours. Betting to improve gaming equipment rises to 5% in respondents aged under 26. In this age group, approximately three out of every 100 young people have bought loot boxes and nearly 2% have bet on characters in online games broadcast live and on e-sports (competitions between professional gamers). As is the case with traditional online gambling (lotteries, sports betting, etc.), the use of this new betting format is more frequent among men. In fact, the prevalence in women is below 0.5% in all the evaluated formats.

Trading behaviours are more frequent in the Spanish population than betting on video games. Respondents who had traded over the last 12 months accounted for 13.3% of the total.

The financial products in which the general population trade most are the stock market (6.3%), cryptocurrency (5.5%) and exchange-traded funds (5%). Furthermore, it is common to invest money in several trading modes. Approximately 40% of those who trade have done so in more than one asset.

These percentages vary significantly depending on the age range analysed and sex. Although on the whole the percentage of traders is similar among different age groups, some financial assets are more common in specific age ranges. Possession of cryptocurrency rises to 11.5% in people aged 26 to 30, and the age group under 25 trades most in this asset (12.8%). On the other hand, investing in exchange-traded funds and the stock market is more popular in the group ranging from 46 to 64. These differences are also found between sexes. Twice as many men as women have traded over the last year (19% versus 7.6%), a difference that is even more striking in products such as cryptocurrency and the stock market.

On the evidence of the online survey, with 1,429 respondents, 6.3% had bet on video games and 30.6% had traded in the past year. The mostcommon profile of the trader is a 39-year-old male with a university education, a full-time job and a monthly income in excess of 2,000 euros. For the most part, he trades monthly in cryptocurrency, either exclusively or in combination with other financial products, and spends on average three hours a day seeking information on trading and studying or analysing markets. On average, he has invested approximately 5,000 euros in purchase transactions in the last year. A large proportion (41.2%) of this population use mobile applications or investment platforms for these transactions. One particularly striking result is that only 1.4% state that they are professional traders or financial investors.

Regarding the population who bet on video games or streaming platforms, the average profile is that of a male student under 25 years of age. In the last year, he has spent around 530 euros on these new betting formats, where he bets regularly. In this population, almost 40% bet weekly on gaming competitions, while 32.6% have bought loot boxes at least twice a week.

In addition, 82% of those who bet on video games also do so using traditional betting formats. Another particularly significant result is the large proportion of people who bet on video games and also trade: 60% of users of these new gaming formats have traded in financial assets.

The normalisation of gambling is a factor in reducing the perception of risk, and therefore increases the probability of addictive behaviour developing. Evaluating this perception of risk provides information as to what extent the population consider that participating in the activities on which this article focuses might lead to problems.

Thus, those who engage in video game betting or trading, in comparison with those who do not, have a lesser perception of the danger of the risk behaviours evaluated. This lower risk perception is even lower among those who have engaged in both behaviours in the last year. Within this group, fewer than half of the respondents consider that betting on video games or trading weekly involves a significant risk. They also perceive less danger in other financial risk behaviours such as gambling a day’s wages on a game of poker or sports betting. Only half of those who gamble and trade consider that these are high-risk activities.

This tendency to play down risks is not limited to just financial activities and gambling; it is also found in relation to other risk behaviours such as psychoactive substance use. Approximately 60% of those who bet or trade stated that drinking alcohol did not entail a high risk and only 57.4% perceive smoking tobacco as an activity that could cause problems. This low perception also extends to illegal substances. Over a third of the respondents who engage in both betting and trading stated that consuming cannabis or cocaine are low-risk activities.

Pathological trading can be defined as a persistent and maladaptive trading behaviour that generates negative consequences for the personal, social or professional life of the person who develops it.

Three main findings stand out from the data obtained. Firstly, 84.8% of respondents who matched the criteria for pathological gambling also engaged in trading. Secondly, 65.2% stated that they bet on video games or streaming platforms. And thirdly, 12.7% of traders showed problematic trading behaviours, such as needing to spend more and more time trading, feeling edgy or angry when attempting to cut down on or give up trading, or concealing their degree of involvement in this activity (for example, lying to other people about financial losses).

The results of the study also alert to a strong association between pathological trading and gambling addiction: 60% of traders who matched the criteria of pathological trading also had a gambling disorder. In general, they show more gambling-related behaviours: 83.3% spent money on lotteries and other traditional betting formats, while 46.3% also did so on video games or streaming platforms.

The study on which this article is based has made it possible to develop the profile of the population that are most likely to trade and bet on video games. The profile is that of a man aged around 39, with higher education and a monthly income in excess of 2,000 euros, who regularly engages in gambling-related behaviours (buying lottery, betting on sports, etc.). It is also concluded that trading in cryptocurrency or the stock market non-professionally is more common than betting on video games.

These trading activities do not appear to be risk-free, as the results of the study show that approximately one out of ten traders has come across problems in their personal, family or professional life as a result of these investment activities. Furthermore, the findings reveal that more than half of those who engage in pathological trading also have gambling problems. Despite these consequences, the perception of the associated risk is low, especially among those who both trade and bet. These results highlight the importance of developing specific strategies for the prevention and treatment of these behaviours, the prevalence of which is increasingly great in the Spanish population.

To date, most studies of this sort conducted on the Spanish population had focused on analysing the relationship between video game betting and pathological gambling. The association between trading activities and gambling disorder, however, was under-explored. As a result, the project was carried out using two parallel studies. One was in the form of a telephone survey to obtain adjusted prevalence data on the use of betting on video games and trading in Spain, while the second study, conducted online, was designed to obtain a representative profile of the Spanish population that engage in these behaviours. Although the data collection method does not allow for the establishment of a cause-and-effect relationship between pathological gambling and trading (as each participant was evaluated only once), another of the strengths of the project is the use, for the first time, of a specific questionnaire for the evaluation of pathological trading.

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DELFABBRO, P., et al. (2021): «Cryptocurrency trading, gambling and problem gambling», Addictive Behaviors, 122 

GUGLIELMO, R., L. IOIME and L. JANIRI (2016): «Is Pathological Trading an Overlooked Form of Addiction?», Addiction & Health, 8(3).

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