Recherche de sensations dans une population française de joueurs de courses de chevaux : comparaison entre des joueurs pathologiques et réguliers

The sensation-seeking personality trait permits the discrimination of pathological from regular gamblers who go to the racetrack. In the literature, data came from gamblers who practice off-course betting. Nevertheless, pathological gamblers who go to the racetrack seemed to differ from those who practice off-course betting in terms of sensation seeking. The former are high sensation seekers whereas the latter are low sensation seekers. Racetrack gamblers are likely to be more involved in staking plans than off-course gamblers. One way of conceiving the distribution of sensation seekers within gambling forms might be to combine the relationships depicted with the dichotomy made between skills and luck games, or with the serious-recreational, casino-non-casino distinctions. There is a need to identify clinically distinct subgroups of gamblers who exhibit common, cardinal symptoms but, at the same time, who differ significantly with respect to key variables that are of etiological relevance and can be used in treatment and prognosis. To establish different subtypes, it is important to take into account the venue and the type of games as well as the sensation-seeking scores and the motivation of the gambler. These subtypes of gamblers are discussed.