The psychosocial and motivational dimension of sports betting and gambling in the post-pandemic context.

The study responds to the need to generate quantitative knowledge, based on a survey with a statistically significant sample of the Spanish gambling population. The study analyzes the motivational, attitudinal and psycho-environmental aspects that precipitate or protect young people from gambling. The working hypothesis is based on the fact that the greater the environmental exposure and the greater the motivational predisposition towards sports betting and gambling, the greater the risk of presenting problem gambling and developing pathological gambling disorder. Another study hypothesis is that certain sociodemographic variables such as personal income level, purchasing power of the family of origin, socialization neighborhood and plutocratic value system are independent variables that modify certain dependent variables such as perception, cognitive schemas and motivation towards gambling. Consequently, gambling behavior is trivialized and the risk of suffering from problem gambling disorder increases. Finally, in the study we worked to find out how age of onset behaves as an independent variable to catalyze the problems associated with gambling. Knowing these data will allow us to obtain reliable knowledge on how to address prevention among young people, especially the most effective environmental measures. To test these hypotheses, the research has carried out the “Survey on sports betting and gambling in Spain, 2022”. This is the first statistical operation aimed exclusively at the gambling population and its objective is to study the motivational, attitudinal and psycho-environmental aspects that affect gambling behavior, with special interest in the gender perspective and in the young population.