If you thought women weren’t into gambling as much as men, we have a surprise for you! Female gamblers are not rare at all, and they can get very passionate about their hobby. You shouldn’t be surprised if you meet a gambling woman who is up to date with the latest bonus offers and promotions and has already found the best online casino of the moment before you because women enjoy this type of activity too.
Experiences
Although the general assumption may be that women in gambling are pretty rare, studies show that this is not the case at all. For instance, the UK Gambling Commission's quarterly telephone survey on gambling showed that almost half of the women engaged in gambling activities in the previous weeks of the survey. Among them, women aged 35-54 were the most active, but younger women also gambled privately.
However, although women are as present as men in the gambling scene, their gambling habits may be different than the ones of their male counterparts. In this article, we will explore the unique experiences of women in the gambling world, see what extra opportunities or challenges they have, and understand how their behavior differs from one of male gamblers.
1. Women get exclusive themes and commercials
The fact that women get casino products that providers create especially for them may be pretty obvious if you think about it. There are many casino games that come with feminine themes, delicate graphics, and sweet soundtracks that target women specifically. From the start, women have a separate casino games category, especially for them. But there’s more. Apparently, there are even commercials that target only women too.
Doctoral Teaching Assistant and Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Society and Culture from the University of Plymouth, Suzanne Baggs, has conducted research that explores the ups and downs women who engage in gambling activities go through. She found out that the gambling industry uses marketing techniques that target women specifically. They often consist of TV commercials that portray women playing fancy slots together on their phones, which makes gambling seem like an extremely fun and social activity. However, indications show that the chat rooms may not be necessarily the friendliest places, and many users experience negative talk, bullying, or form superficial friendships. Although a separate women's category for games may be innocent, women’s commercials that are deceiving may have a highly negative impact on female players.
2. Women don’t experience addiction problems as much as men
Luckily for female gamblers, studies by the UK Gambling Commission show that the risk for gambling addiction is smaller among women. Women have moderate and low-risk rates of gambling problems, with values of 0.9% and 1.4%.
Another 2013 study published in the National Library of Medicine shows that only 2.9% of women proved to be problem gamblers, while in the case of men, the percentage rose to 4.2%. If we use these rates to encompass US gambling addicts, this brings us to 2.5 million women and 3.5 million men who have a gambling addiction. Although it seems like female gamblers have a different experience with gambling addiction, and they don’t struggle with it as much as men, addiction is not impossible, so we advise all of our readers, both male and female, to gamble responsibly.
3. Women have different gambling preferences than men
Another reason why women have a different and unique experience than men is that they usually gather in different casino revenues and socialize the most in groups that revolve around different types of casino games. While many men prefer to play slots or poker, may it be at mobile casino sites or physical casinos, women choose bingo, scratchcards, and lotteries. They can also bet on animal races.
Moreover, many women prefer to play at the best gambling sites instead of going to physical casinos. As NatCen and the University of Liverpool show in a study, women who have accounts at online casinos tend to play more often and longer than men while also spending more money than male players.
We hope this article has shed some light on your curiosities and answered your questions about the differences between male and female players and the experience female gamblers go through. If you are a gambler, too, remember to play responsibly if you want to really have fun!