Socialinis darbas

During the rapid development of gambling business, the number of pathological gamblers is increasing as well. The problem of pathological gambling is just as important as alcoholism or drug addiction. However, there is a lack of information and research of this topicin Lithuania.
The aim of work: to investigate and analyse the factors that increase or reduce involvement in gambling.
Research questions: 1) What factors increase involvement in gambling? 2) What factors reduce involvement in gambling?
Critical case sampling was used for selection of the participants. Subjects were required to a) have experience of involvement in gambling for at least one year; b) have experience of negative impact of gambling on quality of life; c) have at least 6 months of gambling abstinence. Five individuals participated in the research; all of them were males who live in Vilnius. Age of the participants varied from 19 to 45. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The matic analysis of the data led to the identification of four major the matic categories: psychological factors; social relations; material well being; quality of life.
There search results show that negatyve childhood experience, gambling friends, escaping from various troubles, disputes in family and high financial needs can increase involvement in gambling. Factors that reduce involvement in gambling are: feeling support of social environment, proper evaluation of financial position, awareness of one‘s own addiction to gambling and desire to change life.
Keywords: Gambling, Pathological Gambler, Thematic Analysis.