A qualitative and gender focused approach to the study of gambling amongst adolescents and young adult

Gambling is a very widespread social phenomenon that has hardly been studied from a gender
perspective. Therefore, the aim of this work is to approach the opinions and perceptions of
adolescents and young people in relation to games of chance from a gender perspective. We
adopt a qualitative methodology based on focus groups, in which 77 adolescents and young
people from Extremadura have participated. The results have shown that boys are more likely
to play these games, both from an early age and in public, as part of their social integration.
Women play more than previously and prefer games such as scratch cards or bingo to other
forms of gambling. Gambling establishments seem to have stepped in to cover a lack of spaces
catering for other youth leisure activities, and it is men who spend more time in such places.
Females attend less frequently and often only as companions, many of them displaying a critical
attitude towards these establishments and finding them hostile places.