Knowing the category you fall into might prove valuable to your playing experience.
Did you know that there’s more than one type of gambler personality? I didn’t…well, I suppose it’s more accurate for me to say that I didn’t know there were as many gambler personality types as I recently learned existed.
I’ve never really given the “what kind of gambler are you?” question much thought before. Essentially, I figured there were three types:
- Casual gamblers – people like me who gamble regularly or on occasion for fun.
- Professional gamblers – people who gamble for a living (e.g. poker masters).
- Compulsive gamblers – people who are addicted to gambling and can’t stop.
Apparently, I was wrong. If you do a quick online search like I did, you’ll find sites listing anywhere from 5 – 9 types of gambling personalities. Since I was interested in what I learned, I decided to create my own little rundown of the gambling personality types I found and share it with you. I figure you might find the info interesting like I did, and you might even learn what gambling personality type most represents your style of playing. Who knows? Maybe what you learn will help you to better understand your gambling behavior and benefit how you play in the future.
Different Gambler Personalities
Understanding what gambling personality traits you have begins with learning about the different types of the most common personalities.
For my post, I’m covering 8 different gambler personality types. Technically I could break it down into 12 personalities, but a number of them overlap, in my opinion (e.g, impulsive gambler and emotional gambler), so I’ve lumped them into the same category for the sake of avoiding repetition.
Here are the different kinds of gambling personalities (in no particular order).
Social/Recreational Gambler
Social gamblers, also known as recreational gamblers, are typically characterized as enjoying gambling for entertainment purposes. Social gambler personality traits are broken down into two categories:
Casual Social – This type of gambler enjoys gambling for fun, usually in the company of others. They typically prefer the social aspect of playing with friends, family, or other players than gambling (winning or losing) itself. They typically gamble on occasion and spend a moderate amount on gambling, but nothing that would break the bank.
*The risk for problem gambling among casual social gamblers is small.
Serious Social – This type of gambler takes gambling more seriously in that they typically know more about the games they play than a casual social gambler and spend more time and money playing. They also play more to win and for relaxation than simply for the fun entertainment value itself. Still, they do enjoy the social aspect of gambling, and usually have no issues controlling their budget and do not place the importance of gambling over their career and personal life (family, friends, etc.).
*The risk for problem gambling among serious social gamblers is small, but over time increased/excessive playing can lead to a shift in behavior change that could potentially become problematic.
Professional Gambler
This is the gambler who makes a living from gambling. The rarest gambler personality type of the bunch, the pro is one who possesses skills, disciplines, strategies, knowledge and experience for specific gambling games like poker, blackjack, and sports betting – activities where knowledge of odds can have an impact on an outcome. Still, it takes time and loads of experience to become a pro and develop a winning strategy that can lead to genuine earnings. Moreover, these types of gamblers also possess a high degree of intelligence, patience, self-control, and frustration tolerance.
*Pro gamblers tend to have gambling problems. The difference is that pros are not driven to play by addiction or the compulsive urge for higher risk. Their drive comes from making a living off their wins that they achieve based on skills and experience. Still, even pros can become addicts and suffer negative consequences if they’re not careful.
Adrenaline/High Risk Gambler
This is the gambler who plays for one purpose only – for the thrill and excitement of the risk and win. They often take high risks with both their money and in their behaviour. They are driven by the rush of wanting to/or thinking they will win and often seek out new thrills and higher-risk experiences during a single playing session to continue feeding their rush. They are often driven by their emotions and are at risk of gambling beyond their means.
*This type of gambler is at a higher problem gambling risk due to their high-risk, thrill-seeking nature and the euphoria they feel when they win. This could lead to them chasing losses, spending more than they intended, and suffering huge financial losses.
Escape/Relief Gambler
This is a gambler who engages in gambling activities to relieve stress, boredom, emotional pain, depression, anxiety, loneliness, anger or other negative situations they may currently be facing. To them, gambling provides an escape from their everyday life, giving them temporary relief and distraction from their problems. It’s a way for them to avoid reality.
*Emotional/relief-seeking gamblers are at a greater risk of developing problem gambling behaviors as they use gambling as a coping mechanism. Their decisions lack judgment and are emotionally driven. Losing significant amounts of money only furthers their emotional strife in the long run.
Impulsive/Emotional Gambler
This gambler personality type is characterized as someone who gambles erratically without any thought to their playing approach. It is someone who bets spontaneously, making decisions guided by their emotions. The outcome is less important than the gambling experience itself, which can result in consequences from their actions that they didn’t take into consideration before playing. Social, high-risk, and escape gamblers, can all be impulsive/emotional gamblers.
*There is moderate problem gambling risk for this type of player. It all depends on how often the impulsive/emotional gambler bets and how much they bet.
Criminal/Dirty Gambler
These are gamblers who behave in unlawful ways or engage in illegal gambling activities. They typically cheat, steal, lie, or deceive others to win, no matter the consequences. It could be something as simple as hiding a card up their sleeve or using bots/cheating software to something far more corrupt, such as embezzling money, laundering money, orchestrating an event, or fixing a sports race/match. These gamblers may also be attracted to high-risk and high-reward play.
*These types of gamblers are at high risk for problem gambling. What’s more, their criminal behaviour and potential mental health issues (which may be an underlying cause for their illegal behiavour) may also require attention.
Conservative/Cautious/Strategist Gambler
Conservative gamblers are interested in the experience of gambling more than anything else. They’re not chasing a thrill, nor do they care about social interaction. They choose the games they play with purpose and employ strategies when making bets. They take calculated risks and rarely engage in high-stakes games or tournaments. They tend to have a modest budget and prioritize minimizing losses over trying for big wins.
*This type of gambler has a low risk of problem gambling. As their entire approach to the activity is one built around caution and control.
Compulsive Gambler
Also known as pathological gamblers, these are individuals who have a severe addiction to gambling. Regardless of the consequences, they cannot resist the urge to gamble and must satisfy the uncontrollable craving and continue the activity. It doesn’t matter if they can’t afford it, if they’ll lose their job, if they break the law, or if it hurts them or others. A compulsive gambler will sacrifice their financial, social, physical, and mental health to feed their addiction, even if they know they have a problem.
*There is help for problem gambling and many compulsive gamblers can benefit from professional treatment. To learn more about problem gambling, its signs, prevention, and how you can find help in Ontario, check out my post – What is Problem Gambling? Does it Affect Me?
What Type of Gambler are you? – Take the Quiz
As you may have noticed from the above gambler personality types I listed, each one is defined by certain traits. It’s not always easy to know how you fit into a certain category, especially when you might think you have traits that match more than one type of gambling personality.
To help me figure out what gambler personality type I had, I found some free online quizzes and took a few to see what my results would be (I can admit that I also took these quizzes because I find it fun to take online quizzes 🤣).
If you’re curious, and you’d like to take one (or all) the quizzes I took, I’ve included links to them below. Each one is designed a little differently, so it doesn’t feel like you’re taking the same one.
Gambling Personality Type Quizzes
What Kind of Gamer Are You? – Quiz – This one is from the Responsible Gambling Council and is geared more to young adults, but it was still interesting to take, and I found that I really had to think about my answers to the questions.
What Kind of Gambler Am I? – Quiz – This one is more adult-based and is from Choices & Chances (on a side note, if you do this quiz and your result is “maybe you are a social gambler like Mia”, I swear this has nothing to do with me 🤣 🤣. I nearly fell over laughing when I read that result after I took this quiz!)
Personality Quiz: What Kind of Gambler Are You? – This gambling personality quiz is from LCB. For this one, you’ll need to keep track of your answers (a simple number tally) to discover your results.
What Type of Gambler am I?
After reading about the different gambler personality traits and taking a few quizzes (including those I’ve linked to above) I’m confident that – more often than not – I’m a social gambler. Specifically, I’d say I’m somewhere between a casual and conservative gambler, leaning more on the casual side (because I don’t always use strategies and 9 times out of 10, I’m in it for the fun).
Of course, I’m not perfect. There have been times when I’ve been disappointed when I didn’t win or times when I depleted my bankroll faster than I wanted to. Also, I do gamble for the thrill of it because it’s fun, but I still wouldn’t call myself an adrenaline/high risk-taking gambler. I also don’t have a big gambling budget. Mostly – like playing video games – it’s about the entertainment factor for me.
Ultimately, every one of us is unique and most of us won’t fit into a single gambler personality type definition. What’s most important is that we know our gambling behavior, track our behavior, play responsibly with limits, and make changes or call it quits if our gambling patterns shift.
Until next time, good luck and have fun.
Mia 👩💻
*Regardless of how big or small the problem gambling risk may be in association with a gambler personality trait, any type of gambler has the potential to develop problem gambling habits. It’s important to play responsibly, monitor any shifts in your playing behaviour, and take action if you are worried about your gambling.
**All links and images in this post are for informational purposes only
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