The recent 116th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association saw the presentation of some interesting findings regarding casino gamblers in the United States. One of the main findings in a presented study was that those who spend more carelessly are generally a lot more emotionally troubled than those who spend carefully. Just so, in a study conducted by psychologists Arch G. Woodside and Ralph Perfetto, the most common American casino gamblers is mostly an average income earner, who is likely to gamble most weeks during the year and is at risk of suffering financial and psychological stress.

The study covered the casino gambling patterns of 20,569 individuals, and found that “X gamblers”, who take up 2% of the total casino gambling population, are actually responsible for a quarter of their casino gambling wins and losses.

The first sub-group of X Gamblers is that of “Whales” - white, middle-aged and high-earning males, who frequent the casino during most weeks iand spend the most money. “Jumbo Shrimp” refers to white, mature females with low incomes, who also visit the casino most weeks of the year. The third group, “Big Fish”, includes moderate earners from mixed demographic backgrounds, who visit the casino at least 25 times a year and occupy half of the X Gambling population.

The study concluded that Big Fish were most at risk of losing finances and suffering devastating psychological affects, whilst Jumbo Shrimps and Whales are not too much of a worry when one group has enough money to lose some and the other has none to spend.