27/10/2009, Players
The National Centre for Social Research, acting on behalf of the UK Gambling Commission, completed a comprehensive study on 43 gamblers designated to provide information, in order to understand the habits of the casino players and to explore all the details concerning the games of chance.
One of the most interesting things the researchers found out, is that there are four different categories of gamblers, depending on how the players think or act, and the current division of gamblers into “problem” and “non-problem” casino players is very relative.

According to the researchers, there are four classifications:
- the peripheral players,
- the gambling enthusiasts,
- the professional gamblers,
- the compulsive gamblers.
The peripheral players are those who gamble only occasionally. They do not necessarily gamble for money, but for social experiments, or for fun only. Most of them participate in the game for the purely social aspect.

The gambling enthusiasts gamble frequently, but not in a compulsive manner. They consider casino games as interesting hobbies, or nice ways of spending time.

The professional gamblers play for lots of money and consider gambling as a “job”, as their ways of earning money. For those players, gambling means business.

Finally, there are the compulsive players, those who are addicted to gambling. For them, gambling becomes fundamental and it occupies a central place, controlling many aspects of their lives.