Poker, Skills and Associated Problems

In the literature, although compulsive poker players undoubtedly share similarities with the compulsive gamblers of other gambling games, clinicians have observed significant specificities in these patients, in terms of personality profile, gaming practices and associated troubles. These specificities could influence the effectiveness of treatment and prevention strategies in many ways. However, there are very few studies focused on the specific poker-related problems, particularly compared to other practices.

Furthermore, skill at poker has often been treated as a unique and general ability. This binary vision is now considered widely insufficient and most researchers recommend exploring the individual cognitive abilities at play in poker skill. To the investigators knowledge, no study has done this to date.

Consequently, the PERHAPS project aims to fill two gaps in the scientific literature: on the one hand, studying the clinical and cognitive particularities of poker-related problems, and on the other hand, studying poker skill as a combination of multiple cognitive and emotional abilities.

Three profiles of poker players will be studied, depending on their gambling practices and whether or not they are addicted: a control group of 30 non-poker players, a group of 30 expert unproblematic poker players, and a group of 30 pathological poker players.

The three groups will be compared with one another on:

• Cognitive and emotional abilities (for expert players) or deficits (for pathological gamblers)
• Clinical particularities of poker-related problems

Secondarily (ancillary study), pathological poker gamblers will be compared with pathological gamblers of other gambling games (pure chance games n=30 and quasi-skill games n=30).

The PERHAPS project aims to improve knowledge of gambling addiction, particularly as regards poker, in order to optimise prevention and care strategies. The clinical aim is especially to construct a cognitive remediation therapy program. It also intends to discuss the legal framework applied to poker under the gambling regulation.

Inclusion criteria

• 18-59 years
• good understanding of French, literate
• correct level of vision and hearing
• specific inclusion criteria for each group include frequency and length of poker practice, DSM-5 doagnostic criteria for gambling disorder

Exclusion criteria

• protected adults
• important cognitive deficit (assessed by the MMSE)
• psychotic syndrome whole life
• other psychiatric disorders (mood disorders, anxiety disorders) and addictive disorders (disorders related to the use of alcoholic or other substances, excluding nicotine) that are present and not stabilized
• unstable endocrine disorders
• significant neurological disorders (such as head injuries (except mild), neurodegenerative diseases, unbalanced epilepsy, mental retardation, etc.)
• psychoactive use (before participation)
• color blindness
• cardiac disorders
• electronic implants