SOCIOPATHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF BETTING
SOCIOPATHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF BETTING

Summary/Abstract: We live in a world where pursuit of material values dominates the societal value system. In such an environment social order has been constantly stressed and challenged, thus creating fertile grounds for multitude of deviant phenomena. One of the most apparent deviant phenomena in nowadays society is certainly gambling, and within it, the pretty widespread phenomenon of the so called betting. It has prospered significantly within the last decade, which can be easily observed in Macedonia as well as the so called liberal democratic countries. In this paper we will elaborate the sociopathological dimension of betting as a phenomenon closely related to or derived from gambling. We will try to answer to what extent it can be considered as a sociopathological phenomenon, what its distinctiveness from gambling is, what detrimental consequences it generates to people who bet and to the society, how the society reacts to betting, and we will give some short overview on the current situation with betting as a sociopathological phenomenon in Macedonia. Theoretically, we mainly stick to the macro sociological theories of deviance in explaining and describing betting, especially the structural-functional approach of societal anomie. Methodologically, the paper rests on comparative theoretical analysis of relevant scientific sources and studies in this filed, as well as on the usage and interpretation of relevant secondary empirical data. The authors believe that the findings of the paper will help in better differentiation between gambling and betting, elucidating of its sociopathological aspects as well as providing bases for further studies on this fairly neglected and under researched topic in social pathology.

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