Experience and Passion in Poker: Are There Well-Being Implications?

Previous studies on gambling passion have identified that obsessive passion is related to negative consequences, including gambling pathology, whereas harmonious passion is mostly related to positive outcomes both during and after engagement in gambling activity. In the present study, we focused on poker players (N = 311) and investigated the associations between the two types of gambling passion and subjective well-being, while taking into account acquired poker experience. We found that harmonious passion toward poker was associated with higher levels of well-being, whereas the reverse was true for obsessive passion. Poker experience was positively related to harmonious but not obsessive passion, and moderated the relationship between harmonious passion and quality of life. Our findings contribute to extant literature on passion and further solidify its application in a gambling context. Most importantly, our results underline the relevance of accounting for poker experience when studying gambling among poker players.