An Explanation of Sports Betting among Students of Rasht Universities from the Perspective of Akers Social Learning Theory

The main objective of this paper is to explain the process of engagement of individuals in sports betting. Hence, the hypotheses were tested by collecting the necessary data through distributing questionnaires among a sample of 272 students of the universities of the city of Rasht. The Akers theory of social learning was applied. The findings of the study indicate that there is a significant negative correlation between aspects of social learning theory, i.e. differential association, differential reinforcements, imitation and definition and consumption level and inclination towards sports betting of the respondents. Also the regression model of the research showed that the conceptual aspects of the social learning theory can predict 0.41 of variations of consumption level of sports betting and 0.47 percent of variations of inclination towards sports betting. Also the respondents who are engaged in betting in extreme and pathological forms have received higher level of social and environmental impacts compared to the occasional professional gamblers and non-gamblers. In general, The findings of this research indicate that the level of participation of students in betting activities and the level of their tendency towards such activities take place in the social milieu and any change in the behavioral patterns stemming from social context in the first place requires introduction of suitable cultural patterns and in the second place it needs preventive and supportive programs for the target groups.