A-Z of Gambling
This activity, developed around the letters of the alphabet, helps participants share and explore the information and opinions they have about gambling, while learning some of the terminology related to gambling.
Time
10 Minutes
Resources
Flip-chart, Felt-tip pens
Materials to print
A-Z of Gambling practitioner notes (optional)
Method
1.
Write down on some flip-chart
sheets the letters of the alphabet.
2.
Ask the group to write down next to
each letter any word related to
gambling they can think of.
3.
Once they have finished, help them
to discuss what they have written
and clarify any terminology they
haven’t met before. This should give
you an overview of their knowledge
and thoughts about gambling.
Encourage them to say what they
think of gambling – some may be
keener than others who, perhaps,
think it’s rather a waste of money.
Be ready to introduce terms they
haven’t thought of, and that you
judge relevant to their needs and
stage of understanding, explaining
each.
Alternative options:
You can go round the room and ask participants to
name something to do with gambling that begins with
the first letter of their name, as an icebreaker at the
start of a session.
With bigger groups, you can split participants in 3
teams, with a flip-chart paper each (A-H; I-O; P-Z) and
with 1 felt-tip pen each (3 different colours). Rotate the
flip-charts every 3 minutes, so that all the groups have
a chance to add their ideas on the whole alphabet. At
the end, the different colours on the flip-chart should
let you identify which team wrote what: this might be
helpful if you are focusing the discussion on their views
and opinions of gambling.
Practitioner Notes
Some ideas for A-Z words about Gambling
Addiction, addicted, adrenaline, all
in, ante, affiliates
Bookies, bingo, broke, betting
shop, buzz, blockers
Chance, casino, cost, coupon,
chips
Dealer, debt, dog racing, dice,
disorder, dopamine hit
Expensive, excitement
Fixed odds betting terminals, fruit
machines, football
Greedy, gambling GG’s, games,
gambling blockers
High risk, horse racing, house,
hope, hooked
Internet, infectious, in-game
Jackpot, joker, jack
Kiosk, kick on, king
Losing, lottery, loan shark, Las
Vegas, lucky, loot boxes, limits
Money, machines, millionaire
Naïve, nervous, no winners
Odds, online gambling, organised
crime
Poker, problem, puggies,
probability
Questions, quitting, quality of life
Risk, racing, raffle, roulette
Stake, scratch card, slot machines,
sports, stealing, suicide,
streaming, skins
Ticket, Tombola
Unseen, underlying issues, unfair
Value for money, vulnerable
people, VIP, Vegas
Winning, wager
X rated (= over 18)
Young people
Zeno’s paradox, zone (in the zone),
zeros (000,000)
