Betting flexibly: the utilization of knowledge in cockfighting in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how people make decisions to bet in cockfighting in the Philippines. Although extensive research has addressed skill and luck in gambling, mainly from a psychological standpoint, relatively little attention has been given to the ways in which gamblers adeptly manipulate these aspects to guide their betting practices. To reveal the complexity and dynamics of such practices, this study illustrates how extensive knowledge, particularly that related to roosters and luck, is applied in making betting decisions through an ethnographic methodology based on participant observation in three sites and interviews with six cockfighters. By coding the obtained data, broadly three approaches are revealed in their betting behavior: business-oriented mind, rooster evaluation, and luck control. The main findings are that while using accumulated knowledge of roosters to make informed bets is a legitimate strategy, experiencing a series of defeats motivates cockfighters to consider the role of luck and take steps to manage its fluctuations. Their betting decisions emerge in the relationships among cockfighters, roosters, and the environment of the cockpit. This connection between the human and non-human is constantly in flux, thereby leading to the generation and transformation of the knowledge relied upon by cockfighters in each bet.

KEYWORDS:

• Cockfighting
• betting
• luck
• anthropology
• the Philippines

Data availability statement

No data set was declared by the author in relation to this manuscript. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. One can seek the help of a mediator (kristo) to negotiate the bet on their behalf (Albanza et al., 1979). If the bet is successful, the kristo may receive a portion of the winnings as balato or a share of the fortune (Aguilar, 2005).

2. I have used pseudonyms for all the individuals in this paper.

3. This ‘fun’ is akin to the flow experience, characterized by a sense of control and deep immersion in challenging tasks (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

4. Hanson explores the concept of ‘observation,’ a fundamental element of scientific inquiry. He suggests that observers may have differing perceptions of the same phenomenon due to variations in their theories and knowledge, thereby influencing the process of observation itself (Hanson, 1965).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows [18J22806].

Notes on contributors

Fumiko Morota

Fumiko Morota, PhD is Assistant Professor of Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies at the Kyoto University, Japan. She received her PhD. in area studies from Kyoto University. Her research has been focused specifically on history of gambling culture and governance in the Philippines, and gamblers’ betting practices through anthropological view. Her recent work is ‘A play with contingency: Betting practices and discourses of the lottery players in Philippines’ in Japanese Review of Cultural Anthropology (2023, printing).