Behavioural Markers of Harm and Their Potential in Identifying Product Risk in Online Gambling

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted to identify potentially useful behavioural markers of harmful behaviour using online gambling data sourced from operators. However, less is known about how such markers could be used to identify higher risk products. The study examined whether certain categories and subcategories of product are more strongly associated with behavioural markers of harm than others. Analyses were based on 6 months of data ( N = 100,000 individual gamblers) drawn from the population of UK users of an online gambling website in 2022. Measures included individual-level expenditure data across multiple forms of gambling and a series of literature-informed behavioural markers of harm including declined deposits, easing/removing responsible gambling settings, within-session repeat deposits (or ‘top-ups’), bonus-seeking behaviour and gambling at unusual hours. Negative binomial models examined how well the number of active days playing different products predicted behavioural markers of harm. All markers apart from easing/removing responsible gambling settings appeared to covary with the number of active days engaging in specific product types, most notably slots, in-playing betting and some most forms of combination bets on sports. These findings highlight the potential value of using measurable markers to differentiate the risk and potential harm associated with different online products.

Related collections

Most cited references 44

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Electronic gaming machines: are they the 'crack-cocaine' of gambling?

Nicki Dowling, David Smith, Trang Thomas (2005)

There is a general view that electronic gaming is the most 'addictive' form of gambling, in that it contributes more to causing problem gambling than any other gambling activity. As such, electronic gaming machines have been referred to as the 'crack-cocaine' of gambling. While this analogy has popular appeal, it is only recently that the scientific community has begun to investigate its validity. In line with the belief that electronic gambling has a higher 'addictive' potential than other forms of gambling, research has also begun to focus on identifying the characteristics of gaming machines that may be associated with problem gambling behaviour. This paper will review the different types of modern electronic gaming machines, and will use the introduction of gaming machines to Australia to examine the association between electronic gaming and problem gambling, with particular reference to the characteristics of modern electronic gaming machines. Despite overwhelming acceptance that gaming machines are associated with the highest level of problem gambling, the empirical literature provides inconclusive evidence to support the analogy linking electronic gaming to 'crack-cocaine'. Rigorous and systematic evaluation is required to establish definitively the absolute 'addictive' potential of gaming machines and the degree to which machine characteristics influence the development and maintenance of problem gambling behaviour.

0 comments Cited 86 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: not found
Article: not found

Fruit machine gambling: The importance of structural characteristics

Mark Griffiths (1993)

0 comments Cited 82 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Voluntary limit setting and player choice in most intense online gamblers: an empirical study of gambling behaviour.

Michael M. Auer, MARK D. GRIFFITHS (2013)

Social responsibility in gambling has become a major issue for the gaming industry. The possibility for online gamblers to set voluntary time and money limits are a social responsibility practice that is now widespread among online gaming operators. The main issue concerns whether the voluntary setting of such limits has any positive impact on subsequent gambling behaviour and whether such measures are of help to problem gamblers. In this paper, this issue is examined through data collected from a representative random sample of 100,000 players who gambled on the win2day gambling website. When opening an account at the win2day site, there is a mandatory requirement for all players to set time and cash-in limits (that cannot exceed 800 per week). During a 3-month period, all voluntary time and/or money limit setting behaviour by a subsample of online gamblers (n = 5,000) within this mandatory framework was tracked and recorded for subsequent data analysis. From the 5,000 gamblers, the 10 % most intense players (as measured by theoretical loss) were further investigated. Voluntary spending limits had the highest significant effect on subsequent monetary spending among casino and lottery gamblers. Monetary spending among poker players significantly decreased after setting a voluntary time limit. The highest significant decrease in playing duration was among poker players after setting a voluntary playing duration limit. The results of the study demonstrated that voluntary limit setting had a specific and significant effect on the studied gamblers. Therefore, voluntary limits appear to show an appropriate effect in the desired target group (i.e., the most gaming intense players).