Reaching out to big losers: how different types of gamblers are affected by a brief motivational contact initiated by the gambling provider [open access article]

Abstract
Telephone and letter-based motivational interventions with high expenditure gamblers have significant short and long term positive effects on gambling and use of responsible gambling tools. This report examines how different subtypes of gamblers, based upon patterns of play, are differentially affected. A randomized controlled trial design with three conditions (n = 1003 in each): feedback intervention by letter, telephone or a no-contact control condition. Subtypes of gamblers were derived by latent class analyses (LCA) based upon gambling behavior pre intervention. The participants were customers of Norsk Tipping gambling platforms. 1003 statistical triplets from the top 0.5% of customers based upon annual expenditure, matched on sex, age, and net losses. Primary outcome measure was gambling theoretical loss (TL), derived from the Norsk Tipping customer database. The LCA identified six subtypes: High Casino, High Sport, High Lottery, High Video lottery terminal (VLT), Lottery/Mix and Bingo/Casino. There were almost no differences in change in TL between the six subtypes of gamblers receiving the letter or telefone interventions respectively. However, the choice of contact by letter or telephone did have different effects for the different gambling subtypes. Sending a letter seems like a cost effective alternative to telephone contact for the High Lottery type, but telephone contact performs better for High Casino, High Sport and High VLT customers. Responsible gambling interventions can be improved by subtyping of gamblers. Link to the article 

Citation: Jonsson, J., Hodgins, D.C., & Munck, I. et al. (2020), Reaching out to big losers: How different types of gamblers are affected by a brief motivational contact initiated by the gambling provider. Journal of Gambling Studies. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-020-09978-7

On the limits and challenges of public health approaches in addressing gambling-related problems [subscription access article]

Abstract
Many governments around the world have adopted a public health (PH) approach as a framework to minimise, reduce or prevent gambling-related harm. In principle, this appears very sensible given the success of PH approaches in other areas of society: in disease control, nutrition, physical exercise and reductions in smoking. In this paper, we examine the challenges that are faced in applying PH principles to gambling. We argue that gambling is a difficult activity to address because of the highly skewed distribution of severity that makes PH interventions seem less relevant for the majority and difficult to apply to the complex minority. In our view, gambling harm can really only be reduced by changing the behaviour of individuals, and this objective is very much informed by the principles and practices of ‘individual-focused disciplines’ including psychology, social work and the medical sciences. Greater evidence and evaluation are needed to demonstrate how the ‘whole of population’ approaches advocated by PH are superior than ecological, individual-focused or responsible gambling approaches to reduce gambling-related harm. Article details and access conditions

Citation: Delfabbro, P., King, D.L. On the Limits and Challenges of Public Health Approaches in Addressing Gambling-Related Problems. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 18, 844–859 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00276-2

Corporate social responsibility vs. financial interests: the case of responsible gambling programs [open access article]

Aim: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is supposed to play an important part in public health. Critics argue that opposing financial interests can prevent companies from implementing effective CSR programs. We shed light on this discussion by analyzing CSR programs of gambling operators.

Subjects and methods: Two data sets are used: (1) seven responsible gambling (RG) programs of German slot machine hall operators and (2) a survey carried out among 512 problem gamblers in treatment who play primarily in slot machines halls.

Results: Results show that the RG programs list mostly mandatory measures with one major exception: to approach possible problem gamblers with the intention to help them. However, operators’ staff approach only 1% of problem gamblers.

Conclusion: We argue that the observed ineffective implementation of voluntary CSR measures is grounded in the strong financial incentive of operators to serve precisely the group they should stop from playing: problem gamblers. We conclude that financial interests reduce the effectiveness of CSR. Link to the article

Citation: Fiedler, I., Kairouz, S. & Reynolds, J. Corporate social responsibility vs. financial interests: the case of responsible gambling programs. Journal of Public Health (Berl.) (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01219-w

An analysis of consumer protection for gamblers across different online gambling operators in Ireland: A descriptive study [open access via ResearchGate]

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the responsible gambling tools which are available to online gamblers at Irish online gambling websites. The present study used a similar methodology to a recent study carried out on the world’s most popular websites (Bonello and Griffiths Gaming Law Review and Economics, 21, 278–285, 2017), where 50 of the most advertised online gambling websites were evaluated in relation to their responsible gambling (RG) practices.

The present study evaluated 39 gambling websites with either a “.ie” or “.com/ie” domain. Each website was evaluated by checking for a number of RG practices, including presence of a dedicated RG page; age verification; access to gambling account history; the availability of RG tools, such as limit setting facilities and exclusion settings; and links to limit-setting options on the deposit page. Descriptive statistics were then performed on the results from each website. Of the 39 online gambling operators identified, 22 redirected gamblers to a “.com” domain, while 17 operators remained as a “.ie” domain. Thirty-five websites (89.7%) visited had a dedicated RG page.

Responsible gambling features were evaluated and demonstrated to be available in an inconsistent manner across online gambling websites. Irish websites were shown to perform poorly in comparison with non-Irish counterparts in the provision of RG tools. The researchers of the present study are not aware of any similar studies conducted to date in Ireland. Link to the article

Citation: Cooney, Caoimhe & Columb, David & Costa, Joao & Griffiths, Mark & O’Gara, Colin. (2018). An Analysis of Consumer Protection for Gamblers Across Different Online Gambling Operators in Ireland: A Descriptive Study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 10.1007/s11469-018-9968-7.

Responsible gambling: A scoping review [open access article]

Abstract – Gambling markets have drastically expanded over the past 35 years. Pacing this expansion has been the articulation of a governance framework that largely places responsibility for regulating gambling-related harms upon individuals. This framework, often defined with reference to the concept of responsible gambling (RG), has faced significant criticism, emphasizing public health and consumer protection issues. To study both the articulation and critique of the concept of responsible gambling, we conducted a ‘scoping review’ of the literature (Arksey & O’Malley 2005).

Literature was identified through searches on academic databases using a combination of search terms. Articles were independently reviewed by two researchers. Findings indicate 142 publications with a primary focus on responsible gambling,  with a high volume of publications coming from the disciplinary backgrounds of the first authors representing the fields of psychology, business, and psychiatric medicine. Further, publication key themes address topics such as responsible gambling tools and interventions, corporate social responsibility and accountability, responsible gambling concepts and descriptions, and to a lesser extent, critiques of responsible gambling.

The scoping review of the literature related to responsible gambling suggests the need to foster research conditions to invite more critical and interdisciplinary scholarship in an effort to improve public health and consumer protection. Link to the article

Citation: Reynolds, J., Kairouz, S., Ilacqua, S., & French, M. (2020). Responsible Gambling: A Scoping Review. Critical Gambling Studies, 1(1), 23-39. Retrieved from http://www.criticalgamblingstudies.com/index.php/cgs/article/view/42

Reaching out to big losers leads to sustained reductions in gambling over one year: A randomized controlled trial of brief motivational contact [open-access article]

Abstract

Background and aims: A previous randomized controlled trial demonstrated that phone and letter-based motivational interventions with high expenditure gamblers had significant short-term positive effects on gambling and use of responsible gambling tools. This post-trial follow-up examined outcomes in gambling expenditure over 12 months.

Design: Observational study following a three-arm randomized controlled trial. Setting: Customers of Norsk Tipping (NT) gambling platforms, Norway. Participants: 1,003 statistical triplets from the top 0.5% of customers based upon annual expenditure, matched on sex, age, and net losses. Mean age 53.4 years, 19% were women, mean yearly loss for 2016 was 88,197 NoK. Interventions and comparator: Feedback intervention by telephone, letter, or a nocontact control condition.

Measurements: Primary outcome measure was gambling theoretical loss, derived from the Norsk Tipping customer database. Secondary outcomes were responsible gambling customer actions and whether the participant was retained as a NT customer.

Findings: Per protocol analyses of triplets who received the phone call or letter as randomly assigned (n=596) showed a positive and sustained effect over 12 months: the telephone group showed a 30% reduction in theoretic loss (d=.44) and the letter group 13% (d=.18), both outperforming the control group with a 7% reduction (d=.11). The phone condition was superior to both the letter and control conditions in per protocol (p<.001) and to control condition in intention to treat analyses (ITT) (p<.001). Individuals in the phone condition took more responsible gambling actions. The letter condition had better outcomes than the control in the ITT only (p<.001). Over 93% were still customers a year after the intervention.

Conclusions: Personal contact with high expenditure gambling customers in Norway that provided individualized feedback on expenditures was associated with reduced theoretical losses and greater use of responsible gambling tools over a 12-month period, compared with no contact. Telephone intervention with customers had a larger impact than a mailed letter. Link to the article

Citation: Jakob Jonsson, J., Hodgins, D.C., Munck, I., & Carlbring, P. (2020). Reaching out to big losers leads to sustained reductions in gambling over one year: A randomized controlled trial of brief motivational contact. Addiction. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14982

The effects of a mandatory play break on subsequent gambling among Norwegian video lottery terminal players [open-access article]

Background and aims: Responsible gambling (RG) tools and initiatives have been introduced by social RG operators as a means to help prevent problem gambling. One such initiative is the use of mandatory play breaks (i.e., forced session terminations). Recommendations by RG experts for gambling operators to implement mandatory play breaks appear to be intuitively sensible but are not evidence-based.

Methods: The present authors were given access by the Norwegian gambling operator Norsk Tipping to data from 7,190 video lottery terminal (VLT) players who gambled between January and March 2018. This generated 218,523 playing sessions for further analysis. Once a gambling session reaches a 1-hr play duration, a forced session termination of 90 s comes into effect. This study evaluated the effect of mandatory play breaks on subsequent gambling.

Results: Compared to similar sessions identified using a matched-pairs design, results demonstrated that there was no significant effect of the forced termination regarding the amount of money staked in the subsequent gambling session or on the time duration of the subsequent gambling session.

Conclusions: Although expenditure was higher in the subsequent 24 hr for terminated sessions, this is likely due to higher intensity gamblers being more likely to trigger mandatory breaks. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Link to the article

Citation: Auer, M., Hopfgartner, N. & Griffiths, M.D. (2019). The effects of a mandatory play break on subsequent gambling among Norwegian video lottery terminal players. Journal of Behavioral Addictions 8(3), 522–529. DOI: 10.1556/2006.8.2019.51

Preventing problem gambling: Focus on overconsumption [open-access thesis]

Abstract: A proportion of gamblers experience problems, and certain gambling forms have a stronger association with gambling problems than others. The role of overconsumption in developing gambling problems is sparsely described in the literature and there is little scientific knowledge about the prevention of gambling problems. In the field of secondary prevention, there are some promising results regarding personalized feedback on gambling habits, and there is a need for more research.

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the role of overconsumption in problem gambling and target it in a preventive intervention. The preventive intervention was to give gambling consumption feedback to high consumers in order to make them reflect upon their gambling habits and enhance their motivation for change. [Continues]
Link to the thesis

Citation: Jonsson, J. (2019). Preventing problem gambling: Focus on overconsumption (Doctoral dissertation, Stockholm University). Retrieved from http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1347137/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Experiences of responsible gambling tools among non-problem gamblers: A survey of active customers of an online gambling platform [open-access article]

Abstract
Introduction: Responsible gambling (RG) tools, aiming at helping gamblers to avoid gambling-related harms, are common in online gambling platforms. Gambling industry, policy makers, and researchers have warned that RG tools can potentially disturb recreational gamblers, channeling them to less protective operators. No evidence exists to support these concerns, and they can hinder the development of effective RG tools. The current study aimed to investigate the recreational gamblers’ experiences of RG tools.

Methods: A total of 10,200 active customers of an online gambling service were invited to complete an online survey and rate their overall reactions, attitudes, disturbance and irritation towards RG tools, as well as their inclination to abandon a gambling service due to overexposure to RG tools. N = 1223 surveys were completed

Results: Non-problem gamblers had positive experiences of RG tools. Moderate-risk gamblers had more positive overall reaction and less irritation to previous experiences of RG tools compared to non-problem gamblers. Problem gamblers had least positive attitudes, most disturbance and most irritation towards RG pictures. Non-problem gamblers had lowest rates of having abandoned a service because of perceived overexposure to RG tools (5.2% compared to 25.9% of problem gamblers), with a significant between-group difference (OR [95% CI] = 7.17 [3.61–14.23], p < .001).

Conclusions: Non-problem gamblers were not particularly disturbed by RG tools and were not at risk of abandoning online gambling services because of overexposure to RG tools. The study found no grounds for limiting the design and implementation of RG tools due to fears of disturbing recreational gamblers.
Link to the article via ScienceDirect

Citation: Ivanova, E., Rafi, J., Lindner, P. & Carlbring, P. (2019). Experiences of responsible gambling tools among non-problem gamblers: A survey of active customers of an online gambling platform. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 9(100161). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2019.100161

Testing a gambling warning label’s effect on behavior [open-access preprint article].

Abstract
Responsible gambling campaigns are one measure enacted by a number of statutory bodies and gambling operators in response to concerns about gambling marketing and the accessibility of modern gambling products. For example, since 2015 a number of the UK‘s largest gambling operators have attached the following warning label to TV and shop window adverts: “when the FUN stops, stop” (where the word “fun” is printed in noticeably larger font than any other word). Here we present an initial independent test of this warning label‘s effect on contemporaneous gambling behavior.
A short incentivized survey was conducted to mimic the scenario of online gambling advertising, with warning label presence manipulated between-participants. Participants were given a sequence of nine £0.10 bonuses, and on each trial were presented with the possibility to gamble this bonus on a soccer bet, with bet details and payoffs taken from a major gambling operator‘s website. There were 506 unique participants who had all previously indicated that they were Premier League soccer fans and had experience in online sports betting.
Overall, participants decided to bet on 41.3% of trials when a warning label was shown, compared to 37.8% when no warning label shown (i.e., descriptively the label increases the probability of gambling). According to the preregistered analysis plan, this difference was not significant, (χ^2 (1)=2.10, p=.15) The “when the FUN stops, stop” gambling warning label did not achieve its aim of prompting more responsible gambling behavior in the experiment. Article pre-print available online

Citation: Newall, P., Walasek, L., Singmann, H., & Ludvig, E. (2019). Testing a gambling warning label’s effect on behavior. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/dxfkj.