GGB NEWS SPECIAL REPORT: RESPONSIBLE GAMING MONTH
When I was new to the International Center for Responsible Gaming (ICRG) (back then, the National Center for Responsible Gaming), I met with staff from the National Institutes of Health. When I mentioned our interest in prevention, the staff offered a cautionary tale about an information-based intervention for eating disorders. Not only did the program not prevent disordered eating, it also resulted in increased symptoms of eating disorders among some students exposed to the intervention. In short, some students were using the program to learn how to have an eating disorder. There are many other such examples such as the injuries to small children with the advent of car seat airbags. Despite the best of intentions, these public health measures resulted in adverse consequences.
Responsible gaming (RG) programs, intended to prevent excessive gambling and gambling disorder, also risk yielding adverse unintended consequences if not conceived and tested using scientific methods. For example, does setting a time limit encourage more aggressive gambling? Does slowing the pace of gambling cause players to gamble excessively? Do win-loss displays ignite “chasing losses,” a hallmark of gambling disorder, in some gamblers? Does RG messaging risk stigmatizing gambling disorder, thereby discouraging players from seeking help?
Unfortunately, conventional wisdom says that any prevention measure or responsible gaming tool is “better than nothing.” However, science shows us that interventions can help, do nothing, or make a problem worse. Many well-intentioned efforts to prevent risky behaviors have had the opposite effect. You wouldn’t use a drug that had not been tested for safety—why should prevention of gambling disorder be any different?
Although not an absolute guarantee, a scientific approach to the development and testing of RG programs promises to produce safe and effective tools to prevent gambling disorder. Here are some guidelines for such an approach.
- State legislators and gaming regulators should consult with scientists who have published in peer-reviewed journals on RG when developing laws and regulations designed to prevent gambling disorder. I emphasize “peer-reviewed” because it is vital to avoid the junk science that pervades this landscape. Research not published in a peer-reviewed journal counts as no more than opinion.
- Laws and regulations promoting RG should ask gamblers—such as those signing up for a pre-commitment program to limit time and money gambling—if they are willing to participate in future research projects. This stipulation will make it easier for researchers to get an investigation going in the future.
- Companies that make their datasets available to researchers should realize that no research is conducted without the rigorous scrutiny and approval of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the researcher’s university or hospital. The IRB’s number one priority is the well-being of people participating in a research project. This level of care should be emphasized to customers who are asked to participate in a research project.
- Whoever funds the research should require the investigators to publish their findings in legitimate, peer-reviewed journals. This is how science progresses. The ICRG is proud that its research projects have yielded nearly 500 articles in peer-reviewed publications.
- In addition, the funder should require the investigators to disseminate their findings to the industry, the media and the public through publications, webinars and conferences. This is the primary goal of the Annual ICRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction, held in conjunction with Global Gaming Expo.
- Finally, gaming regulators should recognize that the process doesn’t end with the adoption of an RG program. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of RG programs is vital to ensure the safety of these interventions.
The ICRG is proud to work with gaming companies that recognize the value of supporting research on RG programs. Our current research projects include an evaluation of a pre-commitment program, an experiment with virtual reality to reduce youth gambling, an experiment with a smartphone app designed to alert the person to the proximity of a gambling venue and research on sports wagering that will inform the development of RG programs. Our newest initiative invites scientists to submit grant applications focused on solving the low usage of available RG tools. The ICRG is confident that scientific research will help avoid adverse unintended consequences and produce safe and effective tools designed to prevent gambling disorder.
