Session Title

Session 1-1-C: Using Data for Responsible Gambling

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation

Location

Park MGM, Las Vegas, NV

Start Date

23-5-2023 10:15 AM

End Date

23-5-2023 11:45 AM

Disciplines

Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Abstract

Consumption of many goods adheres to the Pareto rule (or 80:20 law) that the 20% most engaged consumers generate 80% of revenue. Using a dataset from the eCasino section of the provincial online gambling platform in British Columbia, Canada, we recently observed that Pareto values exceeded the conventional 80:20 ratio, with the top 20% generating ~92% of bets and ~90% of revenue (Deng, Lesch & Clark, 2021 Addictive Behaviors 120: 106968). In this presentation, we will examine how these effects vary across different gambling product types within the eCasino: online slot machine games, table games, video poker, and other probability games. As a marker of likely gambling harm, we test rates of enrolment in Voluntary Self-Exclusion (VSE). The dataset comprises 30,920 account holders who placed at least one bet on the platform in 2014-2015, comprising over half a billion individual bets. Across the four product types, Pareto values indicated greatest concentration for video poker (98%) and lowest for slot machines (89%). We also observe higher levels of VSE in the top 20% compared to the remaining 80% (13% vs 7%) with some differences across products.

Statement of Importance: As online gambling expands, behavioural tracking offers a promising technique for detecting risk, but limited work has examined behavioural markers across different online gambling products. We examine concentrations of consumption using the Pareto rule across 4 different product types in an online casino, and associations with gambling self-exclusion.

Keywords

online gambling, behavioral tracking, Pareto law, consumption, slot machines, video poker

Author Bios

Xiaolei Deng is a PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology at UBC Vancouver. His research uses data science techniques to identify behavioural markers of disordered gambling in online gambling data.

Luke Clark is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and the Director of the Center for Gambling research. His research focuses on the psychology of gambling and gambling disorder, using techniques from cognitive neuroscience and addiction science.

Funding Sources

This project was funded by the core funding of the Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, and a Research Grant from the Province of BC Ministry of Finance (Gaming Policy & Enforcement Branch) awarded to Luke Clark and Tilman Lesch. LC holds a Discovery Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada) (RGPIN-2017-04069). XD holds a UBC 4 year fellowship.

Competing Interests

LC is the Director of the Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, which is supported by funding from the Province of British Columbia and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), a Canadian Crown Corporation. The research receives separate funding from the Province of BC Ministry of Finance (Gaming Policy & Enforcement Branch). The dataset for this study was provided to the research team by the BCLC under a Non-Disclosure Agreement that prohibits further data sharing. The Province of BC government and the BCLC had no further role in the design, analysis, or interpretation of the study, and impose no constraints on publishing. LC has received a speaker/travel honorarium from the National Association for Gambling Studies (Australia) and the National Center for Responsible Gaming (US), and has received fees for academic services from the National Center for Responsible Gaming (US), GambleAware (UK) and Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (Canada). He has not received any further direct or indirect payments from the gambling industry or groups substantially funded by gambling. He has provided paid consultancy to, and received royalties from, Cambridge Cognition Ltd. relating to neurocognitive testing. XD has no competing interests.

Comments

If not selected for a 20 min talk, happy to present as a flash talk or poster

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May 23rd, 10:15 AM May 23rd, 11:45 AM

Pareto effects in the eCasino: differences across online products and links with self-exclusion

Park MGM, Las Vegas, NV

Consumption of many goods adheres to the Pareto rule (or 80:20 law) that the 20% most engaged consumers generate 80% of revenue. Using a dataset from the eCasino section of the provincial online gambling platform in British Columbia, Canada, we recently observed that Pareto values exceeded the conventional 80:20 ratio, with the top 20% generating ~92% of bets and ~90% of revenue (Deng, Lesch & Clark, 2021 Addictive Behaviors 120: 106968). In this presentation, we will examine how these effects vary across different gambling product types within the eCasino: online slot machine games, table games, video poker, and other probability games. As a marker of likely gambling harm, we test rates of enrolment in Voluntary Self-Exclusion (VSE). The dataset comprises 30,920 account holders who placed at least one bet on the platform in 2014-2015, comprising over half a billion individual bets. Across the four product types, Pareto values indicated greatest concentration for video poker (98%) and lowest for slot machines (89%). We also observe higher levels of VSE in the top 20% compared to the remaining 80% (13% vs 7%) with some differences across products.

Statement of Importance: As online gambling expands, behavioural tracking offers a promising technique for detecting risk, but limited work has examined behavioural markers across different online gambling products. We examine concentrations of consumption using the Pareto rule across 4 different product types in an online casino, and associations with gambling self-exclusion.