Social casino games is an intervention opportunity for gambling?

Session Title

Session 1-4-B: Technology and Harm Minimization

Presentation Type

Event

Location

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

Start Date

28-5-2019 3:30 PM

End Date

28-5-2019 4:55 PM

Disciplines

Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

This study examined the behavioral effects of social casino games in slotmachine gambling. A sample of 214 participants aged 18–45 years were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 pre-exposure conditions: control (no social casino games), standard 90 %return to player, inflated return to player and inflated return with Share on Facebook. Participants in all conditions engaged in monetary gambling using a realistic online simulation of a slot machine and KINO on a Facebook website. As predicted, the results showed that those players exposed to inflated or‘profit’ demonstration modes placed significantly higher bets in the real-play mode ascompared to the other groups. However, the groups did not differ in relation to how long they persisted in the real-play mode. Pop-up messages with shares had significant effect on monetary gambling behavior. The results of this study confirm that exposure to inflated practice or ‘‘demo’’ modes lead to short-term increases in risk-taking. These findings highlight the need for careful regulation and monitoring of internet gambling sites, as well as further research on the potential risks of simulated gambling activities for vulnerable segments of the gambling population.

Keywords

social casino games, gambling, freemium games, social network games

Author Bios

Petros Roussos

i was born in Athens in 1966. I studied psychology at the University of Athens, Greece and I did my PhD at the University of Leeds, UK. My doctoral thesis was on the "Effects of keyboard layout on children's performance and interaction with computers".

Since 1994 I have taught cognitive psychology, research methods and statistics in psychology at the University of Crete (Greece), the University of the Aegean (Greece), the University of Athens and many other colleges and higher education institutions. In 2007 I joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Athens as a Lecturer of Cognitive Psychology.

I have served as adjunct research fellow of the Hellenic Pedagogical Institute (1998-2000), as Psychology Department Chair at the University of Indianapolis Athens Campus (2000-2004) and as Researcher at the Unit of Analysis and Documentation at the Greek Ministry of Employment and Social Protection (2004-2005).

I am graduate member of the British Psychological Society, member of the Hellenic Psychological Society, and General Secretary of the Hellenic Cognitive Science Society.

Anastasios Vasios

i was born in 1978. I studied psychology at the University of Athens, Greece and I do my PhD at the University of Athes, GR. My doctoral thesis is on the "social media and gambling".

Since 2013 I am working for the Hellenic gaming commission as deputy director of compliance and audit division.

Funding Sources

there are no funding bodies.

Competing Interests

there are no financial competing interests over the last 3 years.

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May 28th, 3:30 PM May 28th, 4:55 PM

Social casino games is an intervention opportunity for gambling?

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

This study examined the behavioral effects of social casino games in slotmachine gambling. A sample of 214 participants aged 18–45 years were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 pre-exposure conditions: control (no social casino games), standard 90 %return to player, inflated return to player and inflated return with Share on Facebook. Participants in all conditions engaged in monetary gambling using a realistic online simulation of a slot machine and KINO on a Facebook website. As predicted, the results showed that those players exposed to inflated or‘profit’ demonstration modes placed significantly higher bets in the real-play mode ascompared to the other groups. However, the groups did not differ in relation to how long they persisted in the real-play mode. Pop-up messages with shares had significant effect on monetary gambling behavior. The results of this study confirm that exposure to inflated practice or ‘‘demo’’ modes lead to short-term increases in risk-taking. These findings highlight the need for careful regulation and monitoring of internet gambling sites, as well as further research on the potential risks of simulated gambling activities for vulnerable segments of the gambling population.