A First Look at PlayMyWay in an Expanding Gaming Market
Session Title
Session 2-2-B: Responsible Gambling Intervention in Expanding Markets
Presentation Type
Event
Location
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada
Start Date
29-5-2019 11:00 AM
End Date
29-5-2019 12:25 PM
Disciplines
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms | Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Public Health Education and Promotion
Abstract
Abstract: PlayMyWay is a gambling pre-commitment program that patrons at Plainridge Park Casino (PPC) in Massachusetts can use to monitor and control their spending at slot machines. Program participants enter gambling budgets, and the PlayMyWay software tracks their spending and notifies them as they approach, reach, and/or exceed their budgets. Enrollment and adherence to budgets are completely voluntary, and participants can revise their budgets or un-enroll at any time. In Summer 2018, PPC invited its patrons to participate in an Internet survey containing items about gambling habits and any interactions with PlayMyWay. Under 10% of the respondents indicated that they enrolled in PlayMyWay. Over half of those who received notifications that they had reached or exceeded their budgets continued to play after receiving said notification. Respondents who had un-enrolled from PlayMyWay were more likely than others to have negative reactions to notifications and to not use any responsible gambling strategies. Those who enrolled and stayed enrolled were more likely to have positive reactions to notifications and were more likely to stop gambling when they reached their budgets. In this presentation, we will examine findings that point to different indicators of who is likely to adopt a pre-commitment or budgeting system.
Implications: By noting who is how likely to participate in a pre-commitment program, jurisdictions seeking to adopt similar programs can tailor the specifics of their implementations or the surrounding marketing campaigns to target specific segments of their customer base and increase or maximize adoption.
Keywords
responsible gambling, gambling, pre-commitment
Funding Sources
This work was supported through a contract with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission assisted with data extraction and coordinated review of the final report.
Competing Interests
The Division on Addiction and affiliated faculty have received funding in the past three years from DraftKings, the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (FAAR), The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations via NIH and Indian Health Services (IHS), NIH, the Integrated Centre on Addiction Prevention and Treatment of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, which receives funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, National Center for Responsible Gaming, the New Mexico Responsible Gaming Association, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, and GVC Services, Ltd.
A First Look at PlayMyWay in an Expanding Gaming Market
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada
Abstract: PlayMyWay is a gambling pre-commitment program that patrons at Plainridge Park Casino (PPC) in Massachusetts can use to monitor and control their spending at slot machines. Program participants enter gambling budgets, and the PlayMyWay software tracks their spending and notifies them as they approach, reach, and/or exceed their budgets. Enrollment and adherence to budgets are completely voluntary, and participants can revise their budgets or un-enroll at any time. In Summer 2018, PPC invited its patrons to participate in an Internet survey containing items about gambling habits and any interactions with PlayMyWay. Under 10% of the respondents indicated that they enrolled in PlayMyWay. Over half of those who received notifications that they had reached or exceeded their budgets continued to play after receiving said notification. Respondents who had un-enrolled from PlayMyWay were more likely than others to have negative reactions to notifications and to not use any responsible gambling strategies. Those who enrolled and stayed enrolled were more likely to have positive reactions to notifications and were more likely to stop gambling when they reached their budgets. In this presentation, we will examine findings that point to different indicators of who is likely to adopt a pre-commitment or budgeting system.
Implications: By noting who is how likely to participate in a pre-commitment program, jurisdictions seeking to adopt similar programs can tailor the specifics of their implementations or the surrounding marketing campaigns to target specific segments of their customer base and increase or maximize adoption.
Comments
We request that this paper be grouped on a panel with other papers about RG in Massachusetts by Gray and Kleschinsky.