Submission Title

Weekly, monthly, yearly: Short and long term patterns of participation on a online community of lottery players

Session Title

Session 2-1-C: Gamblers' Behavior

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation

Location

Park MGM, Las Vegas, NV

Start Date

24-5-2023 9:00 AM

End Date

24-5-2023 10:30 AM

Disciplines

Social Work

Abstract

Online communities that connect over their gambling behaviors are growing. Many of these communities can be found on popular social media platforms. These platforms are important because they can serve a source of first information for those new to a topic, allow members to share motivations that can increase and refine future behavior, and can spread misinformation and disinformation with serious implications for public health. To date, relatively little research has explored how these platforms discuss gambling.

The current study is an exploratory temporal analysis of the volume of posts on r/Lottery, a topic board that discusses lottery gambling on the popular message board platform reddit.com. This study explores patterns of number of posts on the site using weekly, monthly, yearly, and five-year time frames. Data for the current project were collected from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022.

As online spaces for both gambling participation and gambling oriented communities expand, it is crucial to investigate how online forums are used to share information about gambling. Being able to identify patterns in levels of participation over different time frames can be useful in planning prevention messaging and targeted interventions on social media platforms.

Keywords

Reddit, Social Media, Online, Community, Time

Author Bios

Mark van der Maas: Dr. Mark van der Maas is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work and core faculty member of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University. His research focuses on detecting impacts of rapid gabling expansion on public health. He is also interested in leveraging emerging data sources to inform and improve Gambling Disorder interventions and prevention.

Devin Mills: Dr. Devin Mills is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences at Texas Tech University. His research explores the development of substance use disorders and behavioral addictions, specifically video gaming and gambling disorder, from social and personality psychological frameworks. In addition to studying the development of addictions, Dr. Mills also researches the factors that promote and sustain individuals’ recovery from addiction.

Dr. Ray Cho is a project coordinator for the Center for Gambling Studies at the Rutgers School of Social Work. As an interdisciplinary researcher, he is interested in data science and responsible gambling policy. Dr. Cho uses SQL, Python, and R to analyze large data sets on gambling populations and gambling activity. Having both industry and public policy experience, Dr. Cho considers the tensions between stakeholder and ecological systems perspectives in his research.

Andrew Kim is a Ph.D. student and Graduate Assistant with the Center for Gambling Studies in the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. He has worked with the Center since 2019 working on gambling prevalence reports for the state of New Jersey and maintaining the Center’s library. He has 3 years of clinical experience and is a current Licensed Social Worker who specializes in addictions treatment.

Competing Interests

The Authors declare no competing interests

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May 24th, 9:00 AM May 24th, 10:30 AM

Weekly, monthly, yearly: Short and long term patterns of participation on a online community of lottery players

Park MGM, Las Vegas, NV

Online communities that connect over their gambling behaviors are growing. Many of these communities can be found on popular social media platforms. These platforms are important because they can serve a source of first information for those new to a topic, allow members to share motivations that can increase and refine future behavior, and can spread misinformation and disinformation with serious implications for public health. To date, relatively little research has explored how these platforms discuss gambling.

The current study is an exploratory temporal analysis of the volume of posts on r/Lottery, a topic board that discusses lottery gambling on the popular message board platform reddit.com. This study explores patterns of number of posts on the site using weekly, monthly, yearly, and five-year time frames. Data for the current project were collected from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022.

As online spaces for both gambling participation and gambling oriented communities expand, it is crucial to investigate how online forums are used to share information about gambling. Being able to identify patterns in levels of participation over different time frames can be useful in planning prevention messaging and targeted interventions on social media platforms.