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. 2023 Mar;39(1):383-399.
doi: 10.1007/s10899-022-10113-x. Epub 2022 Mar 15.

The Effect of a Mandatory Play Break on Subsequent Gambling Behavior among British Online Casino Players: A Large-Scale Real-World Study

Michael Auer  1 , Mark D Griffiths  2
Affiliations

The Effect of a Mandatory Play Break on Subsequent Gambling Behavior among British Online Casino Players: A Large-Scale Real-World Study

Michael Auer et al. J Gambl Stud. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

In recent years, various novel responsible gambling (RG) tools have been implemented to aid harm-minimization. One such RG tool has been the implementation of enforced mandatory play breaks. Despite many responsible gambling operators using mandatory play breaks, only three previous studies have examined their efficacy and the findings were mixed. Therefore, the present investigation was a large-scale real-world study which was designed to see whether a 60-minute mandatory play break influenced subsequent depositing and wagering. The authors were given access to 27 days of player data prior to the introduction of a mandatory play break and 27 days of player data after the mandatory play break was introduced. The study comprised British online gamblers from Skillonnet (a European online gambling operator). Between July 23 and September 15 (2021), 2,021 players deposited at least ten times or more on a calendar day, at least once. The 2,201 players generated 2,994 corresponding events (i.e., the depositing of money at least 10 times in one day). The percentage of players who stopped depositing money as a consequence of the mandatory play break rose from 27% to 68% on the day of a play break. Moreover, the percentage of players who stopped wagering as a consequence of the mandatory play break rose from 0.1% to 45% on the day of a play break. The findings of the present study demonstrated that a 60-minute mandatory play break impacts players' depositing and wagering immediately after the play break. This means that a mandatory hour-long play break in an online casino setting appears to prevent overspending during a short period of time. The effects of a 60-minute mandatory break on the next day's behavior were inconclusive.

Keywords: Forced session termination; Gambling; Mandatory play breaks; Problem gambling; Responsible gambling; Responsible gambling tools.

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Conflict of interest statement

The second author’s university currently receives funding from Norsk Tipping (the gambling operator owned by the Norwegian Government). The second author has received funding for a number of research projects in the area of gambling education for young people, social responsibility in gambling and gambling treatment from Gamble Aware (formerly the Responsibility in Gambling Trust), a charitable body which funds its research program based on donations from the gambling industry. Both authors undertake consultancy for various gaming companies in the area of social responsibility in gambling.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of times players deposited money at least 10 times for each day between July 20 and September 15. The dashed vertical line separates the control and treatment period
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Percentage of events when players deposited more than 10 times on a calendar day. The denominator for the percentage computation is displayed in Fig. 1
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Percentage of events when players deposited on the next day, given they deposited at least ten times on the previous day
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Percentage of players who deposited on the same day/next day after a mandatory play break during the treatment period. The ten groups on the x-axis are based on the amount lost in the session before the mandatory play break. Group 10 contains players who won (amount won larger than amount wagered)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Auer M, Griffiths MD. Testing normative and self-appraisal feedback in an online slot-machine pop-up message in a real-world setting. Frontiers in Psychology. 2015;6:339. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00339. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Auer M, Hopfgartner N, Griffiths MD. An empirical study of the effect of voluntary limit-setting on gamblers’ loyalty using behavioural tracking data. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 2019 doi: 10.1007/s11469-019-00166-2. - DOI
    1. Auer M, Hopfgartner N, Griffiths MD. The effects of a mandatory play break on subsequent gambling among Norwegian video lottery terminal players. Journal of Behavioral Addictions. 2019;8(3):522–529. doi: 10.1556/2006.8.2019.51. - DOI - PMC - PubMed