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How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, the provision of online gambling has intensified with increased access, enhanced betting markets, a broader product range, and prolific marketing. However, little research has explored how this intensification is influencing contemporary gambling experiences. This s...

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Autores principales: Hing, Nerilee, Smith, Michele, Rockloff, Matthew, Thorne, Hannah, Russell, Alex M. T., Dowling, Nicki A., Breen, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9414406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36028827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14019-6
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author Hing, Nerilee
Smith, Michele
Rockloff, Matthew
Thorne, Hannah
Russell, Alex M. T.
Dowling, Nicki A.
Breen, Helen
author_facet Hing, Nerilee
Smith, Michele
Rockloff, Matthew
Thorne, Hannah
Russell, Alex M. T.
Dowling, Nicki A.
Breen, Helen
author_sort Hing, Nerilee
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, the provision of online gambling has intensified with increased access, enhanced betting markets, a broader product range, and prolific marketing. However, little research has explored how this intensification is influencing contemporary gambling experiences. This study focused on two research questions: 1) What changes in online gambling have online gamblers observed over the past decade? 2) How have these changes influenced the online gambling experiences and behaviours reported by treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking gamblers? METHODS: Two samples of Australian adults were interviewed: 1) 19 people who had been gambling online for at least a decade and with no history of treatment-seeking for online gambling, and 2) 10 people who had recently sought professional help for an online gambling problem. Telephone interviews were semi-structured, with questions that encouraged participants to consider how their online gambling, including any harmful gambling, had been influenced by changes in operator practices and online gambling environments. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Both treatment- and non-treatment-seekers noted the increased speed and ease of online gambling, which now enables instant access from anywhere at any time and increased their gambling opportunities. Both groups highlighted the continued proliferation of advertising and inducements for online gambling, particularly during televised sports and racing events, in social media, and through targeted push marketing. Many treatment- and non-treatment-seekers were aware of the vast range of recently introduced bet types, particularly multi-bets. Treatment-seekers disproportionately reported negative effects from these changes, and described how and why they fostered their increased gambling, impulsive gambling, persistence and loss-chasing. They reported limited uptake and effectiveness of current harm minimisation tools. CONCLUSIONS: Counter to stated policy and practice objectives to minimise gambling harm, industry changes that have made online gambling easier, faster, and more heavily incentivised, and increased the array of complex bets with poorer odds, unduly affect addicted and harmed individuals – who are also the most profitable customers. Further consideration is needed to ensure gambling policy, industry practices and public health measures more effectively reduce gambling harm in contemporary settings. Inducements and the poor pricing of complex bets such as multi-bets, and their outsized attraction to players with problems, should be a key focus.
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spelling pubmed-94144062022-08-27 How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study Hing, Nerilee Smith, Michele Rockloff, Matthew Thorne, Hannah Russell, Alex M. T. Dowling, Nicki A. Breen, Helen BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, the provision of online gambling has intensified with increased access, enhanced betting markets, a broader product range, and prolific marketing. However, little research has explored how this intensification is influencing contemporary gambling experiences. This study focused on two research questions: 1) What changes in online gambling have online gamblers observed over the past decade? 2) How have these changes influenced the online gambling experiences and behaviours reported by treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking gamblers? METHODS: Two samples of Australian adults were interviewed: 1) 19 people who had been gambling online for at least a decade and with no history of treatment-seeking for online gambling, and 2) 10 people who had recently sought professional help for an online gambling problem. Telephone interviews were semi-structured, with questions that encouraged participants to consider how their online gambling, including any harmful gambling, had been influenced by changes in operator practices and online gambling environments. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Both treatment- and non-treatment-seekers noted the increased speed and ease of online gambling, which now enables instant access from anywhere at any time and increased their gambling opportunities. Both groups highlighted the continued proliferation of advertising and inducements for online gambling, particularly during televised sports and racing events, in social media, and through targeted push marketing. Many treatment- and non-treatment-seekers were aware of the vast range of recently introduced bet types, particularly multi-bets. Treatment-seekers disproportionately reported negative effects from these changes, and described how and why they fostered their increased gambling, impulsive gambling, persistence and loss-chasing. They reported limited uptake and effectiveness of current harm minimisation tools. CONCLUSIONS: Counter to stated policy and practice objectives to minimise gambling harm, industry changes that have made online gambling easier, faster, and more heavily incentivised, and increased the array of complex bets with poorer odds, unduly affect addicted and harmed individuals – who are also the most profitable customers. Further consideration is needed to ensure gambling policy, industry practices and public health measures more effectively reduce gambling harm in contemporary settings. Inducements and the poor pricing of complex bets such as multi-bets, and their outsized attraction to players with problems, should be a key focus. BioMed Central 2022-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9414406/ /pubmed/36028827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14019-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Hing, Nerilee
Smith, Michele
Rockloff, Matthew
Thorne, Hannah
Russell, Alex M. T.
Dowling, Nicki A.
Breen, Helen
How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
title How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
title_full How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
title_fullStr How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
title_full_unstemmed How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
title_short How structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
title_sort how structural changes in online gambling are shaping the contemporary experiences and behaviours of online gamblers: an interview study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9414406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36028827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14019-6
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