Responsible gambling Emerging trends, best practices, and practical implementation

Consider Buffalo Wild Wings, a popular sports bar chain that has embraced sports betting by offering customers a seamless betting experience. This move not only enhances the customer experience but also translates into increased revenues for the restaurant chain. When states decide to regulate and legalize sports betting, they create new statewide industries that generate revenue and career opportunities. From sportsbook operators and marketers to hospitality staff and technology experts, the sports betting industry’s growth is creating careers — not just employment — across the nation. Many fantasy sports and social betting platforms that operate on a sweepstakes model permit players 18 and older, and many of Caesars’ competitors allow 18-and-up customers to play fantasy sports.

There was a general sense of needing to be “smart” and “savvy” to not fall prey to the tactics of online casinos and social media sites. Over the past decade, the use of computers and the Internet has significantly altered the gambling landscape. The gambling industry is no longer bound by brick and mortar gambling venues (e.g., casinos, racetracks). Today, access to gambling activities can be achieved with a few keystrokes on a computer. One point of access that has gained increased attention from researchers in the field of gambling studies is social media sites such as Facebook (Wohl et al. 2017).

I have repeatedly argued that regulation is a huge part of any meaningful change in the industry, and without the custodians who oversee the industry, business ventures are prone to make decisions that benefit them. In other words, we need an invisible but effective framework that supports players’ well-being without disrupting their experience. When done right, this proactive approach becomes a natural extension of the entertainment journey, not a barrier or something to raise negative connotations with.

This would require redefining the research field and understanding that gambling is not simply caused by the personalities, values, beliefs, and choices of gamblers. Instead, it would encourage us to focus on how practices of gambling develop, and how harm reduction policy and practice could be used to reconfigure the landscape in which gambling practices do or do not take hold, see 75. Online gambling (compared with land-based gambling) provides players with ease of access, 24/7 accessibility, and confidentiality—all within the comfort of a person’s home. This ease of access has been flagged as a potential concern among researchers, regulators, and policy makers alike (Gainsbury 2015; Gainsbury and Wood 2011; Räsänen et al. 2013).

LeoVegas Group recently launched aresearch project with Karolinska Institutet, a research-led medical university recognised as one of the world’s best medical schools. The collaboration aims to deepen the understanding of gambling disorders and improve identification and prevention methods. 2.1% of players in Brazil are currently self-excluded or have closed their account, and 0.4% have requested a time-out period. For some players, these rules are implicit, while for others, they need to be specified and, more importantly, reminded or imposed with the help of digital tools.

Specifically, the frequent nature of the advertisements that provided social media users with an opportunity was brought up by several focus group members, with few young adult online gamblers mentioned the role of advertisement in the transition to online gambling. The Internet has drastically shaped the way in which people engage with the world, including with gambling activities. While the Internet and specifically social networking sites are a great medium to stay connected with loved ones, they have increasingly become an avenue to engage in gambling activities, including simulated forms of gambling (i.e., social casino games). The present research explored the motivations that push young adults to engage in online gambling, including the role of social casino games. Further research and attention is needed in this domain to mitigate the potential migration from gaming to gambling, specifically amongst those most vulnerable. Social casino games are an immensely popular form of entertainment, with millions of users playing in any given day (Derevensky and Gainsbury 2016; Martin 2014).

Personalization and early prevention

Responding to the calls for broader socio-cultural perspectives in gambling research 20, 21 this article introduces ideas from practice theory into the area. Recognising the contributions that social practice perspectives have made in other areas of social research and harm reduction policy 22, we argue that framing gambling as a social practice can make discernible contributions to the field. As we explain, practice theory offers a productive lens for ‘flipping the iceberg’ and recognising and understanding the embodied, cognitive, social, and spatial dimensions of social practices of gambling to help generate new insights regarding related risk and harms.

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Also, there are socio-cultural narratives around how gambling can help foster mateship and togetherness, or discourses regarding competencies on how to gamble, estimating the odds are, game playing strategy, and how to respond to winning and losing 20. Social norms, which can be explained as informal and unwritten rules that govern the behaviour of people, are an element that can also shape practices. Such social norms pinup casino can influence whether the practice is performed in the first place, and how the practice is performed.

Underage gambling

Cognitive behavioral therapy and other support methods are available to assist players in overcoming addiction. There are several tools available to help manage gambling habits, including PlaySmart resources, self-exclusion programs, and support services. These tools empower players to make smart decisions and maintain control over their gambling.

So, the desire to place a bet on a horse race may be shaped by social norms—for example when the Melbourne Cup in Australia or the Grand National in the UK is held, it is a normative expectation that people will place a bet on the race. Once the desire to place a bet has been realised, there are unwritten rules about how this is done, and how one should behave when placing a bet. Spaces and places are elements that may also affect how a given social practice is performed. For example, the desire to place a bet on a horse may be increased by being in a betting shop, or a friend’s house in which the horse racing is being shown on Television. The social structures in which a gambler finds themselves may also influence betting practices. As an example, if family members, friends, or acquaintances are present and are also placing a bet then this may influence a person to place their own bet on the race.

We will request a new photo from you every two years to ensure that staff are monitoring for any self-excluded customers using up-to-date photos. TABCare will contact you prior to your self-exclusion period ending to advise you of your self-exclusion expiry and provide information on extending your self-exclusion period if you choose. If you have chosen to self-exclude for more than 6 months you will need to acknowledge your exclusion expiry, otherwise we will extend your self-exclusion period by 6 months and remind you again at the end of the extension of your exclusion period. Staff working in Nominated Outlets must actively monitor for any self-excluded customers. We also request that self-excluded customers entering a Nominated Outlet identify themselves to staff who can assist them to not breach their self-exclusion status. “Your going to have a lot more people saturated with this opportunity, with all these clever concepts of bonus bets, free bets and celebrity spokespersons,” Tonko told CNBC.

• Social casino games are popular among adolescents and young adults and may influence the transition to online gambling.
• These facts highlight the need for the regulation of gambling and implementation of effective public health policies (49).
• G4’s certification process involves comprehensive audits, staff training, and ongoing assessments to ensure operators actively reduce gambling-related harm.

Therefore, to help inform gambling harm reduction strategies, interdisciplinary research is needed to understand the complex psychological, social, cultural, and structural influences on gambling practices 17,18,19. In addition to general factors that may motivate young adults to engage in online gambling, potential mechanisms for the social casino games-online gambling link were explored. One potential mechanism noted by the participants that may lead to the migration of online gambling from social casino games involves the use of advertisements by the online gambling operators. Specifically, it was noted that gambling operators sometimes use social casino games to advertise gambling activities without legal restrictions because it is a game. Indeed, as social casino games are not technically gambling activities, there is no regulation in regards to advertisement, prompting some to suggest that advertisements for social casino games be held to the same standard as gambling (Gainsbury et al. 2014). It has been suggested that these advertisements are more likely to appear to young adults and adolescents (Abarbanel et al. 2016).

Finally, a future research agenda could explore research questions that focus on how do gambling practices connect to form a nexus practices with other social practices such as alcohol consumption or socialising with friends? Practice theorists refer to bundles of practice 48 recognising that practices are rarely performed in isolation but as part of a nexus of practices, or constellations of events 59. Gambling often coincides with other practices such as eating and drinking, consuming sport, and socialising among friends 85, 86. Future research could focus on the nexus of gambling with other social practices like alcohol consumption and the consumption of sport and how this shapes behaviours and outcomes.

Rather, practice theory research in the field should seek to examine how different elements are enlisted and come together to perform gambling practices, and also pay attention to the relational dynamics between these elements of practice. This is important, as it can help also inform how holistic harm reduction strategies may seek to work at multiple points of intervention by simultaneously tackling how bodies, materials, norms, discourses, and social structures shape gambling. Building upon the idea of how spaces and places influence sports betting practices, research in this area could also draw upon a mobilities perspective 81.