Gambling Policy in the European Union: Monopolies, Market Access, Economic Rents, and Competitive Pressures among Gaming Sectors in the Member States

This study examines the conflicts within the European Union regarding protected status accorded to legal commercial gaming industries and the principles of harmonization that direct EU economic policy. Member States are permitted to constrain competition for gambling services as long as the primary purpose is to protect citizens from unintended negative consequences associated with the activities. Also, because of monopoly status, high tax rates, or government ownership, many EU gaming industries have become major contributors to government coffers or for funding for “good causes.” Legal challenges by private companies trying to participate in these protected markets have led to decisions by the European Court of Justice that have questioned such protected status. A number of key economic metrics for European gaming industries are presented, and competitive dimensions of EU casino industries are examined in comparisons to trends elsewhere.regulation, gambling, European Union, harmonization

Betting is loving and bettors are predators: a conceptual metaphor approach to online sports betting advertising

The legalisation of online gambling in multiple territories has caused a growth in the exposure of consumers to online sports betting (OSB) advertising. While some efforts have been made to understand the visible structure of betting promotional messages, little is known about the latent components of OSB advertisements. The present study sought to address this issue by examining the metaphorical conceptualisation of OSB advertising. A sample of Spanish and British television OSB advertisements from 2014 to 2016 was analysed (N = 133). Following Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory, four main structural metaphors that shaped how OSB advertising can be understood were identified: betting as (1) an act of love, (2) a market, (3) a sport, and (4) a natural environment. In general, these metaphors, which were found widely across 29 different betting brands, facilitated the perception of bettors as active players, with an executive role in the sport events bet upon, and greater control over bet outcomes

Performance Gaps Between U.S. and European Casinos: A Comparative Study

Recent years have seen the fast spread of legalized gaming throughout the world. Amid the frenzied gaming boom, new casinos have mushroomed on every continent. Casinos in different continents operate in different legal and market environments and may have performed quite differently. This study examines the performance results of U. S. casinos, those in Nevada and on the Las Vegas Strip in particular, in comparison with Dutch and French casinos in 1998. It was found that Dutch and French casinos outperformed U. S. casinos in both revenue efficiency and profitability. Noncompetitive European gaming markets most likely have helped European casinos achieve better results

Factsheet No. 10 Summer 2020

The portrait presented in this fact sheet is the result of extensive and non-exhaustive research conducted between March 23 and May 17, 2020. Two independent Internet searches were conducted to gather all available information related to gambling, online gambling and the COVID-19 pandemic. Since few studies have been published to date on gambling and the specific context of the health crisis, the information collected is limited to material that is accessible and available on the web at the time of data collection

Internet gambling : the effects of colours and sounds on decision making

Internet gambling is a very popular way of gambling. People can gamble anytime and everywhere, at home, at their job, in a public library and 24 hours a day, with only a device connected to the internet. With this new type of gambling some questions emerge. How different is gambling online and gambling in the traditional houses? How different are the structural characteristics frames of those two distinct forms of gambling? Having that in mind, we investigate the effects of two structural characteristics – colour and sound – on gamblers behavior. We found that the colour effect seems to increase the psychological salience of losses in online gambling and this triggers in the gambler an attempt to recover previous losses

Performance Measurement in Internet Gaming Industry – Implementing An Effective Balanced Scorecard at An Online Casino

Performance Measurement Systems (PMS) are widely known and used in business practice. In business administration, esp. Controlling, PMS is a steady component in research and education. Over time, a lot of different versions have been developed in order to take the specific requirements of companies and sectors into account. They range from conventional PMS to highly complex, hierarchy-related Controlling Systems. The common goal of all these versions is to improve the planning and management of organizations and processes. According to the literature, the PMS is a standard management tool in many industries all over the world and could be transferred to almost any kind of product or service. In this article, we will investigate how PMS can help to improve the competitiveness of online casinos. So far, there are no articles or case studies published on this specific field of interest. The topic itself is very new and innovative even though the first online casinos have existed for more than ten years. Based on the case study of an online casino, we will show how an effective PMS could be implemented by using the classical Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in order to resolve management planning issues. The authors will demonstrate how this concept can be a “blueprint” for other e-business sectors while also considering the specific challenges, e.g. rapid (technological) development and fierce competition. Keywords: performance measurement, balanced scorecard, e-business, online casinos, Internet Gaming DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-18-13 Publication date:June 30th 201

Understanding the convergence of online sports betting markets

Betting on sports via online platforms has rapidly become a popular form of gambling in many countries. Despite the growing body of research investigating the psychosocial and individual psychological factors determining gambling behaviour, much less attention has been devoted to understanding the market characteristics of online sports betting and its intersection with products from adjacent industries. From an economic convergence perspective, the present paper explores the integration of online sports betting within the digital, sporting and gambling sectors, examining how data markets, eSports, virtual sports, social gaming, immersive reality tools, sports media, sport sponsorship, fantasy sports, in-venue and in-stadium betting, poker and trading are all converging around betting activity. Through this convergence process, it is argued that internet-based sports gambling is colonizing different forms of entertainment, and expanding marketing opportunities, as well as raising psychosocial concerns about the influence of such an integration process.</jats:p

Internet-based structural characteristics of sports betting and problem gambling severity: is there a relationship?

With the adoption and popularization of internet-based platforms, sports betting has introduced new functionalities that transform the design of its products and therefore the way bettors interact with them. This study aims to explore the association between the use of new structural characteristics of online betting and gambling severity. Five characteristics are examined here: (i) live in-play betting; (ii) cash out feature use (as example of in-play betting in-built features); (iii) fantasy sports gaming; (iv) location of betting; and (v) device or platform used to make bets. A cohort (N = 659) of Spanish gamblers who had bet on sports during the previous year was recruited through an online survey. The results suggested that those bettors scoring higher on gambling problems also utilized more often such new structural characteristics, in a proportion not explained only by their higher overall gambling activity. Mobile betting was especially frequent among problem gamblers