The Epidemiology of College Alcohol and Gambling Policies

Background: This article reports the first national assessment of patterns of drinking and gambling-related rulemaking on college campuses (e.g., punitive versus recovery oriented). Analyses relating school policies to known school rates of drinking or gambling identified potentially influential policies. These results can inform and encourage the development of guidelines, or "best practices," upon which schools can base future policy. Methods: The college policy information was collected from handbooks, Web sites and supplemental materials of 119 scientifically selected colleges included in the fourth (2001) Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS). A coding instrument of 40 items measured the scope and focus of school alcohol and gambling policies. This instrument included items to measure the presence of specific policies and establish whether the policies were punitive or rehabilitative. A total of 11 coders followed a process of information extraction, coding and arbitration used successfully in other published studies to codify policy information. Results: Although all schools had a student alcohol use policy, only 26 schools (22%) had a gambling policy. Punitive and restrictive alcohol policies were most prevalent; recovery-oriented policies were present at fewer than 30% of schools. Certain alcohol and gambling policies had significant relationships with student binge drinking rates. Conclusions: The relative lack of college recovery-oriented policies suggests that schools might be overlooking the value of rehabilitative measures in reducing addictive behaviors among students. Since there are few college gambling-related policies, schools might be missing an opportunity to inform students about the dangers of excessive gambling

Virtual harm reduction efforts for Internet gambling: effects of deposit limits on actual Internet sports gambling behavior

Background: In an attempt to reduce harm related to gambling problems, an Internet sports betting service provider, bwin Interactive Entertainment, AG (bwin), imposes limits on the amount of money that users can deposit into their online gambling accounts. We examined the effects of these limits on gambling behavior. Methods: We compared (1) gambling behavior of those who exceeded deposit limits with those who did not, and (2) gambling behavior before and after exceeding deposit limits. We analyzed 2 years of the actual sports gambling behavior records of 47000 subscribers to bwin. Results: Only 160 (0.3%) exceeded deposit limits at least once. Gamblers who exceeded deposit limits evidenced higher average number of bets per active betting day and higher average size of bets than gamblers who did not exceed deposit limits. Comparing the gambling behavior before and after exceeding deposit limits revealed slightly more unfavorable gambling behavior after exceeding deposit limits. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that Internet gamblers who exceed deposit limits constitute a group of bettors willing to take high risks; yet, surprisingly, they appear to do this rather successfully because their percentage of losses is lower than others in the sample. However, some of these gamblers exhibit some poor outcomes. Deposit limits might be necessary harm reduction measures to prevent the loss of extremely large amounts of money and cases of bankruptcy. We discuss how these limits might be modified based on our findings

The interdependence of behavioral and somatic health: implications for conceptualizing health and measuring treatment outcomes

<b>Purpose:</b> The interdependence of behavioral and somatic aspects of various health conditions warrants greater emphasis on an integrated care approach.<br><br> <b>Theory:</b> We propose that integrated approaches to health and wellness require comprehensive and empirically-valid outcome measures to assess quality of care.<br><br> <b>Method:</b> We discuss the transition from independent to integrated treatment approaches and provide examples of new systems for integrated assessment of treatment outcome.<br><br> <b>Results:</b> Evidence suggests that support for an independent treatment approach is waning and momentum is building towards more integrated care. In addition, research evidence suggests integrated care improves health outcomes, and both physicians and patients have favorable impressions of integrated care.<br><br> <b>Conclusions:</b> As treatment goals in the integrated perspective expand to take into account the intimate relationships among mental illness, overall health, and quality of life, clinicians need to develop outcome measures that are similarly comprehensive. Discussion: Increased recognition, by researchers, providers, and insurers, of the interdependence between behavioral and physical health holds great promise for innovative treatments that could significantly improve patients' lives

Advancing Open Science Principles and Practices in Gambling Research

Abstract: Researchers around the world have begun adopting open science research practices to improve scientific rigor, increase transparency, and mitigate the harmful effects of research strategies focused on publishing statistically significant novel effects. Such efforts include strategies like research pre-registration, registered reports, and open data, materials, and publication. Open science practices such as these increase the replicability of published papers and bolster confidence in published research. They also accelerate scientific research by providing easy access to resources needed for assessing the reproducibility of findings and testing new original research questions. This presentation will review the basics of open science principles and practices, their value to industry-funded gambling research, and recent research about open science practices in published gambling studies. Without a sharp turn toward open science, gambling research risks the follies of related fields, including poor replicability of published research findings. Recent open science studies include descriptions of gambling stakeholders\u27 use and views of open science, scoping reviews of open science practices in published papers, and examinations of researchers’ adherence to open science practices. Although such practices currently are limited in gambling research, evidence suggests several areas of promise, including open science uptake and recognition of the importance of research replicability. Implications: Open science principles and practices can increase the transparency, rigor, and replicability of gambling studies research. Consideration of the state of open science practices among gambling studies is important to efforts to understand the quality of published research, which has implications for practical outcomes like prevention, treatment, policy, and regulation

Advancing Systems-based Responsible Gambling

Abstract: Since the publication of the Reno Model during 2004, stakeholders have grappled with the best way to promote responsible gambling and its essential features. Whereas the Reno Model prescribed a broad set of interacting goals and activities across multiple stakeholders, to date, an in-depth consideration of the specialized role of gambling-industry businesses in promoting responsible gambling remains to be realized. This type of deep dive into industry-oriented responsible gambling is important to accomplish because the gambling industry has unique responsibilities for developing and managing safer gambling environments. Therefore, this lightning talk provides a strategic framework that describes principles and practices to guide gambling-industry businesses in the implementation of contemporary systems-based responsible gambling initiatives. The systems-based responsible gambling approach suggests responsible gambling principles for core gambling-industry business units including customer experience, public messaging, data science, gaming innovation, regulatory affairs, and the executive level, with five main practices to be applied to each business unit: (1) research, (2) needs assessment, (3) needs-based training, (4) technical assistance, and (5) evaluation. Implications: Responsible gambling should be re-imagined as a deliberate systems-based initiative for gambling operators, one that moves beyond compliance-focused universal training and vision and toward business unit-specific responsible gambling goals, actions, and performance indicators. Adopting such an approach would lead to a better playing environment for customers and operators

Populations Patterns of Daily Fantasy Sports Play

Abstract: Populations of gamblers can adapt rapidly to online sports betting services. Adaptation typically shows initial play increases followed by sharp betting (e.g., amount wagered and number of bets) declines. Currently, we know very little about whether these trends are evident for daily fantasy sports. Understanding this is important because daily fantasy sports is an immensely popular activity that many have compared with traditional gambling. To examine this issue, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of daily fantasy sports play on the DraftKings website. We followed 11,338 unique DraftKings players, tracking their overall levels of engagement (i.e., total contest entries, total contest entry fees, and total participation) for 27 months. In this paper, we present daily and monthly trends for these activities. We observed increasing engagement over time among a minority of the most involved players (i.e., the top 1% of players on each engagement metric). Less involved players (LIP), who comprised the majority of the player pool (i.e., the remaining 99% of players on each metric), tended to exhibit increased initial engagement followed by decreasing engagement over time. These LIP findings are consistent with exposure and adaptation models. Aggregate playing trends for all groups of players were seasonal. Implications: This study provides the first longitudinal analysis of actual daily fantasy sports playing trends using player records. In contrast to popular concerns about the activity, we determined that models of exposure and adaptation can help to explain aggregate trends of daily fantasy sports

Towards a Systems-Based Responsible Gambling Approach to Mitigating Harmful Gambling: Delineating Industry’s Role in Gambling Safety

Since the publication of the Reno Model in 2004, stakeholders have grappled with the best way to promote responsible gambling and its essential features. While the Reno Model prescribed a broad set of interacting goals and activities across multiple stakeholders, to date, an in-depth consideration of the specialized role of gambling-industry businesses in promoting responsible gambling remains to be realized. This type of deep dive into industry-oriented responsible gambling is important to accomplish because the gambling industry has unique responsibilities for developing safer gambling environments. Therefore, this position paper provides a strategic framework that describes principles and practices to guide gambling-industry businesses in the implementation of contemporary systems-based responsible gambling initiatives. The foundational systems-based responsible gambling approach sets forth responsible gambling principles for core gambling-industry business units including customer experience, public messaging, data science, game development, regulatory affairs, and the executive level, as well as five main practices to be applied to each business unit: evaluation, research, needs assessment, needs-based training, and technical assistance. This approach is flexible and can be adjusted to reflect different organizations’ unique structures and needs

DOES PARETO RULE INTERNET GAMBLING? PROBLEMS AMONG THE “VITAL FEW” & “TRIVIAL MANY”

Using records of Internet gambling subscribers (n = 1,384), this study tested the Pareto principle: about 20% of customers, “the vital few,” are responsible for about 80% of the activity, while 80%, “the trivial many,” are responsible for the remaining 20%. Participants completed the Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen (BBGS) and had a history of betting on sports and/or online casino games during the twelve months before completing the screen. Using various measures, the vital few Internet gamblers ranged between 4.6% and 17.8% of the subscribers – smaller than the Pareto principle would suggest. Between 38% and 67% of the vital few and between 24% and 35% of the trivial many screened positive for gambling-related problems. This research suggests that the concepts of the “vital few” and the “trivial many” apply to Internet gambling