Pre-commitment and Player Card Study:
The Role of Technology in Supporting Informed Player Decision Making

Background. Many countries are considering new technologically-based responsible gambling initiatives that can help inform gamblers about their play.  These generally fall into three categories: Pre-commitment, player feedback, and play history. 

At its core, pre-commitment refers to the setting of money or time limits before a gambling session.  This means not only allowing patrons the opportunity to set time or money limits before they gamble, but also allowing them the opportunity to set cooling off periods (e.g., for 24-hours), and/or restricting access to gambling either on certain days (e.g., on pay-day) or for a longer term (self-exclusion) and at certain machines.

Player feedback refers to personal gambling information provided to patrons during a gambling session to help inform the decisions they make about their gambling.  This could include giving the player a warning that they are nearing or passing their pre-set time or money limit.  It could include warnings about a patron’s risk level (low, moderate or high) based on changes to their own play patterns over time.  For example, if larger and larger amount of money were spent gambling, or if longer amounts of time were spent gambling. The risk information is delivered directly to the person at the machine during play.  Finally, player feedback could also include more basic information such as clocks on electronic gaming machines (EGMs; slot machines or video-lottery terminals) to help patrons keep track of time or displaying wins and losses in terms of cash instead of credits.

Play history refers to providing patrons with information about how much money and time they have spent gambling for a given session, day, week, month or year-to-date including losses and wins.

Given that there is still much to be learned about technology-based responsible gambling initiatives, the Responsible Gambling Council’s (RGC) Center for the Advancement in Best Practices proposes to conduct a comprehensive review of pre-commitment, player feedback, and play history. 

RGC is an independent, non-profit, organization committed to problem gambling prevention. The Centre is a division of RGC, which promotes the identification and adoption of best practices to reduce the incidence of problem gambling. It undertakes independent research analysis of best practices in responsible gambling, prevention, and risk reduction measures. The research of the Centre is designed to support decision-makers in the pursuit of workable measures likely to reduce problem gambling.

Procedure.  In addition to a review of the literature and available technology as well as interviews with experts in the field, the study will consist of 12 focus groups in six provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island).  People with experience gambling on slot machines or VLTs will be recruited via advertisements placed in local newspapers and/or from a list of the local casino’s loyalty club members.   

During recruitment, you will be asked questions to make sure that you fit the participation criteria.  Once selected, you will be invited to attend the focus group in your community. 

The entire focus group session should last about 2 hours and will consist of a:

  1. Pre-focus group questionnaire that includes questions on your:
    1. Age, gender etc…
    2. History with gambling
    3. Risk for problem gambling
    4. Limit setting habits

 

  1. Presentation to show how pre-commitment and player feedback technology can work
  1. Group discussion on some of the issues surrounding this technology, such as:
    1. Interest, acceptance and motivation to use pre-commitment and player feedback technology.
    2. Voluntary vs. mandatory use of pre-commitment and player feedback technology
    3. Privacy, data collection and anonymity
    4. Pre-commitment
    5. Player feedback
    6. Player activity statements
    7. Game types

 

  1. Post-focus group questionnaire that determines your preference for certain responsible gambling features.

Compensation: In exchange for your time, you will be compensated with a $100 gift certificate to a local mall or grocery store.

Voluntary/Confidential/Anonymous.  Participation in this research is completely voluntary: You may withdraw at any time and decline to answer questions they do not want to answer.

All of the information that you provide in this study will remain strictly confidential and anonymous. The only people who will have access to the information provided throughout the study will be the staff at the RGC who are directly involved in the study. Neither the casino, nor any other authority will ever know what information is provided you. Although you may be contacted by a researcher to discuss the time and location of a focus group, no reference to gambling will be mentioned to anyone who answers the phone other than you, nor will any mention of gambling be left on your voice-mail. The researcher will simply say that they are calling from the Research Group.

Contact. To enroll in a focus group in your community, please contact Christina Whelan at 1 888 391 1111 x241.

 

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