TESTING NORMATIVE AND SELF-APPRAISAL FEEDBACK IN AN ONLINE SLOT-MACHINE POP-UP MESSAGE IN A REAL-WORLD SETTING

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1 TESTING NORMATIVE AND SELF-APPRAISAL FEEDBACK IN AN ONLINE SLOT-MACHINE POP-UP MESSAGE IN A REAL-WORLD SETTING DR MARK GRIFFITHS DORIS MALISCNNIG & MICHAEL AUER International Gaming Research Unit Nottingham Trent University mark.griffiths@ntu.ac.uk

2 INDUSTRY INITIATIVES THAT MAY HELP PLAYER STAY IN CONTROL Limit setting (precommitment strategies) Mandatory breaks in play Exclusion schemes Panic buttons (online gambling, EGMs) Mandatory player cards (Norway, Sweden) Mandatory pop-ups 17/09/2014 2

3 POP-UP MESSAGING WHILE GAMBLING The increasingly advanced technological environments of online gambling companies now allow for sophisticated ways of promoting responsible play among gamblers (Auer & Griffiths, 2013; Griffiths, Wood & Parke, 2009). The use of pop-up messages that appear while an individual is gambling is one way of informing players about how much time they have been playing and/or how much money they have spent. 17/09/2014 3

4 These pop-up messages appear to becoming a common component of gambling companies responsible gambling strategies These may be required as part of social responsibility accreditation schemes (Griffiths, 2012). However, it remains to be determined whether these pop-up interventions deliver the desired effects among the players that receive such messaging. 17/09/2014 4

5 Several studies using slot machine players in laboratory settings Dynamic messages are recalled more often than static messages and that messages encouraging self-appraisal resulted in significantly greater effect on selfreported thoughts and behaviors during gambling (i.e., Monoghan, Blaszczynski & Nower, 2009; Monoghan & Blaszczynski, 2010). This leads to the conclusion that the content of messages as well as the way of presentation determines at least in part the resulting effect on gambling behavior. 17/09/2014 5

6 Warnings about randomness of VLT games decreased faulty gambling beliefs in both problem and nonproblem VLT gamblers (Gallagher, Nicki, Otteson & Elliot, 2011). Adherence to monetary limits significantly more likely among participants receiving monetary limit pop-up reminder compared participants to who did not (Stewart & Wohl, 2013) Gamblers given a pop-up message, more likely to choose a time limit and spend less time gambling (compared to those that didn t). (Kim et al, 2014) 17/09/2014 6

7 Studies have also investigated the optimum time at which popup messaging should occur within a gambling session. Ladouceur and Sevigny (2009) reported most effective social responsibility feature was a pop-up reminder after 60 minutes gambling (compared to 15, 30, 45 minutes) and resulted in a decrease in the length of time spent gambling among players. Schrans, Grace and Schellink (2004) investigated the benefits of a 30-minute pop up vs. 60-minute pop up on VLTs. Earlier exposure to pop-up messages during gambling did not influence either the likelihood of reading the message or choosing to stop play instead of selecting yes to continue. A study by Schellink and Schrans (2002) found that the 60- minute pop-up message was associated with a small reduction in session length and a decrease in expenditure among high risk players. 17/09/2014 7

8 REAL WORLD POP-UP STUDY Auer et al (2014) investigated the effects of a slot machine pop-up message Carried out in a real gambling environment Compared the behavioural tracking data of two representative random samples of 400,000 gambling sessions before and after the pop-up message introduced Study comprised around 200,000 gamblers in total In 2011, win2day enhanced their responsible gambling features and introduced a pop-up message This is triggered if customers play 1,000 consecutive games (approximately one hour s play) on slot machines during a single online gambling session. 17/09/2014 8

9 The pop-up message informed You have now played 1,000 slot games. Do you want to continue? (YES/NO) ). The 1000-game threshold was the operator s decision The operator s reason for choosing a threshold of 1,000 slot games was based on the findings of previous studies outlined in the introduction (i.e., Ladouceur & Sevigny, 2009; Schellink & Schrans, 2002; Schrans et al., 2004) 17/09/2014 9

10 Results indicated that significantly more gamblers ceased their gambling session following the viewing of a pop-up message. Study showed pop-ups appear to be another potentially helpful social responsibility tool in reducing excessive play within session. 17/09/

11 Self-appraisal feedback, normative feedback, and cognitive belief feedback, have never been empirically examined in any real-world online gambling setting. Present study investigated the effects of a normative and selfappraisal pop-up message among online slot machine players on a real online gambling site (i.e., win2day) THE PRESENT STUDY 17/09/

12 In September 2013, the content of the win2day pop-up message was changed and New pop-up addressed self-appraisal, provided normative feedback, and addressed cognitive beliefs commonly found among gamblers. The new pop-up message (translated from German, the native language used on the Austrian site) reads: We would like to inform you, that you have just played 1,000 slot games. Only a few people play more than 1,000 slot games. The chance of winning does not increase with the duration of the session. Taking a break often helps, and you can choose the duration of the break The reasoning behind the messaging is as follows: 17/09/

13 The reasoning behind the messaging is as follows: We would like to inform you, that you have just played 1,000 slot games : This objectively informs players about the behavior they engaged in. Only a few people play more than 1,000 slot games : This provides normative feedback. Only 1.5% of playing sessions exceeds 1,000 consecutive slot games The chance of winning does not increase with the duration of the session : This addresses a common misbelief among gamblers (i.e., the gamblers fallacy). Taking a break often helps, and you can choose the duration of the break : This provides advice and leaves the decision up to the player and is in line with the techniques of motivational interviewing (Millner & Rollnick, 1991) 17/09/

14 To analyze the effect of the newly introduced pop-up message, the authors accessed two representative random samples of 800,000 sessions before and after the pop-up message was changed. The total dataset comprised 1,600,000 game sessions that contained at least one slot game. We hypothesized that the changed message content would lead to an increase in gamblers terminating their gambling session after playing 1,000 consecutive slot games compared to the previously published study (i.e., Auer et al, 2014). 17/09/

15 RESULTS The 800,000 sessions with the previous pop-up message before the pop-up message content was changed comprised 11,232 sessions where at least 1,000 consecutive slot games had been played (1.4%). The 800,000 sessions after the pop-up message content was changed comprised 11,878 sessions where at least 1,000 consecutive slot games had been played (1.48%). These findings demonstrate that the ratio of highly involved players is similar in both experimental conditions and that the following comparisons between these two experimental conditions are valid. Given these low percentages, high gaming intensity (i.e., high gambling involvement as defined by the number of consecutive games played) is relatively rare among the player base examined. 17/09/

16 We assumed that playing more than 1,000 consecutive slot games per session reliably identified the most highly involved gamblers. Of the 11,232 sessions that lasted at least 1,000 games prior to the pop-up message change, 75 sessions immediately terminated after the simple pop-up message was shown (0.67%). After the new pop-up was introduced, 169 sessions immediately terminated when the pop-up message was shown at 1,000 consecutive slot games (1.39%). This percentage of players stopping at 1,000 consecutive slot games is significantly different from the percentage stopping as a consequence of the standard pop-up message (X 2 [1]=31.51, p < 0.001). Effect size /09/

17 Number of sessions ended between 990 and 1,010 slot games comparing simple pop-up message (pre-condition) and enhanced pop-up message (post-condition) 17/09/

18 DISCUSSION This real-world study was ecologically valid Previous research has often relied on self-recollected data, often in laboratory settings, to investigate the effects of pop-up messages Textual content of pop-up messaging has never been subject to empirical research before. Study demonstrated that enhanced pop-up messages led to a doubling of players stopping their gambling (1.39% of highly involved gamblers ceasing their gambling session compared to 0.67% of gamblers that only saw the simple pop-up) All other aspects of the pop-up message were identical prior- and post-analysis. This study adds to the sparse empirical base both generally and in relation to pop-up messaging more specifically. 17/09/

19 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The researchers did not have access to any information about the samples (e.g., age, sex, income, ethnicity, levels of pathology) Not known if the two groups differed on any key variables. Study was that it was cross-sectional in design. As such, the gamblers were not the same pre- and post- the pop-up message intervention However, there is no evidence to suggest that the most heavily involved gamblers before and after the change in pop-up messaging did not comprise many of the same people as these were all presumably regular gamblers on this particular website. 17/09/

20 Griffiths and Auer (2011) note that behavioural tracking data: (i)always come from unrepresentative samples (i.e., the players that use one particular internet gambling site), (ii)does not account for the fact that more than one person can use a particular account (iii) Tell us nothing about why people gamble or develop problems (iv) Cannot be used for comparing online and offline gambling as data are only collected on one group of people (i.e., online gamblers), (v)are less likely to provide insights into the relationships between gambling and other co-morbid behaviours (vi)cannot examine problem gambling using current diagnostic criteria. 17/09/

21 CONCLUSIONS Despite limitations, the data suggest that pop-up messages can influence a small number of gamblers to cease their playing session and that the effect can be enhanced via normative, selfappraisal and cognitive-belief feedback. Behavioral tracking technologies are changing the way that we can investigate gambling behaviour Behavioral tracking studies are a useful addition to the gambling studies field. 17 September