UK - Rise in gambling addiction is a safe bet, says gaming expert (The Guardian)
Tim Radford
Friday September 10, 2004
The Guardian
"We are just about to go through one of the biggest deregulation measures this country has ever seen," Mark Griffiths, who heads a gaming research unit at Nottingham Trent University, told the British Association science festival in Exeter.
"We are going to have more opportunities and access to gamble than ever before. The government have still allowed a loophole in the new legislation to gamble. And one of the things I argue is that all slot machines, regardless of type, are potentially addictive."
The new legislation would allow "low stake, low jackpot" machines for children in sea side arcades and leisure centres. These were still addictive.
He said he had called on Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, and warned her that machines with a £5 or £10 jackpot were just as addictive as events with a £1m jackpot.
"If you give little rewards every so often, it hooks people in," Professor Griffiths said. "The second thing is the government is introducing unlimited jackpot prize machines. You are going to get a new breed of gambler who wants to play on high jackpot machines. These are potentially more addictive than low jackpot machines, because people will continually chase losses."
Research suggested that there could be as many as 325,000 problem gamblers in the UK, he said. There might be twice as many adolescent gamblers with a problem.
New legislation and new technological temptations, he added, could increase these figures by two to fourfold.
The gambling industry deliberately manipulated the environment to keep punters longer at the casino or the slot machine. "For instance, on a slot machine, we know you can gamble 12 times a minute. Addictions revolve primarily around rewards. So event frequency is very important."
He had recorded heart rates as punters played slot machines. They got excited when they won, but also when they nearly won.
"Why do people gamble, despite constantly losing? They are not constantly losing, they are constantly nearly winning. Things like scratch cards are designed to give near miss experiences, and slot machines are designed to give lots of near miss experiences."
I believe what the gaming experts are saying on this one. I know a great deal about gambling addiction and have a website http://gamblinganon.blogspot.com. Gambling will continue to rise until it is regulated. Unfortunately this isn’t happening.
Comment by martman — October 28, 2008 @ 8:41 am