Title:
Second Session at the
Virtual Poker Table |
PIs:
Drs. Debi A. LaPlante and
Sarah E. Nelson |
Sponsor:
Entain plc |
Description:
This package contains the data and code used for
a study of a cohort of online poker players and
their activity on an online poker server (Tom et
al., 2022). The files contain demographic
information and records of deposit, withdrawal,
and poker activity for subscribers who first
opened an account with one of Entain’s gambling
services in February 2015. |
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Title:
Population Trends
in Internet Sports Gambling |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor:
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG |
Description:
This package contains the analytic data set for the
first longitudinal analysis of online gambling
participation and activity among a population
of newly subscribed Internet bettors (LaPlante et
al., 2008). This data set comes from the
collaborative Internet gambling research project
between the Division on Addictions (DOA) and bwin
Interactive Entertainment, AG (bwin) (currently
known as the Division on Addiction and Entain plc,
respectively). This data set contains demographics
and sports betting records of a cohort of 46,339
subscribers who first opened an account with bwin
during February 2005. The records represent 18
months of activity, starting on February 1, 2005
and ending on August 31, 2006. |
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Title: Patterns of Daily Fantasy Sports Play:
Tackling the Issues |
PIs:
Drs. Debi A.
LaPlante and Sarah E. Nelson |
Sponsor:
DraftKings, Inc. |
Description: Daily fantasy sports
(DFS), a rapidly growing industry, allows players
to create fantasy teams of real-life players and
potentially win cash prizes, derived from entry
fees. Some stakeholders have expressed concern
that DFS's accelerated nature and other features
might promote excessive play and related harm. We
conducted the first descriptive summary of actual
DFS play using records from a cohort of
subscribers to a dominant operator, DraftKings.
The cohort consisted of 10,385 players who enrolled
and made their initial deposits between August 1,
2014 and September 30, 2014, and entered at least
one paid National Football League (NFL)
contest. |
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Title: A Scoping Review of "Responsible Drinking"
Interventions |
PIs:
Drs. Heather M. Gray and
Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor: Foundation for Advancing
Alcohol Responsibility (FAAR) |
Description: Public health groups,
researchers, the beverage alcohol industry, and
other stakeholders have promoted and applied
the concept of "responsible drinking" for the past
50 years. However, little is known about the state
of the existing responsible drinking evaluation
research and its application to policy and
practice. This project provides a scoping review
of studies evaluating responsible drinking
interventions. Two primary research questions
guided this investigation: (1) To what extent have
authors attempted to define the concept of
responsible drinking while evaluating responsible
drinking interventions? and (2) What is the state
of the responsible drinking intervention
evaluation literature? We retrieved 49
peer-reviewed articles that evaluated
interventions designed to promote "responsible
drinking." |
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Title: Understanding the Relation Between Social
Behaviors and Daily Fantasy Sports Risk
Behavior |
PIs:
Drs. Howard J. Shaffer and Debi A.
LaPlante |
Sponsor:
DraftKings, Inc. |
Description: In daily fantasy
sports (DFS) contests, participants form a roster
of athletes scheduled to perform in a
pre-determined list of sporting contests or
games. Each participant has the opportunity to win
cash prizes, depending on the performance of the
athletes on their roster and the performances of
the athletes on the other participants'
rosters. Some contests have higher variances than
others (i.e., lower percentages of participants
winning and higher payouts versus higher
percentages of participants winning and lower
payouts) and can be considered riskier
propositions. DFS operators have mechanisms
for interacting with friends on their servers
(e.g., referral programs and incentives, friend
lists, private contests). To determine whether use
of these mechanisms (i.e., social behavior) was
associated with preference for higher variance
contests (i.e., risk behavior), we analyzed player
records (N = 11,130) from a DFS service. We
constructed a measure of risk behavior, player
risk score, that is based on DFS contests' entry
fees and payout structures. |
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Title: Observations of the First GameSense-branded
Responsible Gambling
Centre in a US casino |
PIs: Drs. Howard J.
Shaffer and Debi A. LaPlante |
Sponsor: Massachusetts
Gaming Commission |
Description: Casino operators are
launching responsible gambling information
centers in venues across North America. These
centers are designed to provide a place where
casino customers can get information about
gambling and resources for help with potential
gambling problems. The launch of the first such
center in the USA, the GameSense Info Center,
located at Plainridge Park Casino, in
Massachusetts provided an opportunity to achieve
three goals: (1) document the center reach among
casino patrons, (2) generate a comprehensive
description of services provided, and (3) explore
the potential for a dose response relationship
between center exposure and gambling beliefs and
behavior. We achieved these goals by documenting
services provided and surveying consecutive center
visitors. Program staff reported engaging directly
with approximately 1% of daily patrons. About 70%
of their interactions were casual in
nature. During conversations that did move beyond
a casual nature, program staff typically provided
information about responsible gambling. Finally,
among a sample of patrons who repeatedly engaged
with program staff at the most involved level
(N = 129), those with relatively little
program exposure were more likely to hold an
accurate gambling belief but less likely to report
having set time limits on their casino visits. In
conclusion, we did not observe support for the
notion that using an on-site information center to
teach patrons about important gambling concepts is
associated with more responsible gambling
behavior. |
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Title: Examining Responsible Gambling Program
Awareness and Engagement Trends |
PI:
Dr. Brett Abarbanel
(subcontract PI: Dr. Heather Gray) |
Sponsor: MGM Resorts
International |
Description: A considerable body
of literature has examined elements of responsible
gambling (RG) programs in land-based gambling
venues. We examined GameSense RG program awareness
and engagement trends and relationships with
gambling beliefs and behaviors, at MGM's
U.S.-based casino properties using three samples
of MGM's loyalty program members. We used a
repeated cross-sectional approach including
observational data collected from one sample
(N = 3748) shortly before the rollout of
GameSense in 2017-2018, and from two samples
collected 1 year (N = 4795) and 2 years
(N = 3927) after the program's
implementation. |
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Title: Responsible gambling: A synthesis
of the empirical evidence |
Source: Peer reviewed
journal articles included in: (Ladouceur
et al. in Addict Res Theory 25:225-235,
2017) |
PI:
Dr. Robert Ladouceur |
Sponsor: Laval
University |
Description: This codebook
provides information about the data used to
generate statistics for a recent study that
examined the relationship between funding sources
and scientific findings within the extant
responsible gambling literature (Ladouceur, Robert
& Shaffer, Paige &
Blaszczynski, Alex
& Shaffer, Howard (2018). Responsible
Gambling Research and Industry Funding
Biases. Journal of Gambling Studies.
10.1007/s10899-018-9792-9.) Specifically, this
study examined whether there are different
characteristics, including design/methodologies
of responsible gambling (RG), between studies
funded by industry compared to other sources. To
investigate this hypothesis, the authors used
those studies included in a recent meta-analysis
focusing on the empirical basis of RG initiatives
(Ladouceur et al. in Addiction Research and Theory
25:225-235, 2017). This data set includes the 29
studies included in the final wave of the
meta-analysis. All covariates used for analysis
are included in the dataset. |
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the codebook.
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Title: Associations between national gambling
policies and disordered gambling prevalence
rates within Europe |
Sources: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance,
a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital;
University of St. Gallen HSG |
PI:
Simon Planzer, Ph.D., M.A. |
Sponsor:
bwin Digital Entertainment AG |
Description: This codebook
provides information for both the raw and analytic
datasets used to generate analyses of the
associations between national gambling policies
and disordered gambling prevalence rates within
Europe (Planzer, Gray, & Shaffer, 2014). These
datasets come from the collection of national
gambling policy data from key informants and
the collection of disordered gambling prevalence
estimates from a review of the
literature. |
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the codebook.
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Title: Using Cross-game Behavioral Markers for
Early Identification of High-risk Internet
Gamblers |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor:
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG |
Description: BACKGROUND: Using
actual gambling behavior provides the opportunity
to develop behavioral markers that operators can
use to predict the development of gambling-related
problems among their subscribers. METHODS:
Participants were 4,056 Internet gamblers who
subscribed to the Internet betting service
provider bwin.party. Half of this sample included
multiple platform gamblers who were identified by
bwin.party's Responsible Gambling (RG) program;
the other half were controls randomly selected
from those who had the same first deposit date.
Using the daily aggregated Internet betting
transactions for gamblers' first 31 calendar days
of online betting activities at bwin.party, we
employed a 2-step analytic strategy: (1) applying
an exploratory chi-squared automatic interaction
detection (CHAID) decision tree method to identify
characteristics that distinguished a subgroup of
high-risk Internet gamblers from the rest of the
sample, and (2) conducting a confirmatory analysis
of those characteristics among an independent
validation sample. RESULTS: This analysis
identified two high-risk groups (i.e., groups in
which 90% of the members were identified by
bwin.party's RG program): Group 1 engaged in 3 or
more gambling activities and evidenced high wager
variability on casino-type games; Group 2 engaged
in 2 different gambling activities and evidenced
high variability for live action
wagers. CONCLUSION: This analysis advances an
ongoing research program to identify potentially
problematic Internet gamblers during the earliest
stages of their Internet gambling. Gambling
providers and public policy makers can use these
results to inform early intervention programs that
target high-risk Internet gamblers. |
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the codebook.
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the dataset.
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Title: Behavioral characteristics of Internet
gamblers who trigger corporate responsible
gambling interventions |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor:
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG |
Description: As the worldwide
popularity of Internet gambling increases,
concerns about the potential for gambling-related
harm also increase. This paper reports the results
of a study examining actual Internet gambling
behavior during 10 years of play. We examined the
electronic gambling records of subscribers
(N = 2,066) who triggered a responsible
gaming alert system at a large international
online gaming company. We compared these cases
with control subscribers (N = 2,066) who
had the same amount of exposure to the Internet
gambling service provider. We used discriminant
function analysis to explore what aspects of
gambling behavior distinguish cases from
controls. Indices of the intensity of gambling
activity (e.g., total number of bets made, number
of bets per betting day) best distinguished cases
from controls, particularly in the case of
live-action sports betting. Control group players
evidenced behavior similar to the population of
players using this service. These results add to
our understanding of behavioral markers for
disordered Internet gambling and will aid in the
development of behavior-based algorithms capable
of predicting the presence and/or the onset of
disordered Internet gambling. |
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Title: How Do Gamblers Start Gambling: Identifying
Behavioural Markers for High-risk Internet
Gambling |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor:
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG |
Description: BACKGROUND: The
goal of this study is to identify betting patterns
displayed during the first month of actual
Internet gambling on a betting site that can serve
as behavioural markers to predict the development
of gambling-related problems. METHODS: Using
longitudinal data, k-means clustering
analysis identified a small subgroup of high-risk
gamblers. RESULTS: Seventy-three percent of
the members of this subgroup eventually closed
their account due to gambling-related
problems. The characteristics of this high-risk
subgroup were as follows: (1) frequent and (2)
intensive betting combined with (3) high
variability across wager amount and (4) an
increasing wager size during the first month of
betting. CONCLUSION: This analysis provides
important information that can help to identify
potentially problematic gamblers during the early
stages of gambling-related problems. Public health
workers can use these results to develop early
interventions that target high-risk Internet
gamblers for prevention efforts. However, one
study limitation is that the results distinguish
only a small proportion of the total
sample. Therefore, additional research will be
necessary to identify markers that can classify
larger segments of high-risk
gamblers. |
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Title: Actual Internet Sports Gambling Activity:
February 2005 through September
2005 |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor:
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG |
Description: The first available
dataset for the Transparency Project comes from
the collaborative Internet gambling research
project involving the Division and bwin
Interactive Entertainment, AG. bwin, an Internet
betting service provider headquartered in Vienna,
Austria. The dataset provides the first
prospective longitudinal data reflecting real-time
Internet sports betting behavior. It contains the
information from a large cohort of participants
(N = 40,499) who opened an account with
bwin from February 1, 2005 through February 27,
2005; this dataset also describes the actual
aggregated Internet sports gambling behavior of
participants during the first 8 months of a
longitudinal study that took place from February
1, 2005 through September 30, 2005. This bwin
Internet gambling dataset includes the following
participant information: demographic information
(user ID, country of residence, language, gender,
registration date, age at registration), and
fixed-odds and live-action betting activity
(first active date, last active date, total days
active, total stakes, total winnings,
total bets). |
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|
Title: Meta-analytic Prevalence Estimates of
Disordered Gambling in the US &
Canada |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor: National
Center for Responsible Gaming |
Description: This meta-analytic
dataset extends the first comprehensive gambling
related epidemiological meta-analysis published
in the American Journal of Public Health in 1999
by Shaffer et al to update and refine the
prevalence estimates of disordered gambling in
the United States and Canada. This dataset employs
an empirical strategy to synthesize estimates of
gambling-related disorders across an array of
differing estimation methodologies and population
samples. This dataset provides the opportunity to
evaluate and integrate the range of assumptions
and strategies used by the various scientists who
have estimated the prevalence of disordered
gambling. This search strategy initially
identified 193 prevalence studies and a total of
146 studies were included for analyses in this
meta-analysis study. |
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Title: Virtual Casino Gambling: February 2005
through February 2007 |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor: National
Center for Responsible Gaming |
Description: The data includes
two years of recorded Internet betting activity by
a cohort of gamblers who subscribed to an Internet
gambling service during February 2005. The sample
included over 4,000 gamblers who played casino
games. The available demographic characteristics
of the research sample included age, gender,
country of residence, and preferred language. The
gambling behavior measures are based on
participants' monetary deposits to, and
withdrawals from, their wagering accounts, as well
as daily aggregates of betting activity
records. The daily betting aggregates include the
number of bets made, total monies wagered, and
winnings credited to the bettors' accounts. We
measured the duration of gambling involvement as
the number of days from the first eligible bet to
the last (i.e., Duration). |
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Title: Sitting at the Virtual Poker Table:
February 2005 through February
2007 |
Source: Division on Addiction,
Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard
Medical School teaching hospital |
PI:
Dr. Howard J. Shaffer |
Sponsor: National
Center for Responsible Gaming |
Description: This codebook
provides information about the raw and analytic
datasets that provided the evidence base for
research focusing on actual Internet poker
gambling (LaPlante et al., 2009). These datasets
derive from the collaborative Internet gambling
research project between the Division on
Addictions (DOA) and bwin Interactive
Entertainment, AG (bwin), an Internet betting
service provider headquartered in Vienna,
Austria. These datasets provide evidence from
twenty-four months of the prospective
longitudinal, real-time, Internet poker-playing
behavior. The datasets contain raw and
analytic data representing twenty-four months of
aggregated betting behavior data for sequential
bwin subscribers who opened an account with
bwin during the period from February 1, 2005
through February 28, 2005. The raw datasets
RawDataSet1_DemographicsPoker and
RawDataSet2_AggregatePoker represent data from
48,114 people (100% of people who subscribed
during February 2005). Of the full cohort,
4,459 elected to play poker online. Of these, we
excluded 951 participants who played fewer than
four poker sessions during the study period and
63 poker players who did not begin poker play
until the last month of the study period (i.e.,
began playing poker after January 31, 2007). The
resulting sample, included in the analytic data
set AnalyticDataSet_Poker, consists of the
remaining 3,445 people who contributed data to
the analyses reported in LaPlante et al.
(2009). |
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the codebook.
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the dataset.
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|