Mobile gambling is an increasingly popular form of online gaming. Individuals can play casino games, wager on sports events or spin slots using their smartphone. The technology has a number of benefits over traditional forms of gambling, but it also has the potential to exacerbate problem behaviours. This article explores how mobile devices interact with psychological processes that are relevant to gambling, and examines whether these interactions expedite the acquisition of maladaptive learned behaviours such as problem gambling.
Gambling is a popular pastime and is often used as an escape from the realities of everyday life. People have been known to slumber through classes, gamble while on holiday or even play slot machines in the classroom to avoid listening to dull lectures. These activities can become addictive and can lead to financial, personal and health problems. Despite this, there is limited empirical research on gambling and smartphones, and it is unclear how these devices influence gambling behaviour.
To understand the impact of mobile gambling, we conducted a field study in which participants were asked to download a simulated gambling app onto their smartphone and engage with it for varying lengths of time. They then underwent a series of questionnaires and completed a computerised contingency judgement task that probed the illusion of control, which is a common cognitive bias in gambling. This was followed by a series of open-ended questions about their experiences with the app, reflections on their behaviour and the contexts in which they engaged with it. Participants were also asked to record the amount of money they had won and lost.
We found that participants interacted with the simulated gambling app at a relatively high frequency and for prolonged periods of time, and that they were more likely to engage in the game than they would be to do so in real life. They were also more likely to continue to engage with the app in the face of continued losses than they were to stop. This indicates that the patterns of smartphone use may have a unique impact on gambling behaviour, and suggest that further empirical studies of mobile gambling are warranted.
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