Tracking Gambling Behaviours and Self-Reported Problem Gambling
Various tracking studies have been conducted to examine how gambling behaviours change between different periods. In the current study, participants were asked about their gambling behaviours over the past four weeks. In addition, they had access to data from previous years. This is important because previous years data is used to identify changes in rates of participation. In addition to this, a subgroup of gamblers was identified as being at a higher risk of problem gambling. These gamblers had higher gambling behaviours than non-problem gamblers.
To study the association between gambling behaviours and live casino reports problem gambling, the study used a multilevel LCCA (Long Chain Cohort Analysis). LCCAs are based on data collected over time and take into account the non-independence of observations. The indicators used in this study included age, number of gambling days, and average number of monetary deposits. The nested structure of data allows the analysis to provide insight into the evolution of gambling behaviours over time. The results of the study showed that gambling activity in the past four weeks was divided into four clusters. Each cluster corresponds to a different gambling behaviour. These clusters were classified as regular, occasional, and problem gamblers. Each cluster has a set of probabilities that indicate a gambler’s probability of belonging to that cluster. These probabilities depend on the distribution of gambling indicators for each cluster. In addition, they depend on the distribution of cluster-membership probabilities.
The study included data from 945 players. They were selected based on their age and gender, as well as their betting activity over the past four weeks. These gamblers placed wagers online and in person. They were not actively prompted to answer the PGSI questions. In addition, the data included timestamps of individual wagers and withdrawals, as well as balances and raw data. The data was provided by a European online casino.
The data contained nine PGSI questions, which were asked of players. Players who answered PGSI questions multiple times were allowed to use their most recent answer. The study included data for all players who had placed wagers in 30 days prior to their PGSI response. The data was collected in April 2021. The study was approved by a local research ethics committee.
The data included gambling activity in the past four weeks, along with indicators for the number of gambling days, the average number of monetary deposits, and the amount of money wagered. For each indicator, the number of gambling days was estimated using an overdispersed Poisson distribution. For the amount of money wagered, a normal distribution was used. For the number of bets, a log-normal distribution was used. The number of different games was also estimated using an overdispersed Poisson Distribution. These indicators were averaged over a 12-month period.
The distribution of the PGSI results was skewed lower and higher than the distribution of the other indicators. The results suggested that the players’ responses were not reliable. However, this problem was eliminated by eliminating participants who answered the PGSI questions with unreasonably short response times. This may have been due to participants not reading the questions sufficiently.