The disruption caused by Covid-19 in the educational sector may last longer than originally predicted. To better understand the current situation, this article analyses the mental health status of university students during the pandemic and investigates the learning conditions needed to support students. The sample included 557 undergraduate students who took part in an online survey. Overall, the students reported coping well during lockdown but indicated that lecturers were challenged by distance teaching, which created some stress for the students.

Early detection is an effective building block for the prevention of problem gambling. This study aims to identify communication-based indicators for gambling-related problems in the setting of online gambling. In the framework of as emi-structured interview, customer service employees of three online gambling operators were surveyed, to identify indicators in customer correspondence could be used as apredictor for gambling-related problems. In ac onfirmatory part of the study, we investigated to what degree these indicators are able to predict problem gambling in aprospective empirical design. An optimally parsimonious log-linear model, was able to correctly predict 76.6% of the cases. Discussed in the light of this evidence, communication-based indicators could constitute an effective component of early detection. Due to the fact that the internet offers optimal conditions for consistent monitoring and objective analysis, the suggested predictive model could be combined with other models, relying on the analysis of gambling behaviour.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has had a major impact on most societies worldwide, including the closure of non-essential businesses in spring 2020. The present study considers its impact upon gambling behavior. Particularly, changes in self-reported gambling by Swiss, land-based casino players are examined. The main characteristics of respondents who played or did not play during lockdown are also investigated. This study is embedded in an ongoing longitudinal study that examines the gambling behavior of casino players at three points in time. All respondents who had participated in the first wave of the longitudinal study by the cut-off date (15th March 2020) were asked about their gambling behavior during lockdown in a supplementary online survey three weeks after the end of lockdown. A total of 55% of the 110 respondents reported having played during lockdown. Gambling intensity significantly decreased (p < 0.001) in our sample. Considering only those respondents (n = 66) who reported having gambled during lockdown, gambling intensity also decreased (p < 0.001), but online gambling significantly increased (p < 0.002). Those players who have increased their gambling activity require particular attention. It is important that casinos respond with appropriate player protection measures to those who have increased their gambling activity during the pandemic.

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Swiss gambling legislation is unique in that it includes health concerns and obligations for gambling operators. Specifically, the operators are required to provide social measures for the prevention of problem gambling. Moreover, gamblers with financial problems must either be banned from all casinos in Switzerland or exclude themselves. This study examines the reasons that lead to the application for a voluntary exclusion. It also considers to what extent excluded gamblers circumvent their respective prohibitions. Furthermore, it aims to identify the self-reported reasons why gamblers seek to lift the exclusion. The present study is the first of its kind to examine these questions, using data provided from three Swiss Casinos. A first step in the study involved analyzing the data obtained by trained Shift Managers during interviews with 8,170 gamblers, with the interviews taking place between 2006 and 2015. An invalidated casino questionnaire, based on DSM-IV criteria, was also completed by 3,650 participants from this sample. A second step involved evaluating forms. These forms were the documents completed during interviews with 1,005 gamblers who had successfully applied to have their interdiction terminated, with the person responsible for implementing social measures completing the forms. The findings indicated that most players had found other ways to gamble, during the exclusion period. The main reason gamblers gave for wishing to remove their ban was wanting to be able to visit a casino again. The possible reasons for this discovery are discussed, alongside the benefits and drawbacks of using industry-generated data.Résumé La législation suisse sur les jeux est unique en ce sens qu’elle inclut les problèmes de santé et des obligations pour les opérateurs de jeux. Plus précisément, ces derniers sont tenus de prévoir des mesures sociales pour prévenir la dépendance au jeu. De plus, les joueurs qui ont des problèmes financiers doivent soit être exclus de tous les casinos suisses, soit s’en exclure de manière volontaire. Cette étude examine les raisons qui sous-tendent la demande d’exclusion volontaire. Elle examine également dans quelle mesure les joueurs exclus contournent leur exclusion et elle vise à déterminer les raisons invoquées par les joueurs pour demander la levée de l’exclusion. La présente étude est la première du genre à examiner ces questions, en utilisant les données fournies par trois casinos suisses. Une première étape de l’étude a consisté à analyser les données obtenues auprès de 8 170 joueurs par des chefs de quart qualifiés, entre 2006 et 2015. De cet échantillon, 3 650 participants ont également répondu à un questionnaire non validé sur les casinos, basé sur les critères du DSM-IV. Une deuxième étape a consisté à évaluer les formulaires que la personne responsable de l’application des mesures sociales avait remplis lors d’entretiens auprès de 1 005 joueurs qui avaient réussi à faire lever leur exclusion. Les résultats indiquent que la plupart des joueurs ont trouvé d’autres moyens de jouer pendant la période d’exclusion. La principale raison invoquée par les joueurs pour la levée de leur exclusion est qu’ils souhaitaient pouvoir se rendre à nouveau dans un casino. Nous discutons des raisons possibles de cette situation, ainsi que des avantages et des inconvénients de l’utilisation de données générées par le secteur.