The Effect of a Mandatory Play Break on Subsequent Gambling Behavior among British Online Casino Players: A Large-Scale Real-World Study

Abstract

In recent years, various novel responsible gambling (RG) tools have been implemented to aid harm-minimization. One such RG tool has been the implementation of enforced mandatory play breaks. Despite many responsible gambling operators using mandatory play breaks, only three previous studies have examined their efficacy and the findings were mixed. Therefore, the present investigation was a large-scale real-world study which was designed to see whether a 60-minute mandatory play break influenced subsequent depositing and wagering. The authors were given access to 27 days of player data prior to the introduction of a mandatory play break and 27 days of player data after the mandatory play break was introduced. The study comprised British online gamblers from Skillonnet (a European online gambling operator). Between July 23 and September 15 (2021), 2,021 players deposited at least ten times or more on a calendar day, at least once. The 2,201 players generated 2,994 corresponding events (i.e., the depositing of money at least 10 times in one day). The percentage of players who stopped depositing money as a consequence of the mandatory play break rose from 27% to 68% on the day of a play break. Moreover, the percentage of players who stopped wagering as a consequence of the mandatory play break rose from 0.1% to 45% on the day of a play break. The findings of the present study demonstrated that a 60-minute mandatory play break impacts players’ depositing and wagering immediately after the play break. This means that a mandatory hour-long play break in an online casino setting appears to prevent overspending during a short period of time. The effects of a 60-minute mandatory break on the next day’s behavior were inconclusive.

Cooling Off and the Effects of Mandatory Breaks in Online Gambling: A Large-Scale Real-World Study

“…Given that one recent study showed that a 60-min mandatory break after making ten monetary deposits in one day has positive effects on gamblers' deposit and wagering behavior (Auer & Griffiths, 2022b), future studies could implement multiple triggers for mandatory play breaks (e.g., after several losses within a short period of time) and evaluate their efficacy. Evaluating different types of personalized feedback (e.g., normative feedback and potential money savings) during such mandatory play breaks is also an important avenue for the future research.…”

Do breaks in online gambling affect neuropsychological arousal? Conceptual approach and lessons learned from the TESSA-pilot trial

“…Likewise, there is a moderate short-term impact when pop-up messages are presented thus interrupting the gambling behavior ( Bjørseth et al, 2020 ). While recent evidence indicates that mandatory breaks are not an effective tool to reduce monetary stakes or the length of gambling time ( Auer and Griffiths, 2023 , Hopfgartner et al, 2022 , Hopfgartner et al, 2023 ), money and gambling time might not be the crucial drivers of gambling-related problems. Rather, excitement caused by the activity of gambling was argued to be a more relevant trigger for problematic gambling behavior than monetary gains ( Brown, 1986 ).…”

Development of the Online Problem Gaming Behavior Index: A New Scale Based on Actual Problem Gambling Behavior Rather Than the Consequences of it

“…”). Moreover, some researchers in the gambling studies field have emphasized the importance of behavioral aspects in the identification of problem gambling – even before the rise in popularity of online gambling (e.g., Auer & Griffiths, 2023 ; Catania & Griffiths, 2022 ; Delfabbro et al, 2012 ).…”