Pop-ups and popcorn could help cut cravings for problem gamblers, according to a Carleton University researcher.
Associate professor Michael Wohl presented his findings on the phenomenon of craving at the BC Lottery Corp.’s inaugural, two-day New Horizons in Responsible Gambling conference on January 29.
Wohl said craving undermines a person’s control of executive functions and contributes to reaching a dissociative state. Gambling can be as addictive as heroin or nicotine, but Wohl said it lacks certain physical consequences.
“[Smokers] know that when they light up, they’re going to get that nicotine hit,” Wohl said at the Vancouver Convention Centre. “You do get to a cessation point. [Gamblers] never know when that win is going to come around; they think it’ll eventually happen.”
Wohl said research in his simulated casino laboratory in Ottawa found that limit-setting and limit-warning pop-up messages displayed on slot machines broke dissociation and didn’t increase cravings among gamblers.
His research also found a link between the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger and risk-taking. Put simply, gamblers who are hungry are at risk of playing longer despite continual losses.
“Perhaps a really easy responsible gambling strategy is to simply have them eat,” Wohl said. “So you have free food around the casino, or you can envision responsible gambling initiatives, [and] posters saying ‘eat before you play.’”
Don Feeney, Minnesota State Lottery research and development director and National Council on Problem Gambling president, showed how art, music and film have fuelled favourable and unfavourable opinions on gambling through the ages. Gamblers, he said, have been portrayed as risk-takers, folk heroes and sinners.
Feeney charted the evolution of lotteries from ancient Roman and Chinese times in 100 BC to 20th century pop culture icons like James Bond (Casino Royale), Elvis Presley (Viva Las Vegas) and Kenny Rogers (The Gambler).
Lottery schemes were used to raise funds for public works, such as the 1612 London lottery that helped establish the British colony at Jamestown, Virginia.
World Lottery Association corporate social responsibility adviser John Luff said an entire upcoming generation will no longer see the distinction between playing games for fun or for reward.
“We have choice; we have convergence. The folks that game and gamble have an explosion of choice now, and it’s getting bigger,” Luff said. “Similarly we’re seeing convergence. What happens when Facebook becomes Facebookie, as it will? What happens when every piece of technology that you pick up, when you buy that new iPad or whatever, it has an application built into it for gaming and gambling, as it will?”
The conference targeted researchers, policy makers and industry representatives and served as the climax for BCLC’s first responsible gambling awareness month. The public relations strategy involved five communities: Vernon, Langley, Kamloops, Prince George and the West Shore on Vancouver Island.
“The more people know, the better equipped they are to make informed choices for themselves,” said BCLC CEO Mike Graydon.
In 2011-12, BCLC netted $1.107 billion, but it comes at a cost. The 2008 Ipsos Reid B.C. Problem Gambling Prevalence study commissioned by BCLC estimated there were 159,000 problem gamblers around the province, the equivalent of almost three BC Lions sellouts at BC Place Stadium. BCLC is fending off a BC Supreme Court class action lawsuit by gambling addicts who said the BCLC self-exclusion program failed to prevent them from betting in B.C. casinos.
Fears of gambling addiction and crime spurred community opposition that defeated proposals for expanded hotel/casino complexes beside B.C. Place in April 2011 and in South Surrey in January 2013. •
