A recently published article in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction & Research Theory provided a new model for evaluating responsible gambling research. To ensure its dissemination beyond academia, the NCRG produced a white paper summarizing the study’s findings. The white paper, Responsible Gambling: A Review of the Research, is available for download at www.ncrg.org (click on Resources and White Papers).
Warning messages on gaming machines. Self-exclusion programs. Programs to limit money and time spent gambling. These are just a few responsible gambling strategies in use around the world. Responsible gambling (RG) refers to programs that seek to prevent or reduce gambling-related harms.
Despite the proliferation of responsible gambling programs and studies about them, the article “Responsible Gambling: A Synthesis of the Empirical Evidence” found only 29 studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals and that met high quality research standards (Ladouceur,
Shaffer, Blaszczynski, & Shaffer, 2016). This means there is a dearth of evidence for the safety and effectiveness of many of the responsible gambling programs currently in use. Moving forward, it is vital that research on responsible gambling strategies be published in peer review journals and that subjects be real world gamblers, not convenience samples of, for example, college students. The NCRG joins the article authors in encouraging all stakeholders concerned about responsible gambling to develop science-based RG programs that are safe and effective.
References
Ladouceur, R., Shaffer, P., Blaszczynski, A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2016). Responsible gambling: a synthesis of the empirical evidence. Addiction Research & Theory, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2016.1245294
