Gambling Behaviour Data and Modalities of Persuasive Interaction for Enabling Responsible Online Gambling.

Abstract

Online gambling, unlike offline forms of gambling and other mediums of problematic and addictive behaviours such as alcohol and tobacco, offers unprecedented opportunities for monitoring and understanding users’ behaviour in real-time, along with the ability to adapt persuasive messages and interactions that would fit the gamblers usage and personal context. This opens a whole new avenue for research on the monitoring and interactive utilization of gambling behavioural data. To this end, in this paper we explore the range of data and modalities of interaction which can facilitate richer interactive persuasive interventions and offer additional support to goal setting, with ultimate aim of aiding gamblers to stay in control of their gambling experience. The exploration is based on our previous research on online addiction and interviews with experts from different relevant multidisciplinary backgrounds and different points of view. We also interviewed gamblers about their perception of the utilization of their data for aiding more conscious gambling. We finally explored the barriers to such data provision as expressed by personnel in the gambling industry through another set of interviews. This is a position paper aimed at multiple stakeholders including software industry and well-being personnel as well as policymakers. This paper aims to map the road for an online space which is transparent and practicing a high degree of corporate social responsibility and duty of care in relation to the potential of hosting a problematic and addictive usage.