In a recent article on Scientific American by Dirk Hanson, a new technology is highlighted that will help identify and regulate gamblers who may have a problem.
According to research performed at the University of Brescia and corresponding institutions in Italy, internet gamblers who have had the most problems show a wide “variance” in their gambling habits that starts with gradual increases in the amounts they bet then a sudden drop that – when graphed – creates a “sawtooth’ pattern.”
A paper published online in February at International Gambling Studies discusses how this pattern is unsustainable for gambling.
Now, thanks to this recent information, casinos are partnering with researchers to try and prevent gamblers from forming addictions.
The example used in the Hanson article is of research being done by a psychiatrist at the Harvard Medical School and director of the division on addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance, Howard Shaffer, with his co-workers on an online gambling site called bwin.party Digital Entertainment.
The sites over 40,000 users are helping Shaffer and team create algorithms for when gamblers display troubling signs such as the previously mentioned patterns. Shaffer is quoted as saying, “The machine, for example, will provide messages to the player or slow down or shut down entirely’ when it detects an unsustainable pattern.”
It is believed that the benefits of regulating the small percentile of troubled gamblers will lead to a better experience and endear it to those who are conscientious of their issues. According to Shaffer, “the very machine that people are blaming will end up being a preventive device.”
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