Research organisation: Auckland University of Technology
Primary contact: Dr Jason Landon
Summary of project/aims
Aim
This research was carried out to understand the impacts of PIDs and pop-up messages, and to explore the effects of EGM game characteristics and casino table game characteristics, on gambler behaviour and gambling-related harms.
Background
There is a strong relationship between Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) and problem-gambling with a range of activities used to try and address this relationship. These include regulations to limit the availability and promotion of EGMs and the use of public education campaigns to raise awareness of the harms associated with excessive use of EGMs. Other approaches have included modifying the characteristics and features of EGMs to try and make them safer. As part of this latter approach, pop-up messages and player information display systems (PIDs) have been introduced to all EGMs in New Zealand. Pop-up messages are an automatic message presented on the EGM screen that shows the time and money a gambler has spent on gambling in the current session. Pop-up messages create a brief compulsory break in play, while PIDs are a voluntary feature whereby gamblers can access the same information at any time while they are gambling.