Cooperation with Division on Addictions

A unique partnership: The Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate, and bwin

For the assessment of conspicuous online gaming behavior and its consequences for responsible gaming, bwin has found the right partner: the Division on Addictions (DOA), Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate.

This unique cooperation with experts who have been internationally recognized in the field of gaming addiction for over 30 years has given rise to a pioneering empirical project - never before has a research institution been able to study real online gaming behavior continually on the basis of over 40,000 anonymized bwin data records.

Responsible Gaming Research Project

Since 2005, the Harvard Medical School Faculty members have been conducting long-term studies on gaming behavior in sports betting, casino, poker, and other gaming products on the internet. The uniqueness of this research is described by Howard J. Shaffer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Director, Division on Addictions, The Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, as follows:

“For the first time ever the studies conducted in cooperation with bwin use the accurate records from computer-based internet gaming to study actual gaming rather than what people remembered or were willing to say.”

Up to now, addiction research – as shown by the comparative literature study – has been evaluating the risks of addiction based on self-evaluations obtained through gamer surveys. Moreover, no reliable empirical data on online gaming itself was available. That makes researchers’ determination of problem gaming and the risks of addiction highly questionable. The DOA has taken another path. For detailed information, please our whitepaper “Using Science to stimulate a Paradigm Shift in studying Online Gaming – Implications for Addiction Research and Responsible Gaming”.

Howard Shaffer additionally summarizes the objective of the collaborative research program as follows:

Establish a scientific evidence base that will guide the development of safe, recreational gaming
Implement Responsible Gaming Programs that prevent the emergence of gaming-related problems
Develop an algorithm enabling early detection of risk patterns of disordered gaming

The Transparency Project

This partnership has also been beneficial to the international scientific community in the field of addictive behavior research. The Transparency Project, initiated by the DOA and supported by bwin, offers researchers free access to privately financed online gaming data for the first time.

Whitepapers

For further information on the cooperation between bwin and the Division on Addictions please see the whitepaper “Using Science to stimulate a Paradigm Shift in studying Online Gaming – Implications for Addiction Research and Responsible Gaming” and the paper on bwins responsible gaming approach.

Studies available for download

All the studies conducted by the Division on Addictions are available for download at the division’s website. Due to copyright reasons, the marked articles are password protected. If you would like to have access to the password protected article reprints, e-mail the Division on Addiction your name and the name of the article you are requesting.

Braverman, J., & Shaffer, H. J. (under review). How do gamblers start gambling: identifying behavioral markers for high-risk Internet gambling. European Journal of Public Health.
LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (under review). Identifying behavioral markers of disordered Internet sports gambling. Addiction Research & Theory.
LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (in press). The Relationships among Disordered Gambling, Type of Gambling, and Gambling Involvement in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007. European Journal of Public Health.
Xuan, Z., & Shaffer, H. J. (2009). How do gamblers end gambling: Longitudinal analysis of Internet gambling behaviors prior to account closure due to gambling related problems. Journal of Gambling Studies, 25(2), 239 - 252.
LaPlante, D. A., Kleschinsky, J. H., LaBrie, R. A., Nelson, S. E., & Shaffer, H. J. (In Press). Sitting at the virtual poker table: A prospective epidemiological study of actual Internet poker gambling behavior. Computers in Human Behavior. (Password Protected)
Nelson, S. E., LaPlante, D. A., Peller, A. J., Schumann, A., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Real limits in the virtual world: Self-limiting behavior of Internet gamblers. Journal of Gambling Studies, 24(4), 463 - 477.
Peller, A. J., LaPlante, D. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Parameters for safer gambling behavior: Examining the empirical research. Journal of Gambling Studies. DOI: 10.1007/s10899-008-9097-5. (Password Protected)
LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Stability and progression of disordered gambling: lessons from longitudinal studies. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(1), 52 - 60.
Broda, A., LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., LaBrie, R. A., Bosworth, L. B. & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Virtual harm reduction efforts for Internet gambling: Effects of deposit limits on actual Internet sports gambling behavior. Harm Reduction Journal, 5, 27.
LaPlante, D. A., Schumann, A., LaBrie, R. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Population trends in Internet sports gambling. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 2399 - 2414. (Password Protected)
Peller, A. J., LaPlante, D. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Parameters for safer gambling behavior: Examining the empirical research. Journal of Gambling Studies. DOI: 10.1007/s10899-008-9097-5. (Password Protected)
LaBrie R. A., Kaplan, S. A., LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., and Shaffer, H. J. (2008). Inside the virtual casino: A prospective longitudinal study of actual Internet casino gambling. European Journal of Public Health, 18(4), 410 - 416. (Password Protected)
LaPlante, D. A. & Shaffer, H. J. (2007). Understanding the influence of gambling opportunities: Expanding exposure models to include adaptation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 616 - 623. (Password Protected)
LaBrie, R. A., LaPlante, D. A., Nelson, S. E., Schumann, A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2007). Assessing the playing field: A prospective longitudinal study of Internet sports gambling behavior. Journal of Gambling Studies, 23, 347 - 362. (Password Protected)