Internet Revolutionizes Research and Prevention
The internet is a powerful tool in the early recognition of problematic gaming behaviour and for the prevention of gaming addiction. This was one of the core statements from the first bwin Network Dialogue on the subject of "Gamer Protection in the Digital Age", which took place on 28 October 2009 in Vienna. Howard J. Shaffer, director of the Division on Addictions (DOA), Cambridge Health Alliance, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, and Univ. Prof. Michael Musalek, head of department and medical director of the Anton Proksch Institute, shared their scientific findings and experience in gaming addiction research with the many participants in the Network Dialogue. More than 50 experts from the field of science, addiction prevention facilities, drug coordination offices, businesses and representatives from the Ministry of Health and internet commerce discussed the state of the art in research and measures that can be derived from this research to ensure effective gamer protection.
Research supporting gamer protection
“The aim of our research is to create a body of scientific evidence that helps us develop safe gaming environments and more efficient gamer protection programmes,” says Shaffer. The cooperation between bwin and the Division on Addictions, which has been a renowned institution in the field of addiction research for more than 17 years, has resulted in pioneering empirical work. Never before has a research institute continuously probed real online gaming behaviour in an investigation using more than 40,000 individual users. These data sets were made available to the DOA by bwin in strict compliance with all data protection regulations. "95 to 99 percent of gamers display very moderate gaming behaviour, adapting very quickly to the medium of the internet and playing in a controlled manner," explains Howard Shaffer. The research to be conducted in the months to come will focus on the reasons for deviating behavior and the development of criteria through which potentially vulnerable people can be identified and warned as early as possible.
Developing an early warning system
Before 2007, two thirds of all scientific articles on the subject of online gaming addiction were based on speculation, the rest on the subjective self-assessment of gamers. This picture has now changed, not least due to 14 publications* by the Division on Addictions, Harvard Medical School faculty. These articles currently form the basis of the data in close to one third of the published papers on online gaming. This cooperation has brought about a revolutionary breakthrough in addiction research. "Based on the scientific research of recent years it is now possible to say that we will be in a position to develop an early warning system that will allow the hazards connected with online gaming to be detected at an early stage and minimized accordingly," claims Howard Shaffer.
Videocast Howard Shaffer
Treatment of gaming addiction: a therapeutic challenge
Univ. Prof. Michael Musalek, head of department and medical director of the Anton Proksch Institute, made it clear that pathological gaming is an addictive illness and not – as is still discussed in academic circles – an obsessive-compulsive disorder or impulsive behaviour. According to Prof. Musalek, gaming addiction mostly occurs in combination with, or as consequence of, other disorders: most often with depression, anxiety disorders or alcohol dependency. "Addiction illnesses mostly manifest themselves as illnesses when the person affected finds him or herself in a problematic life situation," says the leader of the largest addiction clinic in Europe. Addiction is a highly complex phenomenon which also represents a therapeutic challenge in clinical practice. Prof. Musalek made it clear, however, that gaming addiction responds very well to therapy if it is detected and treated early enough.
Gamer protection and prevention in the digital age
bwin’s corporate social responsibility policy is about early recognition, prevention and intervention. As part of the Network Dialogue, bwin showcased concrete measures that the company has derived from the scientific findings of the DOA. The aim is to implement gamer protection measures based on a solid scientific foundation, and to continually integrate the research findings into the expansion of the responsible gaming tools at bwin. The findings of the most recent research have brought bwin a major step closer to realising their vision of being able to use an algorithm to help identify and react to problem gaming behaviour at an early stage. Transparency and the desire to share the knowledge that has been acquired take on special significance in line with the guiding principle of "Share and Win". The research findings and the bwin datasets will be made accessible to the public as part of the "Transparency Project".
*Half of these studies are based on actual observed behaviour and the others are from literature reviews and secondary data analyses.