The largest ever programme of academic research into Category B gaming machines has been announced today by the UK’s Responsible Gambling Trust.
Category B machines offer the highest stakes and prizes in Britain and are found in betting shops, bingo halls, adult gaming centres and casinos. The research has been commissioned to better understand how people behave when playing these machines and what helps people to play responsibly.
Marc Etches, chief executive of the Responsible Gambling Trust, explained that the majority of British adults that gamble do so without experiencing difficulties. Some, however, do have problems.
“There is significant consumer and political interest in Category B gaming machines,” he said, “but there is a lack of robust evidence about how people play on these machines and what helps people to stay in control and play responsibly.”
The £500,000 research programme will be the largest of its kind ever undertaken into gaming machines in Britain, he continued, adding that it will provide “high quality, empirically-sound and peer-reviewed research to inform future policy-making.”
The charity will begin its gaming machine research programme in January 2013 with the commissioning of the National Centre for Social Research to investigate machine-related data held by different gambling operators. The initial phase is expected to take six months.
"By its keenness to give researchers unprecedented access to gaming machine data and then to stand back from the research process, the industry has given a mandate to the Trust to commission research that will be rigorously objective and independent of the industry,” said Etches.” A panel of independent experts will provide the necessary academic oversight to underpin stakeholder confidence in both the quality and the objectivity of the research.”
The Trust expects to publish its initial analysis as early as June next year, although the overall research programme is likely to take 18 months.
