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Equivalent gambling warning labels are perceived differently

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Newall, Philip W. S., Walasek, Lukasz and Ludvig, Elliot Andrew (2020) Equivalent gambling warning labels are perceived differently. Addiction, 115 (9). pp. 1762-1767. doi:10.1111/add.14954

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/add.14954

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Abstract

Background and Aims
The same information may be perceived differently, depending on how it is described. The risk information given on many gambling warning labels tends to accentuate what a gambler might expect to win, e.g. ‘This game has an average percentage payout of 90%’ (return-to-player), rather than what a gambler might expect to lose, e.g. ‘This game keeps 10% of all money bet on average’ (house-edge). We compared gamblers’ perceived chances of winning and levels of warning label understanding under factually equivalent return-to-player and house-edge formats.

Design
Online surveys: experiment 1 was designed to test how gamblers’ perceived chances of winning would vary under equivalent warning labels, and experiment 2 explored how often equivalent warning labels were correctly understood by gamblers.

Setting
United Kingdom.

Participants
UK nationals, aged 18 years and over and with experience of virtual on-line gambling games, such as on-line roulette, were recruited from an on-line crowd-sourcing panel (experiment 1, n = 399; experiment 2, n = 407).

Measurements
The main dependent variables were a gambler's perceived chances of winning on a seven-point Likert scale (experiment 1) and a multiple-choice measure of warning label understanding (experiment 2).

Findings
The house-edge label led to lower perceived chances of winning in experiment 1, F(1, 388) = 19.03, P < 0.001. In experiment 2, the house-edge warning label was understood by more gamblers [66.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 60.0%, 73.0%] than the return-to-player warning label (45.6%, 95% CI = 38.8%, 52.4%, z = 4.22, P < 0.001).

Conclusions
House-edge warning labels on electronic gambling machines and on-line casino games, which explain what a gambler might expect to lose, could help gamblers to pay greater attention to product risk and would be better understood by gamblers than equivalent return-to-player labels.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure
Divisions: Faculty of Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Risk-taking (Psychology) , Internet gambling
Journal or Publication Title: Addiction
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN: 0965-2140
Official Date: September 2020
Dates:
DateEvent
September 2020Published
3 January 2020Available
3 January 2020Accepted
Volume: 115
Number: 9
Page Range: pp. 1762-1767
DOI: 10.1111/add.14954
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Publisher Statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Newall, P. W. S., Walasek, L., and Ludvig, E. A. ( 2020) Equivalent gambling warning labels are perceived differently. Addiction, https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14954., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14954. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:
Project/Grant IDRIOXX Funder NameFunder ID
Behavioural Science Global Research Priorities fundUniversity of Warwickhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000741

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