Subscribe to our newsletter:

Download from AppStore
Free
iPhone / iPad
Genres:
  • Games
  • Entertainment
  • Card
  • Casino
App profile

Smartphone gamblers bet more, study finds

13 Jun 2019 Developer News
rss subscribe
RSS Subscribe
Articles
Apps on sale
Gambling apps
Gambling apps

If you’re an active gambler, the odds are you’ve already played on your mobile phone. Did you notice anything different about your betting habits? A recently released study suggests you may be tempted to bet significantly more when on your phone.

Here’s what you have to know.

.

The rise of mobile gambling

As smartphones become cheaper and more powerful, more people buy them. Mobile phone technology has developed from the point where phones were meant for the elite class to a point where almost everyone has one. This involves all people, not just the ones in rich countries.

The impact of mobile phones is even greater in places that have low standards of living. In many cases, people use their phones, not laptops, to access the web. It’s because smartphones these days are fast and cheap, and not everyone can afford a laptop.

With a huge chunk of people accessing the Internet from their phones, mobile means increasingly more. For all purposes from dating to gambling, the world uses a phone now.

But there’s a problem with mobile phones. They give you access to an enormous pool of data right from your pocket. That comes at a price.

It’s hard to call it an addiction, but you can’t deny you start developing habits around your phone. If notifications are on all day long, you are probably checking your phone as soon as it gives you a cue. When you’re stressed or don’t know what to do, you start browsing social networks.

It’s quite harmless when you’re just wasting your time. When it comes to gambling, however, things appear much grimmer.

.

What the study finds

A 2019 European Addiction Research study claims this mobile-centered behavior hits mobile gamblers hard. In the experiment the team conducted, many participants didn’t stop after losing their maximum amount. They went on to place an average of 177 more bets.

Seems over the top? It is. This is due to impulsive behavior with their phones, the researchers claim.

The team created a gambling app that measured how people bet. 29 participants made over 40,000 bets in the app which allowed for consistent data.

Most of them continued gambling when it was no longer profitable. The reason is, researchers say, they were not confined to gambling sessions limited in time. If they were bored, or had nothing else to do, taking a phone out of their pocket and gambling for a bit seemed like a good decision.

Kids in danger

The worst thing about the findings is that it suggests children are at greater risk than adults. In many cases, it’s the kids who can only access the web from their phones. That puts them into a risky position.

Considering there are over 50,000 underaged problem gamblers  in the UK alone, the findings of this study are unsettling.

.

Is there any hope for mobile gamblers?

If the findings prove to be true, it’s unclear what to do about it. Given the regulatory outlook on gambling in general, it’s easy to see some legislators pushing for mobile gambling ban.

However, that would be easier said than done. The same goes for underage gambling. Gambling companies, like Karamba, and parents are already doing what they can to prevent the kids from betting. More regulatory pressure may not be enough to solve the problem.

The good thing is this study is not definitive. The researchers didn’t have a control group who would gamble on their laptops, so it’s unclear are the findings peculiar to mobile gambling or gambling overall. The study didn’t involve investing real money, so the participants may have been more generous with betting than they would otherwise be.

That said, we need more research to see how smartphones impact gambling behavior and what can be done to help problem gamblers.

Share this article: