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Assessing the Playing Field: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Internet Sports Gambling Behavior

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Abstract

Internet gambling is growing rapidly, as is concern about its possible effect on the public’s health. This paper reports the results of the first prospective longitudinal study of actual Internet sports gambling behavior during eight study months. Data include recorded fixed-odds bets on the outcome of sporting contests and live-action bets on the outcome of events within contests for 40,499 Internet sports gambling service subscribers who enrolled during February 2005. We tracked the following primary gambling behaviors: daily totals of the number of bets made, money bet, and money won. We transformed these variables into measures of gambling involvement. We analyzed behavior for both fixed-odds and live-action bets. The median betting behavior of the 39,719 fixed-odds bettors was to place 2.5 bets of €4 (approximately $5.3 US) every fourth day during the median 4 months from first to last bet. This typical pattern incurred a loss of 29% of the amount wagered. The median betting behavior of the 24,794 live-action bettors was to place 2.8 wagers of €4 every fourth day during the median duration of 6 weeks at a loss of 18% of the amount wagered. We also examined the behavior of empirically determined groups of heavily involved bettors whose activity exceeded that of 99% of the sample.

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Acknowledgements

Bwin.com, Interactive Entertainment, AG provided primary support for this study. The authors extend special thanks to Sarbani Hazra, Christine Reilly, Christine Thurmond, and Ziming Xuan for their support and work on this project. Dr. LaBrie had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. None of these supporters or any of the authors has personal interests in bwin.com and its associated companies that would suggest a conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Richard A. LaBrie, Debi A. LaPlante, Sarah E. Nelson & Howard J. Shaffer

  2. Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, 101 Station Landing, 2nd Floor, Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Richard A. LaBrie, Debi A. LaPlante, Sarah E. Nelson, Anja Schumann & Howard J. Shaffer

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  1. Richard A. LaBrie
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  2. Debi A. LaPlante
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  3. Sarah E. Nelson
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  4. Anja Schumann
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  5. Howard J. Shaffer
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Correspondence to Richard A. LaBrie.

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LaBrie, R.A., LaPlante, D.A., Nelson, S.E. et al. Assessing the Playing Field: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Internet Sports Gambling Behavior. J Gambl Stud 23, 347–362 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-007-9067-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-007-9067-3

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