Abstract
We examined gambling venue employees’ experiences with GameSense, an onsite responsible gambling information center designed to be a resource for casino employees as well as patrons. Participants included 492 employees who reported on their engagement with, and opinions and knowledge of, the GameSense information center and its staff (i.e., GameSense Advisors), as well as their own employment department and gambling involvement. A minority of participants (33.5%) reported having spoken with a GameSense Advisor about responsible gambling or problem gambling; the remaining 66.5% either did not ever speak to a GameSense Advisor or only had a casual conversation with one. Most participants (88.9%) indicated that casino patrons could use the GameSense program, but less than half (37.9%) believed that casino staff/employees could do the same. Participants generally had positive opinions about the program, endorsing positive potential impacts (e.g., “It helps people avoid gambling beyond their limits”) more often than negative potential impacts (e.g., “It encourages people to gamble beyond their limits”). However, gambling venue employees with more extensive gambling histories were less likely to endorse positive potential impacts. Participants’ department also was associated with GameSense experiences: those in security/surveillance were the most likely to report having interacted with GameSense Advisors (83.3%) and those in food/beverage/retail were least likely to have done so (28.6%). Some of these findings have implications for improving casino employees’ experiences with the GameSense program.
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Notes
We used participants’ self-reported PPC department to calculate response rates for each department. We observed the following response rates per department: Food, Beverage, and Retail: 32.8%; Front of House Operations: 41.5%; Security and Surveillance: 38.0%; Back of House Operations: 52.7%. These response rates are underestimates because 74 participants did not provide their PPC department (57 skipped the question and 17 indicated that they preferred not to answer).
The report, entitled “Comprehensive Evaluation of the Plainridge Park Casino GameSense Program: 2015-2018 Compendium,” is available at https://massgaming.com.
Though we asked participants to provide a number to represent the number of times they had interacted with a GameSense Advisor, many provided text instead. Therefore, we recoded responses to create an ordinal measure (1–5 = rarely, 6–10 = sometimes, 11–20 = often, 21 + = very often). We grouped participants who indicated many interactions (i.e., “too many to count,” “many,” “multiple,” “quite a few times,” “lots,” “every day,” “est. 100 plus,” “daily,” “almost all day,” “a lot,” “2 times a week,” “3–4 times a week”) in the “very often” category. We grouped those who indicated few encounters (i.e., “very little,” “a few, 4 or 5,” “1–3,” “less than 5”) in the “rarely” category.
We also included an “I don’t know” option, and 10.9% of participants selected it. However, interpretation of this response is difficult because several of the participants who selected it also correctly selected all 12 activities. For that reason, we are disregarding this option in our presentation of the findings.
We conducted additional exploratory analyses on the suggestion of a reviewer. We observed that participants who had interacted with a GameSense Advisor, and participants who had not interacted with a GameSense Advisor, had similar opinions about the potential positive and negative impacts of the program (both t’s < 1.00). Additionally, there were no differences in positive or negative opinions as a function of having referred a patron to a GameSense Advisor (both t’s < 2.00).
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Acknowledgements
We thank Alec Conte, Layne Keating, John Kleschinsky, and Howard Shaffer of the Division on Addiction for their help in conducting and reporting on this research. We thank Mark Vander Linden and Teresa Fiore, of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and Lisa McKenney, of Plainridge Park Casino, for providing logistical support.
Funding
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission provided funding to support this evaluation project. The Division on Addiction currently receives funding from the Addiction Treatment Center of New England via the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (FAAR); the Gavin Foundation via SAMHSA; GVC Holdings, PLC; The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations via the National Institutes of Health; The Integrated Centre on Addiction Prevention and Treatment of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, Hong Kong; St. Francis House via the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Addiction Services; and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas via MGM Resorts International. During the past 5 years, the Division on Addiction has also received funding from Aarhus University Hospital with funds approved by The Danish Council for Independent Research; ABMRF – The Foundation for Alcohol Research; Caesars Enterprise Services, LLC; Cambridge Police Department with funds approved by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention; the David H. Bor Library Fund, Cambridge Health Alliance; DraftKings; Fenway Community Health Center, Inc.; Heineken USA, Inc.; Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services; Massachusetts Gaming Commission, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; National Center for Responsible Gaming; and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas via MGM Resorts International. During the past 5 years, Heather Gray has served as a paid program evaluator for Duffy Health Center, served as a paid grant reviewer for the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG), received travel funds from the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals/The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, received honoraria funds for preparation of a book chapter from Universite Laval, received travel funds and honoraria from the NCRG, and received course royalty fees from the Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education. Dr. Gray is a non-paid member of the New Hampshire Council for Responsible Gambling. James Juliver has no financial disclosures. During the past 5 years, Debi LaPlante has received speaker honoraria and travel support from the NCRG and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She has served as a paid grant reviewer for NCRG and received honoraria funds for preparation of a book chapter from Universite Laval and received course royalty fees from the Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education. She is a non-paid board member of the New Hampshire Council for Responsible Gambling.
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Heather Gray and Debi LaPlante formulated the research questions, developed the survey materials and protocol, and contributed to the manuscript. Heather Gray analyzed the data. James Juliver contributed to the manuscript.
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Gray, H.M., Juliver, J. & LaPlante, D.A. Gambling Industry Employees’ Experiences with an Onsite Responsible Gambling Program. J Gambl Stud 37, 369–386 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-020-09969-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-020-09969-8