Background

Safer gambling messages are a common freedom-preserving method of protecting individuals from gambling-related harm. Yet, there is little independent and rigorous evidence assessing the effectiveness of safer gambling messages. In our study, we aimed to test the effect of the historically most commonly-used UK safer gambling message on concurrent gambling behaviour of people who gamble in the UK.

Methods

In this study, three preregistered, incentivised, and randomised online experiments, testing the UK's “when the fun stops, stop” message, were carried out via the crowdsourcing platform Prolific. Adults based in the UK who had previously participated in the gambling activities relevant to each experiment were eligible to participate. Experiments 1 and 3 involved bets on real soccer events, and experiment 2 used a commercially available online roulette game. Safer gambling message presence was varied between participants in each experiment. In experiment 2, exposed participants could be shown either a yellow or a black-and-white version of the safer gambling message. Participants were provided with a monetary endowment with which they were allowed to bet. Any of this money not bet was afterwards paid to participants as a bonus, in addition to the payouts from any winning bets. In experiment 2 participants had the opportunity to re-wager any winnings from the roulette game. The primary outcome in experiment 1 was participants’ decisions to accept (or reject) a series of football bets, which varied in their specificity (and payoffs), and the primary outcomes of experiments 2 and 3 were the proportion of available funds bet, which were defined as the total amount of money bet by a participant out of the total that could have been bet.

Findings

Participants for all three experiments were recruited between May 17, 2019, and Oct 17, 2020. Of the 506 participants in experiment 1, 41·3% of available bets were made by the 254 participants in the gambling message condition, which was not significantly different (p=0·15, odds ratio 1·22 [95% CI 0·93 to 1·61]) to the 37·8% of available bets made by the 252 participants in the control condition. In experiment 2, the only credible difference between conditions was that the 501 participants in the condition with the yellow version of the gambling message bet 3·64% (95% Bayesian credibility interval 0·00% to 7·27%) more of available funds left over than the 499 participants in the control condition. There were no credible differences between the bets made by the 500 participants in the black-and-white gambling message condition and the other conditions. In experiment 3, there were no credible differences between the 502 participants in the gambling message condition and the 501 participants in the control condition, with the largest effect being a 5·87% (95% Bayesian credibility interval –1·44% to 13·20%) increase in the probability of betting everything in the gambling message condition.

Interpretation

In our study, no evidence was found for a protective effect of the most common UK safer gambling message. Alternative interventions should be considered as part of an evidence-based public health approach to reducing gambling-related harm.

Funding

University of Warwick, British Academy and Leverhume, Swiss National Science Foundation.

中文翻译：

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“当乐趣停止时，停止”赌博信息对在线赌博行为的影响：一项随机的在线实验研究

背景

更安全的赌博信息是保护个人免受赌博相关伤害的一种常见的保护自由的方法。然而，几乎没有独立和严格的证据来评估更安全的赌博信息的有效性。在我们的研究中，我们旨在测试历史上最常用的英国更安全赌博信息对在英国赌博的人同时赌博行为的影响。

方法

在这项研究中，通过众包平台 Prolific 进行了三个预先注册、激励和随机的在线实验，测试英国的“当乐趣停止时，停止”信息。以前参加过与每个实验相关的赌博活动的英国成年人有资格参加。实验 1 和 3 涉及对真实足球赛事的投注，实验 2 使用了市售的在线轮盘游戏。每个实验的参与者之间存在更安全的赌博信息。在实验 2 中，暴露的参与者可能会看到黄色或黑白版本的更安全赌博信息。参与者获得了允许他们下注的货币禀赋。任何未下注的钱后来都作为奖金支付给参与者，除了任何获胜投注的支出。在实验 2 中，参与者有机会重新下注轮盘游戏中的任何奖金。实验 1 的主要结果是参与者决定接受（或拒绝）一系列足球赌注，这些赌注的特异性（和收益）各不相同，实验 2 和 3 的主要结果是可用资金赌注的比例，即被定义为参与者在可能下注的总金额中下注的总金额。

发现

所有三个实验的参与者都是在 2019 年 5 月 17 日至 2020 年 10 月 17 日期间招募的。在实验 1 的 506 名参与者中，41·3% 的可用赌注是由 254 名参与者在赌博信息条件下进行的，这并不显着不同（p=0·15，优势比 1·22 [95% CI 0·93 到 1·61]）与控制条件下 252 名参与者的可用投注的 37·8% 不同。在实验 2 中，条件之间唯一可信的差异是 501 名参与者在黄色版本的赌博信息下投注了 3·64%（95% 贝叶斯可信区间 0·00% 到 7·27%）更多可用499名参与者在控制条件下剩余的资金。500 名参与者在黑白赌博信息条件和其他条件下的投注之间没有可信的差异。在实验 3 中，赌博消息条件下的 502 名参与者和控制条件下的 501 名参与者之间没有可信度差异，最大的影响是 5·87%（95% 贝叶斯可信区间 –1·44% 到 13 ·20%) 在赌博消息条件下投注所有东西的概率增加。

解释

在我们的研究中，没有发现最常见的英国更安全赌博信息具有保护作用的证据。替代干预措施应被视为减少赌博相关伤害的循证公共卫生方法的一部分。

资金

华威大学，英国科学院和莱弗休姆，瑞士国家科学基金会。