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Gambling on Smartphones: A Study of a Potentially Addictive Behaviour in a Naturalistic Setting

James, Richard J.E.; O’Malley, Claire; Tunney, Richard J.

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Authors

Richard J.E. James

Richard J. Tunney



Abstract

Smartphone users engage extensively with their devices, on an intermittent basis for short periods of time. These patterns of behaviour have the potential to make mobile gambling especially perseverative. This paper reports the first empirical study of mobile gambling in which a simulated gambling app was used to measure gambling behaviour in phases of acquisition and extinction. We found that participants showed considerable perseverance in the face of continued losses that were linearly related to their prior engagement with the app. Latencies between gambles were associated with the magnitude of reinforcement; more positive outcomes were associated with longer breaks between play and a greater propensity to end a gambling session. Greater latencies were associated with measurements of problem gambling, and perseverance with gambling-related cognitions and sensation-seeking behaviour.

Citation

James, R., O’Malley, C., & Tunney, R. (2019). Gambling on Smartphones: A Study of a Potentially Addictive Behaviour in a Naturalistic Setting. European Addiction Research, 25(1), 30-40. https://doi.org/10.1159/000495663

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 20, 2018
Online Publication Date Jan 10, 2019
Publication Date Jan 10, 2019
Deposit Date Feb 6, 2019
Publicly Available Date Feb 6, 2019
Journal European Addiction Research
Print ISSN 1022-6877
Electronic ISSN 1421-9891
Publisher Karger Publishers
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 25
Issue 1
Pages 30-40
DOI https://doi.org/10.1159/000495663

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s)
Published by S. Karger AG, Basel. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (CC BY) (http://www.karger.com/Services/
OpenAccessLicense). Usage, derivative works and distribution are
permitted provided that proper credit is given to the author and the
original publisher.




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