None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Rationale. Most Australian licensed online wagering operators already offer voluntary pre-commitment through setting deposit limits. However, uptake of this tool is reportedly quite low and it is often associated with problem gambling, rather than being considered a useful tool for all online bettors to monitor their betting expenditure over time. Therefore, substantial trialling and testing is required to determine how to increase the uptake of voluntary opt-out precommitment for online wagering. Aim. This project will examine whether receiving optimal messages influences attitudes, intentions and take-up of pre-commitment. Methodology. The proposed evaluation methodology is a Randomised Control Trial to be conducted with 600 Australian monthly sports/race bettors.
Interventions
Intervention: Optimal messages
Participants in the intervention group will receive one of six optimal messages about pre-commitment (limit setting). The general nature of these messages is informative/educational.
Messages will relate to setting different types of limits: deposit limits (e.g. maximum amount deposited into accounts), loss limits (e.g. maximum amounts lost on betting) or spend limits (e.g. maximum amount spent on betting).
As a simple example, one of the messages relating to
Intervention: Optimal messages Participants in the intervention group will receive one of six optimal messages about pre-commitment (limit setting). The general nature of these messages is informative/educational. Messages will relate to setting different types of limits: deposit limits (e.g. maximum amount deposited into accounts), loss limits (e.g. maximum amounts lost on betting) or spend limits (e.g. maximum amount spent on betting). As a simple example, one of the messages relating to deposit limits will include informative information such as explaining what a deposit limit is and the benefits of setting a deposit limit. The main differences in the six messages relate to the type of limit they provide information about (deposit, loss, or spend) and whether they are personalised or generic. Below is an explanation of the differences in messages 2 messages for deposit limits (1 is personalised, 1 is generic) 2 messages for loss limits (1 is personalised, 1 is generic) 2 messages for spend limit (1 is personalised, 1 is generic) The messages are not linked to an app so obtaining analytics are not possible. The effectiveness of these messages will be assessed in the follow-up survey. The intervention will be delivered (electronically via SMS) by a member of the research team. Half of the intervention group will receive an optimal message once a week for four weeks, and the other half of the intervention group will receive an optimal message twice a week for four weeks. Half of the optimal messages will be personalised. Information from the baseline survey will be used to personalise some messages. An example of how a message may be personalised includes noting in the message how much the participant usually spends on gambling each month. Those participants receiving messages twice a week will receive the same message (out of the possible six) twice. They will not receive a combination of the six possible messages. Participants will be assigned into treatment groups (or the control group) via randomisation using the online survey platform programming.
Sponsors
Central Queensland University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Primary purpose
Prevention
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
- Aged 18 years or over - Reside in Australia - Bet on sports or races at least once a month on average - Have at least one active online or telephone wagering account - Willing to provide mobile number and email address
Exclusion criteria
- Children and/or young people (i.e. <18 years of age) - Non-gamblers
Outcome results
None listed