Responsible gambling strategies aim to minimize harms due to excessive gambling. One of these strategies is ‘breaks in play’. Breaks in play involve any action that interrupts, suspends, or stops gambling. When people gamble, they may experience dissociation. Gamblers may become so immersed in the game that they lose awareness of how much time and money they have spent. Breaks in play aim to interrupt dissociation and return the players to a state of full awareness. Often, breaks in play include responsible gambling messages, or warning messages, that prompt the players to think about their gambling behaviour. Though, this is not always the case. The current study investigated the effects of breaks in play without warning messages on cravings to continue gambling. The study also examined if the length of the break in play had an impact on cravings. The findings suggest that breaks in play should be accompanied with responsible gambling messages to be effective.
