Brief motivational contact by telephone or mail to reduce gambling behaviour in heavy gamblers

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Author(s): Jonsson, Jakob ; Hodgins, David C. ; Munck, Ingrid M. ; Carlbring, Per

Journal: Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

Year Published: 2019

Date Added: November 06, 2019

Among heavy gamblers with big losses, telephone and letter contact using motivational interviewing techniques to provide personalized feedback could reduce their gambling behaviour. They lost less money compared to gamblers who did not receive a phone call or letter. The telephone contact was more impactful than the letter contact. Gamblers who were interested in a follow-up call reduced their gambling behaviour further after receiving the follow-up call. Most gamblers who made changes to their gambling after receiving the intervention chose to set limits, rather than to stop gambling completely.

Citation: Jonsson, J., Hodgins, D. C., Munck, I., & Carlbring, P. (2019). Reaching out to big losers: A randomized controlled trial of brief motivational contact providing gambling expenditure feedback. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 33(3), 179-189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/adb0000447

Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/adb0000447

Keywords: Motivational Interviewing (MI) ; prevention ; problem gambling ; responsible gambling

Topics: Gambling Resources ; Information for Operators ; Prevention

Conceptual Framework Factors: Environment - Culture of Social Responsibility ; Environment - Responsible Gambling ; Resources - Harm Reduction, Prevention, and Protection ; Gambling Environment ; Gambling Resources ; Resources - Interventions

Study Design: Experimental: RCT (randomized controlled trial)

Geographic Coverage: Norway

Study Population: High-spending customers (N=3,009) of Norsk Tipping’s (NT) venue-based and online gambling.

Sampling Procedure: Participants were randomly selected from the top 0.5% of NT customers who had lost the most money of all NT customers during the past 12 months.

Study Funding:

No source of funding was declared for this study.