Chasing of losses and wins between gambling sessions in an online eCasino

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Author(s): Zhang, Ke ; Rights, Jason D. ; Deng, Xiaolei ; Lesch, Tilman ; Clark, Luke

Journal: Journal of Behavioral Addictions

Year Published: 2024

Date Added: October 22, 2024

Previous studies of between-session chasing behaviour in gambling have focused on chasing losses. This occurs when people return to gamble at a later time to try to recover money that was previously lost. Furthermore, most research has examined chasing behaviour in land-based gambling. However, some studies have found that chasing behaviour following gambling wins is actually more common.

The present study aimed to further explore between-session chasing, but specifically with online gambling. The data used in this study were obtained from the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. The dataset contained online gambling outcomes from the PlayNow.com eCasino.

Analyses of between-session chasing were conducted on 1,909,681 sessions from 15,544 people. The outcome variable of interest was time to return, defined as the number of hours that passed between the end of a prior gambling session and the start of the next. It was found that people returned more slowly on average if they lost money in the previous session, with the exception being roulette. Contrary to predictions, online roulette, and not slot machines, was linked with faster return to gamble after both prior losses and wins.

Citation: Zhang, K., Rights, J. D., Deng, X., Lesch, T., & Clark., L. (2024). Between-session chasing of losses and wins in an online eCasino. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 13(2), 665–675. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/v87yk

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/v87yk

Keywords: addiction ; behavioural markers ; chasing ; online gambling

Topics: Online Gambling

Conceptual Framework Factors: Gambling Types ; Exposure - Gambling Setting ; Types - Structural Characteristics ; Psychological - Comorbid Disorders ; Exposure - Accessibility

Study Design: Secondary Data Analysis

Geographic Coverage: Canada, British Columbia

Study Population: Participants were residents of British Columbia who had gambled on the eCasino section of PlayNow.com. This study used a final sample of 15,544 people who gambled on 240 gambling products on the website. All data were anonymized, with each person provided with a unique ID number.

Sampling Procedure: Secondary data were obtained from the eCasino section of PlayNow.com. The dataset comprised 29,964 people who gambled on the website between 2014-10-01 and 2015-08-31. The dataset contained 527,015,222 individual bets.

Study Funding:

This study did not receive direct funding. The Centre for Gambling Research at UBC is supported by the Province of British Columbia government and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC).