Gambling apps more dangerous than FOBTs, study finds

Smartphone gambling apps are more dangerous than fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) for people with addiction problems because opportunities to lose money are “just a tap away”, a study suggests.

Gambling games on smartphones have surged in popularity in recent years, allowing high-stakes betting within the palm of its users’ hands, with video game-style play making them appear “harmless” and introductory offers providing incentives to sign up.

Scrutiny of the gambling industry has been focused on fixed-odds betting terminals in high street bookmakers, leading the government to cut the maximum stake on the machines from £100 to £2, although this has yet to be implemented.

However, smartphone gambling could be more problematic for people psychologically predisposed to addiction, given how the betting games can be accessed anywhere in the UK with an internet connection, according to academics.

The study, published in the academic journal European Addiction Research, found that because users check their phones frequently throughout the day – referred to as ‘snacking’ – mobile gamblers tend to bet more often, even after suffering repeated losses.

A common design principle in mobile gaming, as this type of gambling is referred to, is that a mix of small wins, ‘near misses’ and losses encourage greater levels of engagement.

Experts have previously warned that gambling companies use sophisticated techniques to ingrain their products in the lives of their users by creating psychological dependencies, nudging people into live gameplay through notifications, emails and other methods.

Notwithstanding the euphoria of winning, this can activate mechanisms in the brain akin to the effect of cocaine, going on to invoke “phantom notifications”, where users sense the buzz of their smartphone even when it hasn’t gone off, prompting them to check it.

Campaigners have long argued that the UK’s gambling laws are in dire need of an overhaul, with rapid technological advancements rendering them outdated within a sector that yielded £5.4bn last year.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, a spokesman for gambling reform and co-founder of Gamban, an app that blocks gambling websites, said: “Our gambling laws were written before smartphones even existed, and at a time when internet gambling was only getting started.

“So while government is able to regulate stakes on machines like FOBTs, there are no such provisions for online, even though the games are the same. Our laws need updating in response to how people gamble today.”

The report’s authors said smartphone gambling is more dangerous than FOBTs because it is “so ubiquitous”, adding that there are almost no legal restrictions on smartphone gambling because the companies themselves are often based in other jurisdictions. “The job of regulating them is extremely challenging.”

Prof Richard Tunney, head of psychology at Aston University and lead author of the paper, alongside Richard James, psychology research fellow at Nottingham University, and Prof Claire O’Malley at the University of Durham, said: “Policymakers have clamped down hard on fixed-odds terminals because they’ve become associated in the public imagination with problem gamblers. But actually, we’ve been overtaken by technology, because it’s now possible for people to gamble pretty much anywhere, any time on their smartphone.”

They added: “For people psychologically disposed to addictive behaviours, this means an outlet for that addiction is now just a tap away.”

Labour MP Carolyn Harris said the biggest problem was that betting from armchairs, at bus stops, in pubs, or in the dead of night has been normalised, with the growing ease of opportunities to gamble making it ever more addictive.

“There are no stringent regulations over eligibility, credit checks or affordability, and vulnerable people get sucked into a world where offshore-based companies just want to take as much money as possible from you, with no interest whatsoever about the social consequences,” she said. “The sheer accessibility of gambling on smartphones has become the main enemy for problem gamblers.”