Free Webinar! Educating Patrons And Employees About Responsible Gaming: What Does The Research Say?

Free Webinar!
2 – 3 :30 p.m., May 30, 2018

Educating Patrons and Employees about Responsible Gaming: What Does the Research Say?

Many responsible gaming practices are focused on educating patrons and personnel alike. But are these programs effective? Dr. Gray will show what research is saying about such programs.

Instructor:Heather Gray, PhD is associate director of academic affairs at the Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School (HMS) teaching hospital, and instructor in psychiatry at HMS. Among her many research interests, conducted in collaboration with Internet and land-based gambling operators in the US and internationally, is how people gamble and respond to interventions designed to promote responsible gambling.

Learning objectives:

  • Identify two programs geared to educate patrons and employees
  • Identify one finding from the research on employee education

The webinar is free but registration is required:https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1235241228953197057

CE Hours:Attendees will earn up to 1.5 Continuing Education Hours. CE Hours are approved by NAADAC, NBCC and California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals. The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The NCRG maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

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Back In My Day: Comparison Of Gambling Propensity In Twin Young Adults In 1962 And 2002.

Opportunities to gamble have increased starkly over the last 50 years, and with it has come a shift in social attitude towards gambling. Wendy Slutske, PhD, recipient of a 2017 NCRG Center of Excellence Grant, set out to compare the role of genetics and environment from two National Twin Studies, collected about 50 years apart, on propensity to gamble.

What is the aim?

The aim of this study by Slutske, (2018), was to examine the difference in genetic and environmental factor contribution and overall prevalence of gambling involvement in the United States in 1962 versus 2002. It was hypothesized that both prevalence and heritability of gambling would be higher in 2002 than 1962 due to various social factors and the expansion of legalized gambling.

What did the researchers do?

The researcher completed a secondary analysis on the gambling propensity data of two national samples of young twins from National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test twin study (National Merit) and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The National Merit Study data was ascertained in 1962 from a sample of high school juniors that completed the National Merit Scholarship test and included 509 MZ twin pairs and 330 DZ twin pairs of an average 17 years of age. National Longitudinal (Add Health) data was ascertained in 2001-2002 from a sample of adolescents and young adults and included 220 MZ twins, and 182 DZ twins from 45 different states. Both studies included assessments of participation in gambling at the time, categorized into yes/no responses to various gambling activities. The considerable overlap in the two assessments allowed the researcher to compare prevalence of gambling activity and use a statistical model to compare the influence of genetic and environmental influences in gambling participation.

Why is this important

Twin studies are important to public health because they allow researchers to look at the comparative influences of genetics and environment on a certain behavior. This study is modeled after previously completed cigarette studies; which looked at the influence of social factors on smoking behavior. These found that as the social acceptability of smoking increased, prevalence and genetic heritability increased as well (Kendler et al., 2000; Mezquita et al. 2018). This present gambling propensity study set out to find whether gambling followed this same pattern of increased heritability and prevalence with increased social acceptance.

What did they find

Prevalence:The researcher found the prevalence of gambling activity (yes/no) of the 2002 Add Health full sample to be significantly greater than the 1962 National Merit full sample (75% versus 49%, with an odds ratio of 2.80, p

Genetic and Environmental Propensity:The researcher found there to be no difference in genetic contribution to gambling propensity between the two cohorts. It was also determined that all the variation in propensity to gamble in both cohorts was due to environmental factors, including both shared factors between twins, and factors that are unique to the individual.

Overall:The researcher was surprised by these genetic and environmental factors contribution to gambling propensity. She had hypothesized that genetic heritability would differ between the two cohorts, but this study proved that incorrect. The author offered that this could be due to environmental cross-state differences that existed in both 1962 and 2002.

Limitations

The first obvious limitation of this sample was that the ages of the samples differed, with National Merit participants all approximately 17 years old, and Add Health participants 18-26 years old. In addition, secondary analyses on previously obtained data hold inherent limitations, such as vulnerability to changing definitions, unknown confounders, and unknown effect of biases.

References

Slutske, W. S. (2018). Has the genetic contribution to the propensity to gamble increased? Evidence from national twin studies conducted in 1962 and 2002. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 21(02), 119-125. doi:10.1017/thg.2018.7

Kendler, K. S., Thornton, L. M., & Pedersen, N. L. (2000). Tobacco consumption in Swedish twins reared apart and reared together. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 886–892.

Mezquita, L., Sánchez-Romera, J. F., Ibáñez, M. I., Morosoli, J. J., Colodro-Conde, L., Ortet, G., & Ordoñana, J. R. (2018). Effects of social attitude change on smoking heritability. Behavior Genetics, 48, 12–21.

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NCRG Cosponsors Program With Sandia Resort &Amp; Casino

“Gambling Disorder & Addiction: Treatment, Prevention and Education” will be held for treatment providers on March 21-22, 2018 at the Sandia Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The program, cosponsored by NCRG and Sandia Resort & Casino, will cover a wide range of topics including responsible gaming, new research on gambling disorder, gambling problems among the military and veterans, the stigma of gambling disorder, motivational interviewing and Wellbriety, a Native American recovery movement.

Attendees can earn up to 10 continuing education hours. The cost is free but advance registration is required. For details, visit www.sandiacasino.com/responsible-gaming/.

NCRG staffContinuing Education Opportunitiescontinuing educationcontinuing education creditsgamblinggambling disordergambling educationNCRG

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NAADAC/NCRG Gambling Credential Interest Survey

‘NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, and the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) invite you to participate in a brief survey toexplore the possibility of a new national credential designed to recognize individuals with a specialty in gambling disorders.

Your input is valuable and will assist us in understanding the need for gambling education and training, and certificate or certification issues.

Should you have questions, please feel free to contact Christine Reilly at creilly@ncrg.org ‘

Take the Interest survey at:https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NAADAC-NCRG-Gambling-Credential-Interest-Survey

NCRG staffICRG Newscredentialgamblinggambling disordergamingNAADACNational Center for Responsible Gamingphysiciansresponsible gambling trainingspecialists

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NCRG Announces 2018 Grants Program

The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) is pleased to announce the availability of research grants for the study of gambling disorder in 2018. The NCRG is committed to a multi-disciplinary approach and, therefore, welcomes applications from investigators in psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, public health, sociology, economics, neuroeconomics, neuroscience and other relevant disciplines.

Eligible applicants included domestic or international public or private, non-profit or for-profit organizations. The Principal Investigator must have a PhD, MD or other terminal degree.

Funding mechanisms for 2018 are as follows:

  • Travel Grants (up to $1,500) for postdoc’s
  • Seed Grants (up to $30,000 for one year)
  • Large Grants (up to $75,000/year for 2 years)
  • Early Stage Investigator Grants ($65,000/year for 2 years)

For deadlines and to download forms, go tohttp://www.ncrg.org/research-center/apply-ncrg-funding-0

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NCRG And Responsible Gaming Association Of New Mexico Team Up To Explore Impact Of Gambling

The Responsible Gaming Association of New Mexico (RGANM), a collaboration of many of the state’s Native American owned casinos, awarded NCRG with a grant of $300,000 to coordinate a competitive grants program on the impact of gambling on New Mexico, especially the state’s subpopulations. In December 2017, the NCRG awarded a grant of $291,868 toHBSA,a supporting organization of Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, to fund “New Mexico: A Study of at risk Youth and Adults.”

The aim of the grant is to examine gambling behavior among adolescents and adults across New Mexico with specific focus on subpopulations of race/ethnicity, military involvement, parents of minors, sexual minorities, housing unstable, and college students. Building on existing long-term relationships with prevention communities across the state, the investigators will use a culturally competent, mixed-methods data collection approach to gather data from youth and adults across all regions of the state including rural, frontier, tribal, and urban locations to estimate problem gambling prevalence and statistically model the association with co-occurring risk and protective factors.

The RGANM works to promote awareness of problem gambling and of the resources that are available across New Mexico. It provides educational materials about problem gambling, and funds treatment and counseling services. Among the association’s training efforts, every employee at every tribal member casino is required to take an annual class in recognizing problem gambling behaviors so that appropriate casino employees may offer that patron information and assistance.

The NCRG thanks the RGANM for its support of this important research.

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Recovery From Trauma, Addiction, Or Both

Recovery from Trauma, Addiction, or Both

It is widely understood that trauma and addiction have a close relationship, but what are the deeper inner workings? How can one identify past trauma and addictive tendencies that have developed as a result? Lisa Najavits, Director of Treatment Innovations, LLC and former NCRG Scientific Advisory Board member has carefully drawn out the links between trauma and addiction, and self-help strategies tailored to each individual reader in her latest book, Recovery from Trauma, Addiction, or Both…Strategies for Finding Your Best Self. Dr. Najavits is also the author of a bestselling book Seeking Safety, which was published in 2002 as a treatment manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse.

Dr. Najavits’s book Recovery from Trauma, Addiction, or Both takes things a step further than her previous book by offering a framework for recovery aimed at the suffering individual themselves, while also allowing professionals a supplemental source for therapy. This book aims to assist one in finding their ‘best self’ and offers strategies for identifying past traumas and triggers, for any stage of healing. She offers tips for those just starting to address trauma or addiction, all the way to those that have healed and are looking for way to be there for others going through time times. Dr. Najavits includes personal stories from others in many sections, giving you a relatable and real perspective of someone else that has suffered.

This book is a unique variation of educational content on subjects, such as safe coping skills, body and biology, and the language of trauma and addiction. It also offers a hands-on approach with self-help exercises, such as the safe behavior scale, questions to ask yourself, and quantitative portrayals of compassion. Although not intended as a substitute for health care professionals, this book offers the reader a guide towards achieving one’s best self and gives a beacon of hope for recovery.

Najavits, L. M. (2017). Recovery from trauma, addiction, or both: strategies for finding your best self. New York: Guilford Press.

It is widely understood that trauma and addiction have a close relationship, but what are the deeper inner workings? How can one identify past trauma and addictive tendencies that have developed as a result? Lisa Najavits, Director of Treatment Innovations, LLC and former NCRG Scientific Advisory Board member has carefully drawn out the links between trauma and addiction, and self-help strategies tailored to each individual reader in her latest book,Recovery from Trauma, Addiction, or Both…Strategies for Finding Your Best Self. Dr. Najavits is also the author of a bestselling bookSeeking Safety,which was published in 2002 as a treatment manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse.

Dr. Najavits’s bookRecovery from Trauma, Addiction, or Bothtakes things a step further than her previous book by offering a framework for recovery aimed at the suffering individual themselves, while also allowing professionals a supplemental source for therapy. This book aims to assist one in finding their ‘best self’ and offers strategies for identifying past traumas and triggers, for any stage of healing. She offers tips for those just starting to address trauma or addiction, all the way to those that have healed and are looking for way to be there for others going through time times. Dr. Najavits includes personal stories from others in many sections, giving you a relatable and real perspective of someone else that has suffered.

This book is a unique variety of educational content on subjects such as safe coping skills, body and biology, and the language of trauma and addiction. It also offers a hands-on approach with self-help exercises, such as the safe behavior scale, questions to ask yourself, and quantitative portrayals of compassion. Although not intended as a substitute for health care professionals, this book offers the reader a guide towards achieving one’s best self and gives a beacon of hope for recovery.

Najavits, L. M. (2017).Recovery from trauma, addiction, or both: strategies for finding your best self. New York: Guilford Press.

NCRG staffBook Reviewsaddictionrecoveryself-helptherapytrauma

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NCRG Releases White Paper On Responsible Gambling

A recently published article in the peer-reviewed journalAddiction & Research Theoryprovided a new model for evaluating responsible gambling research. To ensure its dissemination beyond academia, the NCRG produced a white paper summarizing the study’s findings. The white paper,Responsible Gambling: A Review of the Research, is available for download atwww.ncrg.org(click on Resources and White Papers).

Warning messages on gaming machines. Self-exclusion programs. Programs to limit money and time spent gambling. These are just a few responsible gambling strategies in use around the world. Responsible gambling (RG) refers to programs that seek to prevent or reduce gambling-related harms.

Despite the proliferation of responsible gambling programs and studies about them, the article “Responsible Gambling: A Synthesis of the Empirical Evidence” found only 29 studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals and that met high quality research standards(Ladouceur,

Shaffer, Blaszczynski, & Shaffer, 2016). This means there is a dearth of evidence for the safety and effectiveness of many of the responsible gambling programs currently in use. Moving forward, it is vital that research on responsible gambling strategies be published in peer review journals and that subjects be real world gamblers, not convenience samples of, for example, college students. The NCRG joins the article authors inencouragingallstakeholders concerned about responsible gambling to develop science-based RG programs that are safe and effective.

References

Ladouceur, R., Shaffer, P., Blaszczynski, A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2016). Responsible gambling: a synthesis of the empiricalevidence.Addiction Research & Theory, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2016.1245294

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Twinning: Genetic And Environmental Influences On Gambling Habits In Minnesota Twins

Although adolescents are particularly prone to environmental influences as they come into young adult age, few studies have looked at the effect that genetics versus environment has on gambling behaviors. Serena King, PhD, a 2006 New Investigator grantee of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, built upon her prior work looking at personality, gender, and family history in the prediction of college gambling, with this 2017 longitudinal twin study.

What is the aim of this review?

The aim of this study by King et al. (2017) is to examine genetic and environmental influences on gambling behaviors contributing to stability and change from adolescents to young adults aged 18-25. It was hypothesized that genetic factors become increasingly important from 18-25, and that genetic and environmental effect on gambling behaviors would be the same for women and men.

What did the Researchers do?

Researchers used the longitudinal, population-based Minnesota twin study to look at the effect of both genetics and environment on gambling behaviors in 18-25-year olds. Twin pairs were ascertained by birth records from 1978-1982 and eligibility was determined by proximity to the study and absence of physical or intellectual disability. The sample contained MZ (identical) twins (male: 252, female:233) and DZ (non-identical) twins (male: 252, female: 147) with an acceptance rate of 84% and follow up rate around 90%. Participating twins completed a questionnaire at both ages 18 and 25, which was used the South Oaks Gambling Screen (Lesieur and Blume, 1987) and additional questions pertaining to the amount of money spent on gambling. The researchers were then able to calculate the correlations between the twin pairs relative to genetics, shared environment, and non-shared environment.

Why is this important?

Twin studies are important to research, because they allow researchers to better determine whether a certain disorder is influenced more by genetics or by the environment. Gambling is known to run in families (Black et al. 2014), but the extent of genetic influence is relatively unknown, especially in young adults who are particularly prone to environmental influences. Twin studies have been used to assess nature versus nurture in a wide variety of addictions, but is relatively nonexistent in gambling research. An insight published inNature Reviews Genetics, highlights that “Twin and family studies provide strong evidence that addictions involve the interplay of genetic and environmental factors… (this) is crucial for the development of more effective interventions” (Li and Burmesiter, 2009). This study offers a novel longitudinal study looking at adolescent gamblers and the shifts in influence becoming young adults, and affords an opportunity to influence future interventions.

What did they find?

Researchers concluded that genetic factors increase in influence from 18-25, from 21% at age 18 to 57% at age 25 and this was consistent with both males and females. They also found that shared environmental influences between twin pairs are influential at age 18, but decreases from 18-25, 55% at age 18 and 10% at age 25. Finally, they concluded that the presence of disordered gambling is almost entirely genetic, while non-problem gambling is influenced almost entirely by shared and non-shared environmental influences.

Limitations

The study population was 98% Caucasian, which negatively affect generalizability to other populations. Additionally, this only looked at two time-points over a 7-year range and, therefore, any changes that occurred in between these two set points would likely be missed.

References

King, S. M., Keyes, M., Winters, K. C., Mcgue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2017). Genetic and environmental origins of gambling behaviors from ages 18 to 25: A longitudinal twin family study.Psychology of Addictive Behaviors,31(3), 367-374. doi:10.1037/adb0000266

Li, M. D., & Burmeister, M. (2009). New insights into the genetics of addiction.Nature Reviews. Genetics,10(4), 225–231. http://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2536

Susser, E., Schwartz, S., Morabia, A., & Bromet, E. J. (2006). Twin Studies of Heritability.Psychiatric Epidemiology,375-388. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195101812.003.31

Lesieur, H. R., & Blume, S. B. (1987). The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS): A new instrument for the identification of pathological gamblers.American Journal of Psychiatry,144(9), 1184–8

Black, D. W., Coryell, W. H., Crowe, R. R., McCormick, B., Shaw, M. C., & Allen, J. (2014). A Direct, Controlled, Blind Family Study of DSM-IV Pathological Gambling.The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,75(3), 215–221. http://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.13m08566

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19th Annual Agem/aga Golf Classic Presented By Jcm Global Breaks Fundraising Records, Brings In $155,000 For NCRG

The gaming industry broke all previous fundraising records at the 19th annual AGEM/AGA Golf Classic Presented by JCM Global, bringing in an astounding $155,000. Proceeds directly benefit research conducted by the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG). To date, the Golf Classic has raised more than $1.7 million to advance the NCRG’s important research.

“We are thrilled that the golf classic broke all records this year. The money will help NCRG find effective treatment for gambling disorder,” said NCRG executive director Russell Sanna.

“We are honored and grateful to have the opportunity to produce the AGEM/AGA Golf Classic. The NCRG, its staff, and its mission play a vital role in the gaming industry, and we are humbled to play a small role in helping them achieve success. We are thankful to the many players and sponsors from across the industry who joined us in raising the bar and breaking all previous fundraising records for this event,” said JCM Vice President Tom Nieman.

A total of 144 players joined 21 sponsors in supporting the Golf Classic. Premier sponsors included the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM), the American Gaming Association (AGA), Crane Payment Innovations (CPI), Global Gaming Expo (G2E), GGB Magazine, JCM Global, Konami, and Scientific Games.

Other sponsors included Ainsworth Game Technology, Aristocrat, Caesars Entertainment, DiTRONICS, Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), HIKAM America, KIC Team, National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA), Patriot Gaming & Electronics, Sands Las Vegas, The US Playing Card Company, Topgolf, and Target Golf Association.

The NCRG extends its thanks to the Golf Classic sponsors for their extraordinary generosity and support of the NCRG programs.

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