Tapping into data from Sightline Payments, The University of Nevada Las Vegas has revealed that roughly 12% of US gaming consumers demonstrate payment habits that expose them to experiencing gambling harm.
As a result of the data provided by Sightline, an academic institution with data from over 100 million transactions from a host of gaming verticals, including online sports betting, casino, online casino, pari-mutuel, and lottery.
Although the research found the overwhelming majority (88%) of customers displayed no signs or risk of harm, it did find that almost 12% displayed risky behaviour across three key clusters.
Omer Sattar, Co-CEO & Co-Founder at Sightline, commented: “This Problem Gambling Awareness Month, Sightline’s collaboration with IGI and Dr. Ghaharian on this study is critical to understanding the role that payments play in identifying problem gambling markers of harm.
“This research will serve as a foundation to build next-generation solutions that help identify customers who might have issues with their gambling behaviour.”
One of the identified clusters was 1.2% of the sample who demonstrated a high volume of deposits and withdrawals, as well as high variability in their deposited amounts. The IGI indicated that these players could be enacting unsustainable gambling behaviours.
Another cluster of 2.5% of the sample had the highest deposit activity, with an average of 15 deposits per week with most of these individuals having experienced declined deposit attempts, indicating they had reached a limit.
Sightline Payments indicated that it will use the findings of this study to help reduce problem gambling in the US.
“As digital payments have helped fuel the immense growth of online sports betting and online casino, understanding how digital transaction data can identify potentially harmful behaviours is critical for helping people wager responsibly”, added Dr. Kasra Ghaharian, Senior Research Fellow at IGI.
“I want to thank Sightline for the opportunity to work on such an important project. These findings will be critical for building interventions for people who have or might develop a problem.”
