Study: Do players change their gaming behavior in lockdown?

Does the week-long lockdown affect the behavior of players? To answer this question, a Scottish university carried out a study. A total of almost 4,000 people took part in the survey. The result shows that the ongoing lockdown has had a significant impact on the gaming behavior of gambling fans.

In the study, the Scottish researchers wanted to find out, among other things, whether the typical betting customer switches to other forms of gambling when sporting events are not taking place or whether they then do not play at all. The result: around one in three respondents stated that they had completely stopped gambling during the first lockdown. But about as many respondents also stated that they had increased their gambling behavior during this time. A few weeks ago we asked ourselves in another article whether the corona crisis is fueling online gambling .

One in three plays more in lockdown

A total of 782 women and 3,084 men were interviewed in the study, which was carried out by the University of Stirling. For the scientists, it was primarily a question of how the gambling behavior of the respondents had an impact during the first few weeks of lockdown. In this context, it was interesting to know whether, for example, the many betting enthusiasts switched to other forms of gambling because there were hardly any sporting events for weeks.

Around 30% of those surveyed stated that they had completely stopped gambling during the lockdown. However, roughly as many of the respondents stated exactly the opposite: they would have generally increased their gaming behavior in lockdown. Another 17% of respondents stated that they would have used other forms of gambling (e.g. slot machines, lotteries) in the absence of sporting events.

Risk of gambling addiction may increase

The results of the Scottish study also show that under certain circumstances the risk of gambling addiction can increase in lockdown. This was particularly the case with male respondents who tried a new form of gambling during the lockdown. And that was around 17% of all participants. It was also interesting to find that women were more likely to be at risk of gambling addiction who increased their gambling frequency overall.

The "University of Stirling" is a public university with more than 14,000 students (as of early 2021). The university was founded in 1967 and there are five faculties, Arts & Humanities, Health & Sports, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Management.

Gambling halls in Germany remain closed

While the majority of sports events are taking place again, the gambling halls are still closed, at least in this country. The current lockdown continues until March 28, 2021. Similar restrictions have now been lifted in many other countries.

In Mallorca, for example, all arcades, bingo halls and betting offices have been open again since March 15th. However, the occupancy rate here is only allowed to be 30% and the bars have to close at 5 p.m. every day. Meanwhile, a little more distant Nevada (USA) is a little more relaxed. For example, the popular pool parties in Las Vegas have recently been able to take place here again .

Conclusion

The British researchers wanted to find out how gambling behavior changed during the lockdown. The scientists primarily investigated whether the players were also open to new forms of gambling during the lockdown. As a result, the researchers found that around a third of those surveyed did not play at all during the lockdown. However, around the same number of respondents stated that they had increased their gambling behavior. It was astonishing that a further 17% discovered a new form of gambling for themselves during the lockdown. And according to the researchers, this group of respondents was at least male at the highest risk of gambling addiction.

Source: Mobile Casinos