Australia bets on facial recognition for problem gamblers

Gambling can become an addiction that negatively impacts one’s finances, career, relationships, and daily lifestyle. Although the prevalence of GD is higher in younger age groups, it is also a considerable problem for many older adults. A recent meta-analysis found that older individuals with GD were more likely to be single or divorced/separated81. These factors, along with having a fixed income and limited prospects of future earnings, make them an extremely vulnerable group82.

• Certain factors can increase your risk of developing a gambling addiction, genetics, environment, medical history and age may all play a role.
• Looking at the lower part of Table 3, we observe the same statistics for predicting player inclusion in the intensive clusters, as described in Section 3.1.
• Whereas a clear definition of PG is present, fulfillment of the (usually latest version of the) DSM diagnostic criteria for PG, there is no clear definition for PrG.
• Strengths of this study include a large sample size, high follow-up rates, and application of intent-to-treat analyses.
• Furthermore, separate diagnoses can be clinically useful since individuals may present to practitioners with concerns in specific addiction domains.
• However, the introduction of facial recognition into small gaming venues in this manner is not simply a straightforward technological solution to reducing the widespread harms caused by the industry and the pathological forms of behaviour its infrastructures and cultures cultivate.

Risk of bias and quality of evidence

Adolescent gambling, despite being an illegal activity for minors to partake in, is relatively common77. Studies have found that individuals under the age of 18 years often report taking part in a wide range of gambling activities, and young age is often reported as a khelo24 common risk factor for developing GD78,79. Gambling disorder (GD) is a psychiatric condition featuring recurrent, maladaptive gambling behavior that leads to clinically significant distress.

Study characteristics and quality

An extensive literature suggests that brief interventions are more effective than no treatment, and often as effective as more extended treatment, in reducing alcohol use (Babor, 1994; Bien, Miller, & Tonigan, 1993; Miller et al., 1995). Such interventions are especially efficacious and cost-effective for patients with less severe forms of a disorder, i.e., problem drinkers rather than dependent patients (Babor, 1994; Bertholet, Daeppen, Wietlisbach, Fleming, & Burnand, 2005; Cuijpers, Riper, & Lemmers, 2004). Their benefits have been extended to other conditions such as reducing onset of major depression and improving quality of life in those with sub-threshold depression (Willemse, Smit, Cuijpers, & Tiemens, 2004). Brief interventions may be particularly useful for those who do not specifically seek therapy for a disorder, and they have advantages of being low cost and widely applicable.

Older adults have their own unique concerns that may affect how they use self-management strategies and the types of strategies that they prefer (e.g., access to and familiarity with technology) 76. While many studies had mixed-sex samples only one study considered a gendered approach to self-management strategies. One study reported that, within Asian culture, families use a variety of mechanisms to enforce responsible gambling (e.g., family exclusion orders) 69. Research is needed to understand what self-management approaches may be appropriate and effective for a variety of populations. In addition to the potential of neurostimulation, neurofeedback and attentional retraining interventions, a number of promising pharmacological interventions for the treatment of PG have been reported (for a review see van den Brink, 2012).

No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Pathological gambling (PG) has a relatively stable prevalence in western countries, with estimations ranging from 1.4% (lifetime prevalence) in the USA, to 2% in Canada (Welte et al., 2002; Cox et al., 2005). Prevalence rates are comparable and relatively stable between countries and across survey instruments (Stucki and Rihs-Middel, 2007), with a cumulative rate around 3% for PG and problem gambling (PrG) together. Talking to a financial counselor can also help you sort out any difficulties you have with money as a result of your gambling, develop a solid financial plan to get out of debt, and start saving money.

This makes people even more likely to continue to gamble because they know there is another win ahead at some point. This is known as the variable-ratio schedule of reinforcement making gambling more addictive and even more challenging to overcome. Compulsive gambling takes many forms and can include buying scratch-off tickets, betting on sports, stock market trading, going to casinos, playing slot machines, card games, bingo, and more. Many of these behaviors are considered a legitimate form of entertainment or employment but can be a dangerous trap for some people. Regression-based moderator analyses were possible for a number of variables, mainly for gambling severity.

Defined from a neurocognitive perspective, the overarching notion of cognitive control can be defined as the ability to control one’s actions. In terms of the verbal representation of cognitive control, the term “impulsivity” is used regularly, to indicate a tendency to act on a whim, to display behavior that is characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences (Daruna and Barnes, 1993). Impaired response inhibition is thought to predispose for impulsive behavior, and diminished cognitive control has been implicated as an endophenotypic vulnerability marker for addictive disorders in recent years.

Hyper-reactivity after receiving monetary rewards in high risk bets was also found in the medial frontal cortex with an ERP study using a black jack task (Hewig et al., 2010). In a fMRI study by Miedl et al. (2012) subjective value coding for delay discounting and probability discounting in pathological gamblers and HCs was investigated. The subjective value for each task was computed for each participant individually and correlated with brain activity in the ventral striatum.

This allows us to effectively identify and predict problem gambling behaviors with improved accuracy and computational efficiency compared to previous studies. Our analysis consists of two main steps, with the second step involving the prediction of labels created in the first step. To facilitate this process, we establish two distinct subsets from each of our samples.

In this last study, a positive relationship was found between subjective craving for gambling in pathological gamblers and activity of the frontal and parahippocampal regions when viewing gambling pictures vs. neutral pictures. In an EEG study by Wölfling et al. (2011), 15 pathological gamblers were compared to 15 HCs on EEG responsivity to gambling pictures compared to neutral, positive and negative emotional pictures. Compared to HCs, pathological gamblers showed significantly larger late positive potentials (LPPs) induced by gambling stimuli when compared to neutral stimuli, but displayed comparable LPPs towards negative and positive emotional pictures. In contrast, in HCs there was a larger response towards positive and negative stimuli compared to both neutral and gambling stimuli.

This comprehensive coverage of studies and data enabled us to conduct several relevant moderator- and meta-regression-analyses to an extent not formerly accomplished. Research has shown that facial recognition can help problem gamblers from entering casinos and other gambling venues. There are also concerns with accuracy, limitations, and false detection of individuals.

Younger adults may also be more prone to gambling due to the evolutionary advantage of status-seeking during peak reproductive years. Problem gambling is an addictive behavior with a high comorbidity with alcohol problems.9 A common tendency shared by people who have a gambling addiction is impulsivity. The ability to apply the chosen behavioral descriptors to different types of gambling, regardless of their specific structures, highlights the potential universality of this approach.