Global news resource Reuters has reported on the UK betting industry and its attempts to tackle problem gambling using an algorithm developed by Harvard scientists.
The algorithm monitors win-loss responses, average stakes and betting frequency which bookmakers intend to use this to pinpoint risky behaviour. A similar system has been introduced by some state operators in Canada.
At Harvard Medical School in the US five scientists have spent almost a decade working for online gambling company Bwin.Party to create an algorithm capable of identifying gambling addiction behaviour, with a view to addressing customer issues before they become too entrenched. Using information from win-loss responses to average stakes, total spending and gambling frequency, Bwin.Party has conducted trials of the algorithm on one of its websites since September.
“The research has identified the behaviours associated with gambling problems and then identified what the predictors are,” Howard Shaffer, addiction division director and psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, said.