A qualitative study of participant experience with skill gaming machines in comparison to electronic gaming machines

ABSTRACT

New variants of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) are being developed that incorporate gaming elements. Policies to govern the use of skill gaming machines (SGMs) must be predicated on evidence of their impact, which is currently lacking. Focus groups (N = 21) were conducted with university students, regular EGM players, and community members who played an EGM and SGM. Participants clearly perceived that SGMs involved a skill component, although most did not have a good understanding of how SGMs work. There was evidence of greater immersion in SGMs, but this was restricted to the feature in which money was not gambled and time was limited. Participants reported a mixture of both negative and positive emotions during play on both SGMs and EGMs reflecting some consumers enjoying the gaming-elements to a greater extent. The results indicate that SGMs would likely appeal to a subset of consumers and most consumers would not have a good initial understanding of these machines.

KEYWORDS:

• Electronic gaming machine
• skill gaming machine
• game understanding
• appeal
• feature
• policy

Constraints on publishing

The funding body placed no constraints on publishing and had no requirements to review this manuscript before submission or publication.

Competing Interest

Sally Gainsbury and Alex Blaszczynski are Editors of International Gambling Studies and were blinded from the review and editorial process. Their competing interests are declared on the IGS website. Since 2016, Kahlil Philander has received research funds from the Washington State Gaming Commission, Manitoba Gambling Research Program, UNLV International Centre for Gaming Regulation, U.S.-Japan Business Council, Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. He has received consulting payments from British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Responsible Gambling Council of Canada, Intralot, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, West Virginia Lottery, Indiana Gaming Commission, and iDevelopment and Economic Association. He has received reimbursement for travel from the National Conference of State Legislators, National Council for Problem Gambling, International Association of Gaming Advisors, National Centre for Responsible Gambling, Responsible Gambling Council of Canada, North American State and Provincial Lottery Association, Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling, Global Gaming Expo Asia, and Alberta Gambling Research Institute. He is a member of the National Council for Problem Gambling, and formerly was the Director of Social Responsibility at the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge and thank Darragh O’Keefe, Su Jeong Cho, Kristin Economou, Brittany Keen and Thomas Swanton for their assistance with this research.

Data availability statement

The qualitative data described in this article is not available due to ethical restrictions. However, the protocol was pre-registered and the measures used are available here: https://osf.io/ba5n2/.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Materials and Preregistered. The materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/ba5n2/.

Notes

1. A ‘feature’ in an EGM refers to an event involving special sound, music or lighting effects typically associated with the player receiving an opportunity to win bonus credits or other special bonuses.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ga7UC6zL_s.

Additional information

Funding

This work received funding from Wymac Gaming and was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award [DE1060100459] awarded to Dr. Sally Gainsbury. Wymac Gaming provided further support for this research by providing EGMs and SGMs which were housed at a laboratory at the University of Sydney. Liquor and Gaming NSW approved the use of EGMs for the purpose of this research. Neither Wymac Gaming, Liquor and Gaming NSW or the ARC had any involvement in any aspects of the research including, but not limited to, the research questions, methodology, selection of research participants, research conduct, or analysis of results.

Notes on contributors

Sally M. Gainsbury

Dr. Sally Gainsbury is Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Co-Director of the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic within the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of new technology on gambling and behavioural addictions and interventions to minimise harms.

Kahlil S. Philander

Kahlil Philander is an Assistant Professor at Washington State University's Carson College of Business, and an Honorary Lecturer at the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. His research interests are in the socio-economic impacts of gambling.

Alex Blaszczynski

Alex Blaszczynski is Emeritus Professor in the School of Psychology and Co-Director of the Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic within the University of Sydney.