Breaks in Play: Do They Achieve Intended Aims?

Abstract

Breaks in play represent a responsible gambling strategy designed to disrupt states of dissociation and enhance the likelihood of drawing attention to a player's session behaviour and expenditure with respect to time and money. The aim of the break in play is to motivate the player to modify or cease gambling so the activity remains within affordable levels. The aim of this study was to investigate whether imposed breaks in play in the absence of accompanying warning messages were effective in reducing cravings. Participants (141 university students) were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: 15 min computer simulated Black Jack play followed by no break, a 3 or 8 min break in play. Participants were administered a battery of measures to assess problem gambling card play, cravings, and dissociation to assess the effects of length of break on cravings. Results indicated that cravings increased rather than decreased with imposed breaks in play, and that the strength of cravings were higher following the eight- compared to 3-min break. It was concluded that breaks in play in isolation might produce counterproductive, unintended, and even perverse effects. The policy implications for responsible gambling strategies is that breaks in play ought to be accompanied with warning and/or personal appraisal messages if optimal effects in reducing within session gambling expenditure are to be achieved.

An Analysis of Consumer Protection for Gamblers Across Different Online Gambling Operators in Ireland: A Descriptive Study

“…Cooling-off periods have been claimed to be a useful responsible gambling tool to facilitate a period of time where the player can reflect on their gambling behaviour, with the aim of reducing compulsive gambling and chasing financial losses (Williams et al 2012). However, there is a lack of consensus about the frequency and duration in breaks of play, which would provide most robust protection to the gambling population (Blaszczynski et al, 2016). Cooling-off periods were defined as a period of less than six months of duration by Bonello and Griffiths (2017).…”

Cognitive distortions and ADHD in pathological gambling: A national longitudinal case-control cohort study

“…It is important to note that these breaks in gambling practice must be sufficiently long in order to have an the level of cognitive distortions. Indeed, Blaszczynski, Cowley, Anthony, and Hinsley (2015) have previously demonstrated that short breaks, of a few minutes, during gambling activities could have a counterproductive effect by increasing craving. The ability to implement a gambling-free period of at least a month could encourage gamblers to put things into perspective and to exit the vicious circle of cognitive distortions, especially by getting out of a loss cycle (which one could correlate to the chasing item).…”

Understanding the psychology of mobile gambling: A behavioural synthesis

“…This stands in contrast with a wider literature on breaks in play, although Blaszczynski et al . () note these include additional interventions that require gamblers to think about their play and it may be the content of these messages that drive reappraisal of gambling behaviour. Similarly, James, O'Malley, and Tunney (), in studying the role of inter trial intervals in gambling behaviour, found that perseverative gambling during extinction in a simulated slot machine game was affected by the amount of inter trial interval participants were exposed to; longer intertrial intervals were associated with gambling in the face of continued losses, particularly at lower rates of reinforcement.…”

“…It is presently disputed whether this also affects the suppression or extinction of learned behaviours (Bouton et al, 2014;Gallistel & Gibbon, 2000) in the same manner, although there is increasing evidence to support this (Bouton et al, 2014;Moody et al, 2006). There is already evidence within the gambling literature to suggest that this prediction is already partially realized; Blaszczynski, Cowley, Anthony, and Hinsley (2015) found that craving to gamble increased in line with intersession interval on a simulated slot machine game. While they provided an explanation based on theories of behavioural completion, this finding can be adequately described with an associative learning-based account.…”