In-built tools in real money gaming (RMG) apps can be helpful in getting people to reduce the amount of money they are staking, a study by two researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) found.
“By examining key indicators — such as daily deposits, number of games played, total play amounts, and winnings per game — this paper uncovers compelling evidence that both tools [‘voluntary self-exclusion’ and limit-setting] lead to significant reductions in gaming activity and expenditure,” the study found.
The paper was prepared by Yatan Pal Singh Balhara, a behavioural health expert at AIIMS, and Tapan K. Gandhi, an AI researcher at IIT Delhi. The data for this study — culled from 8,300 players — was provided to the researchers by the E-Gaming Federation, which represents several RMG firms. Voluntary self-exclusion is a setting to let users choose to take a break from a given app, and limit-setting lets players cap the amount of money they spend.
Speaking to The Hindu, Dr. Balhara warned that the data was limited to users who actually chose to use these tools, and thus was limited to them specifically. Dr. Gandhi said the researchers reached out to EGF for the data. “Who will give you the data?” Dr. Gandhi asked.
“Nobody will give you. This world is very selfish. [Unless it is in] their interest, they will not share “anything … You need to enter a little bit,” and explore more thereafter, he added, referring to the limited range of data available.
“Self-exclusion programmes are effective, but their rigid structure - which requires users to abstain from gaming for a set period completely - may be challenging to sustain and could potentially lead to feelings of isolation,” a note accompanying the paper warned. “Limit-setting tools, on the other hand, generally demonstrate positive outcomes in reducing spending and gaming activity, although occasional fluctuations suggest that results may vary based on individual behaviour.”
“This is a preliminary study, the beginning actually,” Dr. Balhara said. “What is in the pipeline at our end is a very systematic and more rigorous work where we have a representative sample,” he said. He hoped to have more data about the individuals who are study subjects, because “two different people having different profiles can interact with the same game in different ways. It’s not just their demographic profile, even their mental health profile, for example, how are they feeling? How stressed are they? What are other things that are going wrong in their life?”
Published - March 04, 2025 08:02 pm IST
