The University of Sydney has established a Centre of Excellence in Gambling Research (CoEGR), which will facilitate live trials to study the effects of gambling interventions.
Founded through $600,000 in funding from the International Center for Responsible Gaming (ICRG), additional support has also been granted from Entain Australia, the University of Sydney Brain and Mind Centre and the Australian Research Council Life Course Centre.
The projects will be led by Professor Sally Gainsbury, who is the Founder of the Technology Addiction Team, as well as the Director of the Gambling Treatment & Research Clinic.
Live trials will be held in collaboration with gambling operators alongside a team of experts from psychology, economics, business, psychology and public health fields.
The CoEGR analyse these findings, which will then be used to support new practices and strategies for reducing gambling-related harm.
Gainsbury said: “This unprecedented collaboration with gambling operators will enable the centre to overcome previous limitations in the field, paving the way for new and effective research outcomes.
“The operators will share de-identified data on gambling behaviours and allow us to evaluate new interventions, giving us a unique opportunity to create a dataset with a high level of detail on gamblers.”
Additional financial support will be provided by the University of Sydney, which will also house the CoEGR alongside the Brain and Mind Centre.
Gainsbury continued: “Currently, most gamblers do not seek treatment until they have reached a crisis point.
“We want to improve preventive interventions and encourage positive habit changes at the early stages of harm development using communication strategies and consumer-focused tools.
“We are thrilled about the opportunities that the Centre of Excellence in Gambling Research presents thanks to the multi-year funding from the International Centre for Responsible Gaming.”
Australia has maintained its focus on responsible gambling this year, including plans to launch the self-exclusion register, BetStop, this August.
