Prevalence and Correlates of Lifetime Disordered Gambling in Cambodian Refugees Residing in Long Beach, CA

Khmer Girl’s in Action is a nonprofit that successfully utilizes community-based participatory research (CBPR) with university partners to create social change for youth in Long Beach, CA. Based on semi-structured interviews and content analysis of news articles, I explore the impact and sustainability of this research work and the research partnerships. Findings highlight impacts such as youth empowerment, heightened awareness around community needs, policy change, and CBPR curriculum improvements in the field as impacts. Sustainability requires integrating research into program funding, utilizing a tailored training curriculum, building on community members prior relationships, and selecting partners that share common goals, levels of commitment, and flexibility. As funders demand more data to justify community needs, understanding more examples of such work in the Asian American community will be useful for informing future partnerships.

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A Measured Energy Transformation Application (META) for Long Beach Harbor, Site 2 Using a Statistical Relationship

10.21236/ada459004 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

James P. McKinney ◽

William D. Corson

Keyword(s):

Statistical Relationship ◽

Long Beach ◽

Energy Transformation ◽

Measured Energy

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Gaming the system: suboptimal compliance with loot box probability disclosure regulations in China

Behavioural Public Policy ◽

10.1017/bpp.2021.23 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-27

Author(s):

Leon Y. Xiao ◽

Laura L. Henderson ◽

Yuhan Yang ◽

Philip W. S. Newall

Keyword(s):

Video Games ◽

Self Regulation ◽

People’S Republic Of China ◽

Disordered Gambling ◽

People's Republic Of China ◽

Republic Of China

Abstract Loot boxes provide randomized rewards in video games; their purchase is linked to disordered gambling and they are present in approximately half of UK video games. The relative novelty of loot boxes means that regulators and policymakers in various jurisdictions are still deciding how to regulate them. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is the first, and presently only, jurisdiction to legally require companies to disclose the probabilities of obtaining randomized loot box rewards – an approach that is also favored by the industry as self-regulation. This study is the first to assess paid loot box prevalence in the PRC and companies’ discretionary interpretations of probability disclosure regulations. Loot boxes were found in 91 of the 100 highest-grossing PRC iPhone games. Of games deemed suitable for children aged 12+, 90.5% contained loot boxes. Probability disclosures could not be found for 4.4% of games containing loot boxes. Disclosures were implemented through various methods both in-game and on the games’ official websites; however, consistent with the concept of ‘sludge,’ only 5.5% used the most prominent format of automatically displaying the probabilities on the in-game loot box purchase page. Loot box probability disclosures should be uniform and visually prominent to best help inform consumers.

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“It’s the Attraction of Winning That Draws You In”—A Qualitative Investigation of Reasons and Facilitators for Videogame Loot Box Engagement in UK Gamers

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm10102103 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 2103

Author(s):

Laura Nicklin ◽

Stuart Gordon Spicer ◽

James Close Close ◽

Jonathan Parke ◽

Oliver Smith ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thematic Analysis ◽

Social Influences ◽

Disordered Gambling ◽

Qualitative Investigation ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Research Priority ◽

Potential Risks ◽

Problematic Gambling ◽

The Uk ◽

Depth Interviews

Excessive engagement with (increasingly prevalent) loot boxes within games has consistently been linked with disordered gambling and/or gaming. The importance of recognising and managing potential risks associated with loot box involvement means understanding contributing factors is a pressing research priority. Given that motivations for gaming and gambling have been informative in understanding risky engagement with those behaviours, this qualitative study investigated motivations for buying loot boxes, through in-depth interviews with 28 gamers from across the UK. A reflexive thematic analysis categorised reasons for buying into seven “themes”; opening experience; value of box contents; game-related elements; social influences; emotive/impulsive influences; fear of missing out; triggers/facilitators. These themes are described in detail and discussed in relation to the existing literature and motivation theories. This study contributes to understanding ways in which digital items within loot boxes can be highly valued by purchasers, informing the debate around parallels with gambling. Findings that certain motivations were disproportionately endorsed by participants with symptoms of problematic gambling has potential implications for policy and warrants further study.

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