scholarly journals Gambling on Big Data: Designing Risk in Social Casino Games

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer REYNOLDS

Since 2007, a surge of new gambling opportunities, often referred to as social casino gaming, has emerged on social media platforms and mobile apps. At the present time, the social casino gaming industry is unregulated and challenges our conventional understanding of gambling and risk. Currently, the minimum age requirement to create a profile on Facebook and engage in social casino games is 13 years of age. The emergence of this new gambling frontier, and its low barrier to entry, inevitably adds a new layer of risk and raises several ethical considerations for public health and risk regulation professionals, particularly to developers’ use of game mechanics and advanced data analytics. Using findings from a virtual ethnographic case study focusing on Zynga Poker (ZP), this article will call attention to potential ethical and risk concerns about game mechanics and the use of big data to personalise players’ gameplay to optimise player engagement and monetisation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha J Hollingshead ◽  
Hyoun S Kim ◽  
Matthew Rockloff ◽  
Daniel S McGrath ◽  
David C Hodgins ◽  
...  

Social casino games (i.e., online, free to play casino-like games) share many similar visual, auditory and structural game mechanics as gambling games. Given the similarities between the two activities, it is not uncommon for people to migrate from social casino gaming to gambling or vice versa. In the current work, we investigated whether motives for playing social casino games may play a role in the transition from gaming to gambling. We also assessed whether motives for playing social casino games as a way to reduce gambling cravings was predictive of self-reported changes in gambling behaviour 30 days later and whether this relationship was dependent on the activity first played. In a community sample of people who gamble and play social casino games (N=228), those who played social casino games before beginning to gamble were more likely to report playing social casino games for social motives, or as a way to reduce gambling-related cravings, than people who gambled before playing social casino games. Additionally, we found that using social casino games as a tool to moderate gambling cravings was associated with self-reported decreases in gambling behaviour one-month later, but only among those who played social casino games before beginning to gamble. Results suggest that what game was played first (social casino games or gambling games) matters, especially for the clinical utility of social casino games as a harm reduction strategy.Résumé Les jeux de casino sociaux (qui sont offerts gratuitement en ligne) partagent avec les jeux de hasard un grand nombre de caractéristiques visuelles, auditives et structurelles définissant la mécanique de jeu. Vu les ressemblances entre ces deux types de jeux, il n’est pas inhabituel pour les joueurs de passer de l’un à l’autre et inversement. Nous avons cherché à savoir trois choses : premièrement, si les raisons qui motivent la pratique des jeux de casino sociaux influent sur la transition vers les jeux de hasard; deuxièmement, si ces motivations peuvent, en tant que moyen de réduire l’envie de jouer, être un prédicteur de changements de comportement au bout de 30 jours; et troisièmement, si ce lien dépend de l’activité adoptée en premier. Notre échantillon recruté dans la collectivité comptait des adeptes des deux types de jeux (N=228). Ceux qui s’adonnaient aux jeux de casino avant d’adopter les jeux de hasard ont été plus nombreux que ceux qui avaient fait l’inverse à évoquer des motivations sociales ou la recherche d’un moyen de tempérer leur envie de jouer. Le recours aux jeux de casino dans un but de modération est associé à une diminution de la fréquence de jeu un mois plus tard, mais seulement chez les personnes qui s’adonnaient aux jeux de casino avant de passer aux jeux de hasard. Selon nos résultats, l’activité pratiquée en premier joue bel et bien un rôle, en particulier en ce qui touche l’utilité des jeux de casino sociaux en tant que stratégie de réduction des risques.



Author(s):  
PHILIP ADEBO

The emergence of mobile connectivity is revolutionizing the way people live, work, interact, and socialize. Mobile social media is the heart of this social revolution. It is becoming a global phenomenon as it enables IP-connectivity for people on the move. Popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace have made mobile apps for their users to have instant access from anywhere at any time. This paper provides a brief introduction into mobile social media, their benefits, and challenges.



2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Constantina Costopoulou ◽  
Maria Ntaliani ◽  
Filotheos Ntalianis

Local governments are increasingly developing electronic participation initiatives, expecting citizen involvement in local community affairs. Our objective was to assess e-participation and the extent of its change in local government in Greece. Using content analysis for 325 Greek municipal websites, we assessed e-participation status in 2017 and 2018 and examined the impact of change between these years. The assessment regards two consecutive years since the adoption of digital technologies by municipalities has been rapid. The main findings show that Greek local governments have made significant small- to medium-scale changes, in order to engage citizens and local societies electronically. We conclude that the integration of advanced digital technologies in municipalities remains underdeveloped. We propose that Greek municipalities need to consider incorporating new technologies, such as mobile apps, social media and big data, as well as e-decision making processes, in order to eliminate those obstacles that hinder citizen engagement in local government. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted the need for enhancing e-participation and policymakers’ coordination through advanced digital technologies.



2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhong Chen ◽  
Anabel Quan-Haase

The hype around big data does not seem to abate nor do the scandals. Privacy breaches in the collection, use, and sharing of big data have affected all the major tech players, be it Facebook, Google, Apple, or Uber, and go beyond the corporate world including governments, municipalities, and educational and health institutions. What has come to light is that enabled by the rapid growth of social media and mobile apps, various stakeholders collect and use large amounts of data, disregarding the ethics and politics. As big data touch on many realms of daily life and have profound impacts in the social world, the scrutiny around big data practice becomes increasingly relevant. This special issue investigates the ethics and politics of big data using a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. Together, the articles provide new understandings of the many dimensions of big data ethics and politics, showing it is important to understand and increase awareness of the biases and limitations inherent in big data analysis and practices.



2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Jennifer Reynolds

Technology has blurred the lines between gambling and gaming. While the convergence can be witnessed on many different levels, social casino games on social networking sites and mobile apps illustrate just one example. Much of what we currently know about social casino games focuses on player behaviour, with little understanding about this genre from the perspective of social game professionals. This paper aims to fill the gap in our understanding of social casino games through interviews with the professionals who design them. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 professionals from the social casino games industry. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings illustrate tensions that exist between the two fields of gambling and gaming; however, both are trying to separate themselves from the stigmatized ‘dirty secret’ that is gambling. Further, as a result of social casino games residing, for the most part, in an unregulated ‘grey area,’ findings illustrate the ethical struggle felt by social casino game professionals. This convergence has significant consequences, not only for players, but for game developers, designers, and researchers, and highlights the importance of game designer education.



2022 ◽  
pp. 385-410
Author(s):  
Časlav Kalinić ◽  
Miroslav D. Vujičić

The rise of social media allowed greater people participation online. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok enable visitors to share their thoughts, opinions, photos, locations. All those interactions create a vast amount of data. Social media analytics, as a way of application of big data, can provide excellent insights and create new information for stakeholders involved in the management and development of cultural tourism destinations. This chapter advocates for the employment of the big data concept through social media analytics that can contribute to the management of visitors in cultural tourism destinations. In this chapter, the authors highlight the principles of big data and review the most influential social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. On that basis, they disclose opportunities for the management and marketing of cultural tourism destinations.



Author(s):  
Shalin Hai-Jew

If human-created objects of art are historically contingent, then the emergence of (social) network art may be seen as a product of several trends: the broad self-expression and social sharing on Web 2.0; the application of network analysis and data visualization to understand big data, and an appreciation for online machine art. Social network art is a form of cyborg art: it melds data from both humans and machines; the sensibilities of humans and machines; and the pleasures and interests of people. This chapter will highlight some of the types of (social) network art that may be created with Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel (NodeXL Basic) and provide an overview of the process. The network graph artwork presented here were all built from datasets extracted from popular social media platforms (Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, and others). This chapter proposes some early aesthetics for this type of electronic artwork.



2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-44
Author(s):  
Colin Lai ◽  
Hung-Lian Tang ◽  
J. Michael Tarn ◽  
Sock Chung

This study used a multiple-case study methodology in exploring the status of IT control in the casino gaming industry. The observations of this research should very much represent the overall status of the concerned issues regarding the casino gaming industry of Macao. Having attained a more complete level of IT control not only helps the company in satisfying the concerned regulatory compliance requirements, but also makes IT works more effectively for the companies in helping them to gain the competitive advantage in the fierce competitive environment in the gaming industry. The findings of this research can help the gaming companies to identify the potential enhancement areas of IT control. This study has captured the IT control status of the gaming industry at an initial stage of development in Macao. Further, the results can serve as a solid foundation for future research on the casino gaming industry and extending similar research to be conducted on other industries and government agencies, which are promoting the awareness of the importance of IT control.



2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinjini Mitra ◽  
Rema Padman

Patient engagement in self health and wellness management has been identified as an important goal in improving health outcomes. As a result, the use of mobile and social media for health and wellness promotion is gathering considerable momentum. Several early adopting health plans and provider organizations have begun to design and pilot social and mobile media platforms to empower members to enhance self management of health and wellness goals. Based on a member survey of a large health plan in Pennsylvania, the authors identify factors that are significantly associated with member interest in adopting such technology platforms for obtaining health related information and services. Analysis of relevant data from more than 4,000 responses from health plan members indicate significant effects of several factors such as age, gender, general health condition (including presence of chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure), level of computer and social media usage and frequency of engaging in different online activities such as banking, shopping, and emailing. This analysis allows us to identify important consumer segments that are correlated with professed willingness to use applications and programs offered by the health plan. Besides, the authors also develop statistical models to predict people's odds of adopting health-related mobile apps and identify the significant predictors thereof. The authors anticipate that these insights can assist health plans to develop and deploy targeted services and tools through integration of mobile and social media platforms for health and wellness management.



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