A speed-of-play limit reduces gambling expenditure in an online roulette game
UK online casino games are presently not subject to any limitations on stakes or speed-of-play. Two policy recommendations have been recently put forward: One proposal is to limit the maximum bet to £2, and another is to ensure that no online casino game can be played faster than its in-person equivalent. However, any policy proposal may be ineffective or have unintended consequences. This research experimentally investigated the speed-of-play proposal, in an experiment with 1,002 UK online roulette players, incentivized payouts, and £4 endowments. Participants played on a commercial online roulette game, which was slowed-down in one condition to enforce a speed-of-play limit of one spin every 60 seconds. The preregistered analysis plan showed no effect of the speed-of-play limit on participants’ choice to gamble at all, a marginal reduction in participants’ probability to gamble everything, and a credible reduction in the proportion of endowments gambled amongst participants who gambled some of their money. Expenditure reductions occurred via a credible reduction in the number of spins played that outweighed a marginal increase in per-spin bet sizes. This research shows how speed-of-play limits for online casino games may be effective in reducing gambling expenditure, and how the structural characteristics of online gambling games can be explored via ecologically-valid online experiments.