What Influences how New Zealanders use Information Displays? An Analysis of Electronic Gaming Machine Records

<p>Electronic gaming machines (slot machines) contribute to problem gambling in New Zealand and worldwide. Information displays are one harm minimisation feature of New Zealand electronic gaming machines that has been investigated in recent years. New Zealand gamblers see two types of displays: interruptive pop-up displays after a set period of time has passed, and elective displays if a player presses an information button. These displays inform the gambler about their current session with the intention that they will facilitate informed decisions about continuing play or quitting. The current study used a week-long set of electronic gaming machine data from across New Zealand to run an exploratory investigation into the utility of these information displays. We first observed that fewer than 2% of pop-up displays resulted in people quitting. On this basis it is unlikely that interruptive pop-up displays are meaningfully reducing harm. Our analysis also revealed timing differences in how pop-up displays are scheduled on machines produced by different manufacturers. The likelihood of quitting on a pop-up was influenced by complex interactions of machine and session characteristics, however these effects were small. Secondly, our investigation of elective displays also identified a low rate of access, indicating they are also unlikely to be working effectively as a harm minimisation tool. Analysis revealed players’ likelihood of accessing an elective display was mostly influenced by the venue type they were in and the manufacturer of the machine. Possible recommendations to improve both types of displays include changes to message content, scheduled timing and visual features.</p>

What Influences how New Zealanders use Information Displays? An Analysis of Electronic Gaming Machine Records

<p>Electronic gaming machines (slot machines) contribute to problem gambling in New Zealand and worldwide. Information displays are one harm minimisation feature of New Zealand electronic gaming machines that has been investigated in recent years. New Zealand gamblers see two types of displays: interruptive pop-up displays after a set period of time has passed, and elective displays if a player presses an information button. These displays inform the gambler about their current session with the intention that they will facilitate informed decisions about continuing play or quitting. The current study used a week-long set of electronic gaming machine data from across New Zealand to run an exploratory investigation into the utility of these information displays. We first observed that fewer than 2% of pop-up displays resulted in people quitting. On this basis it is unlikely that interruptive pop-up displays are meaningfully reducing harm. Our analysis also revealed timing differences in how pop-up displays are scheduled on machines produced by different manufacturers. The likelihood of quitting on a pop-up was influenced by complex interactions of machine and session characteristics, however these effects were small. Secondly, our investigation of elective displays also identified a low rate of access, indicating they are also unlikely to be working effectively as a harm minimisation tool. Analysis revealed players’ likelihood of accessing an elective display was mostly influenced by the venue type they were in and the manufacturer of the machine. Possible recommendations to improve both types of displays include changes to message content, scheduled timing and visual features.</p>

Preference Evaluation of Realistic Fire Management Services: Difference in Preferences between Workers in Low- and High-Rise Buildings

This study entailed an evaluation of preferences of workers for aspects of realistic fire management services aimed at providing effective fire prevention and real-time response using conjoint techniques. The analysis of the responses indicated that a combination of real-time disaster-situation dissemination and real-time 3D indoor status information displays was preferred. For workers in both low and high-rise buildings, real-time disaster-situation dissemination within the building received the highest evaluation. Workers in low-rise buildings also showed a preference for the 3D indoor status information displays that provide optimal dynamic evacuation routes. Future studies will include demonstrations of such techniques through local governments to put realistic fire management services into practical use, promoting safe living environments from fire.

EXPRESS: Minimum Payments Alter Debt Repayment Strategies across Multiple Cards

US Households currently hold $770 billion in credit card debt, often managing repayments across multiple accounts. We investigate how minimum payments (i.e., the requirement to allocate at least some money to each account with a balance) alter consumers’ allocation strategies across multiple accounts. Across four experiments, we find that minimum payment requirements cause consumers to increase dispersion (i.e., spread their repayments more evenly) across accounts. We term this change in strategy the dispersion effect of minimum payments and provide evidence that it can be costly for consumers. We find that the effect is partially driven by the tendency for consumers to interpret minimum payment requirements as recommendations to pay more than the minimum amount. While the presence of the minimum payment requirement is unlikely to change, we propose that marketers and policymakers can influence the effects of minimum payments on dispersion by altering the way that information is displayed to consumers. Specifically, we investigate five distinct information displays and find that choice of display can either exaggerate or minimize dispersion and corresponding costs. We discuss implications for consumers, policy makers, and firms, with a particular focus on ways to improve consumer financial well-being.

Improving Ship Maneuvering Safety with Augmented Virtuality Navigation Information Displays

The paper presents the results of a study on improving the safety of navigation, during maneuvers in restricted areas, with the use of an augmented virtuality navigation information display. The augmented virtuality solution has been developed by one of the authors and has been described in a previous paper. A set of simulation scenarios has been proposed to study various maneuvers with different types of ships. Models of existing areas and existing ships have been used so the study can be recreated and reevaluated with different types of interfaces. The study is focused on comparing safe maneuvering areas with different information sources used. The results showed that augmented virtuality solution can indeed decrease the safe maneuvering areas and thus increase the safety of navigation for maneuvers in restricted areas.