What’s going on here?: Key Stakeholder

perspectives on social casino gambling games

Jennifer Reynolds, PhD

Research Chair on Gambling

Concordia University

June 28, 2018

What is a game?

Source: Jesper Juul (2013)

Gaming vs gambling -

Dichotomous rhetoric

✤ Addictive

✤ Problematic

✤ Excessive

✤ Compulsive

✤ Absorbing

✤ Engrossing

✤ Immersive

✤ Flow (in the Zone)

Gambling games

Three components:

Consideration

Chance

Prize

*What constitutes these individual elements is up for

jurisdictional interpretation and debate!

Games which are

based on gambling-

like activities

(e.g. poker, casino,

bingo or betting)

played on social

networking sites

Source: Morgan Stanley (2012)

Social casino gambling

Free-to-play (F2P) business model

Players can play the core game for free, but have the option

to buy virtual goods (e.g., additional chips and virtual gifts)

when desired

Generates revenue in-game sales of virtual goods, mobile

game download fees, and advertising

Concerns:

Issues such as aggressive monetization, poor game design,

and the ability of users to pay-to-win

Marketing to vulnerable populations, such as children and

adolescents

Top 10 social casino titles

Rank Title Category Publisher Revenue

1 Slotomania Slots Playtika $122

2 Doubledown Casino DoubleD Games $66

3 Heart of Vegas Slots Product Madness $55

4 House of Fun Slots Playtika $54

5 Jackpot Party Casino Slots SciGames $49

6 Big Fish Casino Casino Big Fish $44

7 Caesars Casino Slots Playtika $41

8 Bingo Blitz Bingo Playtika $38

9 Texas Hold’em Poker Poker Zynga $36

10 Huuuge Casino Casino Huuuge Games $33

2Q17 - $ in millions

Source: Eilers & Krejcik (2017)

What we know

Fluidity in youth social casino gameplay (Reynolds, 2016)

Social casino games can serve as a “poker training

ground” for youth to migrate play over to real-money (Gupta,

2013; Reynolds, 2016)

Youth who make in-game micro-transactions are 8xs more

likely to transition to real-money gambling (Kim et al. 2014)

Motivations: enjoyment, desire to make money,

excitement, social connection, relaxation, escape daily

problems, to feel older (Derevensky, 2012; Reynolds, 2016)

Game developers activity design the game to be more

“sticky”/ “engaging” (Reynolds, 2016)

Causes for concern

Unregulated

Low barrier to entry (age 13)

Creating a new generation of customers

Unethical game design elements that shape

the terrain

Lack of understanding ‘beyond the individual’

Predicative personalization technology/social

data optimization (i.e. Big Data)

Game industry (designer) perspectives

“Dirty Secret”

Key Informant Perspectives

Legal-base frame

“The biggest risk to the

industry is trying to

argue that there’s no

value for the currency

outside of the game,

because as soon as you

attribute value to it, it

becomes gambling,

under the traditional

definition”

Experiential-based frame

“Rather than trying to define “Is it? Is it not?” it’s basically

looking at what the nature is-the sum of it’s parts and what it

does….For me, it’s more important that we look at the

components of what it is, and what we think it might do to

those who play it, as well as the people who are attracted to

that. And of course, in what way, if at all, is it different from

traditional forms of gambling.”

“The end process is similar in the brain- which is just, I’m

winning or losing and I’m getting the same sort of adrenaline

rush”

Implications

Confusion

Industry tensions

Stigma

“I would say it’s [gambling] sort of a dirty secret. In

game studies, no one talks about gambling…it almost

never comes up and I think part of it is because in game

studies, early on, tried to distance itself from all of the

talk of violence and effects and addiction, and so with

gambling it was just like “never mind”, “stay over there.”

Regulation

“If you look up the definition of “what’s a prize?” it’s

something in money or money’s worth. For example,

when you say “money out,” the fact that something sits-

you’ve won something by you can only access it by

playing again-probably still qualifies as money out.

Other countries look at this and they say “Well no, if

you’ve actually spent money because you want to

acquire something that has an aspirational value either

from you or your peer group, then we have to be slightly

objective about it in saying, “you wouldn’t have spent

the money had that carrot not been at the end of it,”

whatever that carrot is.

15

Games are a sociocultural phenomenon and therefore, they

should be defined and redefined in a hermeneutic circle that

enhances our understanding of them. This process of

redefining will tell us valuable things about the discourse of

games at any given moment. It will also highlight some

aspects of games, some of which may not previously have

been discussed, therefore providing more things for scholars

to study. This may provide a way out of the established

discourses that have become so self-evident that we are no

longer to see them clearly.

- (Stenros and Waern, 2011; as cited in Arjoranta, 2014, para. 68).

Recent class-action lawsuits

Concluding thoughts…

Gaming and gambling are

converging, despite regulatory

issues

Social casino games challenge our

current understanding of gambling

Beyond ‘Loot Boxes’

Spectrum model is the first step to

integrating youths’ lived experiences

into the emerging scholarship

Seeking to dissolve the dualism

that currently exists between

gaming and gambling

The Case of Candy Cigarettes

A history of candy cigarette use has

been shown to be associated with

higher levels of current or even smoking

amongst adults (Klein et al. 2007)

WHO Framework Convention on

Tobacco Control (2003) recommended

to prohibit the production & sale of

candy and toy products as they appeal

to minors.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

suggests children should not use candy

cigarettes because of the way they

promote social acceptability of tobacco

to children.

“ I started playing poker when I first got onto Facebook, which was in ninth grade. I

remember thinking ‘Hey, I could probably play with all sorts of people’, and I’m not

betting real money”

~ Chung

Thank you!

Jennifer Reynolds, PhD

The Research Chair on Gambling

Concordia University

jenniferann.reynolds@concordia.ca

Twitter: Dosha00

References

Arjoranta, J. (2014). Game definitions: A Wittgensteinian approach. Game Studies, 14(1), 1–12.

Gupta, R., Derevensky, J., & Wohl, M. (2013). A qualitative examination of online gambling culture among

college students: Factors influencing participation, maintenance, and cessation. In International Conference on

Gambling and Risk Taking.

Kim, H. S., Wohl, M. J. A., Salmon, M. M., Gupta, R., & Derevensky, J. (2014). Do social casino gamers

migrate to online gambling? An assessment of migration rate and potential predictors. Journal of Gambling

Studies, 31(4), 1819–1831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-014-9511-0

Klein, J., Thomas, R., & Sutter, E. (2007). History of childhood candy cigarette use is associated with tobacco

smoking by adults. Preventive Medicine, 45, 26–30. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2007.04.006

Morgan Stanley Research. (2012). Social gambling: Click here to play [Blue paper]. London, England: Morgan

Stanley.

Reynolds, J. (2016). Youth, Poker and Facebook: Another Case of Candy Cigarettes? University of Toronto.

Retrieved from https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/73145

Lehdonvirta, V. (2010). Online spaces have material culture: Goodbye to digital post-materialism and hello to

virtual consumption. Media, Culture & Society, 32, 883–882.

Lehdonvirta, V., Wilska, T.-A., & Johnson, M. (2009). Virtual consumerism: Case Habbo Hotel. Information,

Communication & Society, 12, 1059–1079. doi:10.1080/13691180802587813

World Health Organization (2003). World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

World Health Assembly Resolution, vol. 56.1, Geneva, Switzerland

Financial Disclosure statement

PhD funded by the Ontario Problem Gambling

Reseach Centre (OPGRC)

Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et la

culture (FRQ-SC) funded Postdoctoral Fellow

No financial interests related to gambling research,

education or practice