Addiction danger of phone betting

SMARTPHONE gambling apps could be even more addictive than the controversial ‘crack cocaine’ casino-style betting terminals in bookmakers, a leading psychologist has warned.

Gamblers who use their phones to bet are willing to keep losing money long after they stop winning, a study found. In the worst case, one person placed almost 180 losing bets in a row before stopping.

Professor Richard Tunney, head of psychology at Aston University in Birmingham who led the study, said: ‘Policymakers have clamped down hard on fixed-odds terminals, but we’ve been overtaken by technology, because it’s now possible for people to gamble anywhere, any time on their smartphone. These games [are] potentially more dangerous precisely because they’re ubiquitous.’

The study, published in the journal European Addiction Research, used an app with a virtual scratchcard that paid out when matching symbols were revealed.

Researchers then made it so players would only lose, but the 28 people being observed continued playing, with one person placing 177 losing bets in a row.