AUTHOR=Hakansson Anders , Franklin Katja , Dahlström Maria , Lyckberg Axel 

TITLE=Motivational telephone intervention to risk gamblers by a state-owned gambling operator in Sweden

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1343733

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1343733

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background and aims</title><p>Few studies have tested the effect of a motivational telephone intervention from a gambling operator to clients with high-risk gambling practices. This study aimed to study subsequent limit setting, self-exclusions and gambling post-intervention, compared to controls.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>The study assessed a motivational, personalized telephone intervention by the state-owned Swedish gambling operator AB Svenska Spel within its subsection of sports, poker, online casino and bingo gambling. Clients successfully reached with the telephone intervention (<italic>n</italic> = 1,420) were compared to clients who could not be reached (<italic>n</italic> = 1,504). Gambling practices during 8 weeks pre-intervention were assessed, and outcome measures limit setting, self-exclusion, and gambling 4 weeks post-intervention.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>The telephone intervention was associated with increased limit settings (10 vs. 5 percent, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), self-exclusions (11 vs. 8 percent, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01), lowered theoretical losses (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), but not significantly associated with gambling abstinence (18 vs. 15 percent, <italic>p</italic> = 0.07). In unadjusted analyses of sub-groups, significant associations of the intervention with full gambling abstinence were seen in people who gamble on online casino/bingo (19 vs. 14 percent, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01), but not in sports bettors. In logistic regression, the intervention was not associated with full week 1–4 abstinence.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>A personalized motivational telephone intervention to people displaying high-risk gambling, delivered by a gambling operator, is promising, and effects were seen on the uptake of responsible gambling tools post-intervention. Effects may be more pronounced in users of chance-based, online games, than in sports bettors.</p></sec>