ASYNCHRONOUS PRESENTATIONS

Defined today as the act of importing certain ludic principles coming from gambling as part of a device or a gambling practice without money, the concept of "gamblification" could more broadly apply to the set of socio-technical devices (such as online gambling) or industrial processes (such as advertising) that aim to make the practice of gambling possible in places where it is not yet accessible. We attempt to analyze the effects of this process by expanding the field of gambling through a presentation centered on how it directly affects more or less the lives of its participants, either by encouraging them to play, or by preventing them from stopping. By first relying on statistical data produced by France and Belgium, we will observe the concomitant effects that the development of the gambling offer (most notably online) has on their increase in spending and on the massification/trivialization of their practice, which then becomes an “ordinary passion” for a large part of the population but can also take the form of an “obsessive passion” amongst some of the most vulnerable players. For those who practice gambling as an ordinary passion, we will focus in particular on the case of amateur poker players whom we met as part of a field survey carried out in France between 2006 and 2011. By analyzing the life stories of these players, we will see how they can, at the same time, use a limited space in their lives to their practice of the game – that of a hobby like any other – but also can immerse themelves in it to the point of making it a sort of metaphor for their daily life. For those who experience gambling as an obsessive passion, we will turn to the members of a group of Anonymous Gamblers that we followed during another field survey conducted between 2018 and 2019 in Belgium. Through the study of their stories and their exchanges within the group, we discovered that they perceive this extension of the field of gambling as a permanent temptation resulting in an invasion of their lives where they feel entirely helpless.

The highest share of revenue derived from problem gamblers in Québec comes from slot machines (82.4%) and video lottery terminals (76.3%). Slot machines are recognized as a particularly risky form of gambling. However, there is a form of slot machine consumption that seems to have largely escaped the notice of regulators and scholars: the streaming of slot machine play on YouTube. In this presentation, we will present the results of our qualitative study of 21 slot machine videos. Our study examines how these videos elude YouTube’s regulation of user-generated content (UGC) that features gambling. YouTube’s parent company Google strictly regulates gambling advertisement on its platforms, but these rules are not applied to UGC featuring gambling. There are entire channels dedicated to gamblers filming themselves playing slot machines inside of casinos while narrating their gameplay. These videos are often monetized and are not age restricted. Using thematic analysis, we examined the motivations to create and watch slot machine videos. We explored the instructional component of these videos and whether they mislead viewers about the odds of winning on slot machines. We also considered slot machine videos as sources of entertainment in the context of YouTube’s media ecology by comparing them to another genre of narrated gameplay: video game walkthroughs. Both types of video transform play, an activity that is usually defined as unproductive, into a revenue-generating occupation. Ultimately, this project considers the potential for slot machine videos to promote gambling activities to their viewers and suggests that the production and consumption of gambling related UGC should be included in policies on responsible gambling.

The responsible gambling approach is the subject of an important debate in the scientific community due to its tendency to individualize responsibility by focusing specifically on the responsibility of the gamer for the problems associated with gambling. Although the gamer – as well as thier responsibility – is at the center of the responsible gaming discourse, their voice and perspectives remain absent. This study aims to remedy this gap in knowledge by documenting the social representations of the concept of responsibility maintained by the gamers themselves. How does the gamer perceive the concept of responsibility? Do gamers have an understanding of responsibility centered on the individual or are they capable of distinguishing their own responsibility from that of other actors?

The results that will be presented come from material collected during 30 qualitative interviews carried out with young adult gamers aged between 18 and 30 years of age. More precisely, the findings are from a spontaneous evocation exercise carried out during these interviews. They reveal that the social representations of responsibility held by gamers fall into five categories: self-control, knowledge of the rules and informed decision-making, pleasure, avoiding addiction and prevention of gambling-related harm. All of these categories can be considered rooted in an individual accountability perspective. Moreover, these results are discussed in light of the process of constructing social representations of responsibility in the responsible gaming approach as well as in the neoliberal context.

The purpose of the presentation is to analyze the Polish gambling regulations (Act on Gambling of 2009) in relation to the specificity of lootboxes. In most European countries, as in Poland, lootboxes are not considered a type of gambling, therefore access to them is not regulated in any way, which means that you can use them without age restrictions. Legal definitions of gambling vary in detail from country to country, but also include some fixed elements such as the requirement that a player acquires the loot box with money or something of monetary value. Belgium and the Netherlands, however, interpret the definition of gambling differently, assuming that the reward that can be obtained from a gambling activity does not necessarily have to be of monetary value which allows lootboxes to be considered gambling games. Summarizing the issues related to Polish legal regulations relating to loot boxes, it can be stated that the Act on gambling contains provisions that largely define the use of this form of games. Namely: 1) organizing a game on the Internet; 2) the presence of awards (in the case of loot boxes, an award in kind of a virtual nature); 3) the presence of chance determining the outcome; 4) necessity to purchase participation in the game (loot box as a proof of participation in a game of chance); 5) purchase of product or services that enable free participation in a game of chance (in this case, opening a loot box); 6) award in kind in the form of the possibility of extending the game, without having to pay for it; 7) the absence of a cash prize or award, but the presence of randomness and the organization of the game in accordance with the rules of the slot machine game.

Context: Electronic sports (ES), commonly called eSports, consists of the competitive practice of video games (VG), coordinated by different leagues or tournaments. This emerging practice has experienced a rapid expansion in recent years to become a popular activity for young people. Since 2018, in order to get their students to continue with their studies, high schools have been offering ES after-school or sports-study programs. While VG practice have been a matter for concern, little information is available about the characteristics of youths who participate in ES within a school program.

Objective: This presentation aims to describe the profile of young eAthletes in schools in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics, their hobbies, their VG practices and the possible consequences.

Methods: Seventy eAthlete students from secondary four and five who were enrolled in an after-school ES program were recruited to complete questionnaires about their hobbies, Internet use, and VG habits.

Results: The sample was composed almost entirely of boys (95.7%). Each week, they spent an average of 10 hours on offline entertainment, 19 hours playing VGs, and 15 hours doing other online activities. Thus, the total screen time of the eAthletes is 48.47 hours. In addition, 17.1% of participants had a passion for VGs, while 31.4% of the sample appeared to have a problematic use of VGs. The harms resulting from participant’s VG practices primarily affected their employment and education as well as their sleep. According to the participants, the benefits identified were more social, psychological and with their motivation in general.

Conclusion: This presentation represents the first portrait of youth who play ES in an after- school program in a school setting. Knowledge of their everyday lives and play patterns will help to inform and regulate ES in school settings.

Over the past five years, there has been a drastic increase in the revenue generated by the video game industry, with movements towards next generation gaming platforms, increased interest in esports, and the continued integration of microtransactions in video games. With the inclusion of gaming disorder in the International Classification of Diseases – Eleventh Edition (World Health Organization, 2019) as the second officially recognized behavioral addiction outside of gambling disorder and the increasing degree of digital convergence of gambling and gaming mechanics (Abarbanel, 2018), a substantial amount of research has investigated the addictive features of video games and their impact on individuals playing video games. One particular feature of interest in video games is loot boxes, an in-game consumable item which gives the player a chance to receive a random virtual reward of differing value (ranging from cosmetic features that do not influence gameplay, to equipment that accelerates one’s progress in the game). Loot boxes can generally be acquired through regular gameplay, yet can also be purchased for money through microtransactions. The purpose of this review is to broadly summarize and review the current literature on the sociodemographic and psychological characteristics associated with loot box purchasing within video games. Seven databases were utilized for the search (PsychINFO, Medline, Sociological Abstracts, Scopus, Electronics & Communications Abstracts, Technology Collection, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index) and articles were selected if they include a primary measure of loot box purchasing and statistical investigations of their association with gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, country of origin, and various psychological/psychopathological characteristics. Results indicate that studies investigating loot box purchases were predominantly conducted through online surveys of video gamers. Loot boxes were purchased primarily by males, with individuals ranging from adolescence to adulthood and little research investigating ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Moreover, loot box purchases were associated with symptoms of problem video gaming and problem gambling, psychological distress, gambling-related cognitions, and various motivations (e.g., fun/excitement, gameplay advantages, appearance reasons). These results will be discussed while outlining clear implications related to research, prevention, and intervention.

Skinbetting is one way gaming and gambling is currently converging on the internet. It refers to online game-settings where players (including minors) can use skins as tokens in classic casino games such as Blackjack and Roulette instead of using ordinary money. This is possible because skins from highly profiled games such as CS:GO (Valve 2007) are traded between players at a scale where it becomes highly fungible and thus earns the status as ‘fiat money’ (See Lehdonvirta & Castronova 2014). As many other phenomena on the Internet skinbetting is considered ‘hard-toregulate’. Yet it is quite literally a consequence of the Valve-owned Steam platform API or ‘application programming interface’. This API allows 3rd party developers to access the Steam community market, the key context of player-trading on the platform. In this way, the aspect of Steams API that lets 3rd party developers integrate player-trading in their business model also allows more shady economic practices to unfold, such as 3rd party sites offering non-registered gambling games to minors (Thorhauge and Nielsen, Forthcoming). On one hand this can be interpreted as an unfortunate ‘externality’ of Steam’s ‘secondary market strategy’. That is, by allowing player-trading in the first place and by giving 3rd party developers access to this market, Steam ‘unfortunately’ allows skinbetting on 3rd party sites as well. However, it can also be seen as a deliberate ‘secondary market strategy’ where skinbetting sites basically represents another less legitimate secondary market for skins. Finally, it can be seen as deliberate attempt at leveraging skins as a regular ‘gamer-currency’ with the many possible business prospects this may involve. In my presentation I will discuss the similarities and differences between Skins and Crypto-currencies and discuss whether skinbetting actually plays a role in the transformation of skins into a virtual currency.