self-exclusion

A recently published article in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction & Research Theory provided a new model for evaluating responsible gambling research. To ensure its dissemination beyond academia, the NCRG produced a white paper summarizing the study’s findings. The white paper, Responsible Gambling: A Review of the Research, is available for download at www.ncrg.org (click on Resources and White Papers).

Self-exclusion programs are a player-initiated, voluntary form of exclusion that provides gamblers with the opportunity to ban themselves from gambling venues as a tool to reduce or stop excessive gambling. New Jersey just announced that its self-exclusion program will be expanded to include gamblers who wager on the Internet. But what is known about the safety and effectiveness of self-exclusion? And, will it work for online gamblers?

Click below for the NCRG Blog Team interview with Sarah Nelson, Ph.D., an associate director for research at the Division on Addictions at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Nelson discusses internet gambling and self-exclusion.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) recently released the fifth volume of Increasing the Odds: A Series Dedicated to Understanding Gambling Disorders, which is titled “Evaluating Self-Exclusion as an Intervention for Disordered Gambling.”  The NCRG’s monograph series provides easy-to-understand summaries of seminal peer-reviewed research on gambling disorders, as well as implications for future research and prevention efforts.

As part of its 2010 Webinar Series, the National Center for Responsible Gaming will hold its next live, free webinar titled “Regulating Interventions for Disordered Gambling: What New Research Says about the Safety, Effectiveness and Logistics of Self-Exclusion Programs,” this Monday, Aug. 16, 2010, from 2 – 3 p.m. (EDT). The NCRG Webinar Series provides convenient educational opportunities at your desktop for learning about critical issues related to gambling disorders and responsible gaming. Participants in the one-hour program will earn one continuing education unit approved by NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, the California Foundation for Advancement of Addiction Professionals (CFAAP) and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Advance registration for this free program is required. For online registration and more information, visit the webinar website.

As part of its 2010 Webinar Series, the National Center for Responsible Gaming will hold its next live, free webinar titled “Regulating Interventions for Disordered Gambling: What New Research Says about the Safety, Effectiveness and Logistics of Self-Exclusion Programs,” this Monday, Aug. 16, 2010, from 2 – 3 p.m. (EDT). The NCRG Webinar Series provides convenient educational opportunities at your desktop for learning about critical issues related to gambling disorders and responsible gaming. Participants in the one-hour program will earn one continuing education unit approved by NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, the California Foundation for Advancement of Addiction Professionals (CFAAP) and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Advance registration for this free program is required. For online registration and more information, visit the webinar website.

Self-exclusion is one of the most widely used responsible gaming strategies. These programs allow individuals to literally “exclude” themselves from a gaming venue as a way of dealing with problematic gambling behavior. Scientific research on the safety and effectiveness of self-exclusion is just now catching up to the establishment of such programs, which began more than a decade ago.