Gaming Research Center

1 History 2 Goals 3 Hearings 4 Symposiums 5 Need for further research 6 Presentations 7 Publication Series 8 References

History

The Gambling Research Center was founded at the Universität Hohenheim in 2004 with Prof. Dr. Tilman Becker acting as its head. Scientists whose main interests concern games of chance may join the scientific management board of the research center. At present, more than 20 professors from various disciplines and universities are represented. They bring their expertise from various fields of knowledge, such as legal and consumer politics, mathematics and statistics, finance, law, economic theory, communication and information science, household and gender economics, marketing, gaming theory, statistic and economics as well as psychology and medicine.

Goals

The Gambling Research Center aims at scientifically examining all topics relating to gaming and gambling from an interdisciplinary, in particular economic, mathematic, social, medical, psychological, and legal point of view.
Games of chance have long since been used a model for scientific knowledge. By analysing dice games, discoveries with respect to the probability theory and statistics have been made; examination of the so-called St. Petersburg paradox, a special type of game with infinite expected value, has led to the development of the economic utility theory, and research into parlor games has brought advances to the theory of games.
Practice has shown that the individual disciplines come to different results as long as they do not relate their research findings. To give an example, legislation presumes a high risk in the case of lotteries and a comparatively low risk in the case of slot machines, whereas data on pathological gambling obtained in therapeutic treatment centers state the exact opposite. The interdisciplinary team of the Gambling Research Center wishes to discuss all relevant perspectives and thus contribute to a harmonisation of viewpoints.

Hearings

The Gambling Research Center has participated in several hearings; amongst them a hearing of government core executive agencies referring to the “Future of the gaming sector in Germany”, held at the State Chancellery Rhineland-Palatinate, April / May 2010, and of the financial committee of the Baden-Wuerttemberg state parliament, referring to “Gaming and gambling”, in October 2010.^[1]

Symposiums

Every year representatives from academia and business gather to discuss current trends in and aspects of the topic gambling and gaming. The legal and regulatory aspects play just as large a role as addiction prevention and the economic impacts of gambling. About 200 representatives from all fields, including psychology and medicine, participate in the one to two day conference at the Universität Hohenheim.^[2]

Need for further research

The interdisciplinary Gambling Research Center sees the need for further research in the following areas (state June 2011):

• analysis of sports betting market
• analysis of poker market
• analysis of the consumption of gaming and gambling
• reasons for participating in gaming and gambling both for pathological and non-pathological gamblers
• typology^{[disambiguation needed]} of pathological gamblers
• gaming behavior of children and adolescents
• gambling and crime / debts
• relevance of new forms of gaming and gambling and their risk potential
• internet-based therapies for pathological gamblers
• comparison of behavioural therapies and addiction treatments
• relation between gambling addiction and other behavioral addictions
• cost-benefit analysis of gaming and gambling
• political-economic analysis of European regulatory models
• channeling the desire to play
• evaluation of regulatory measures

Presentations

• "Recent Developments in German Gambling Law", Vortrag auf der Tagung „Gambling Regulation in Europe“ der Universitäten Leuven und Tilburg, Leuven, 10. November 2009
• "The Future of Lotteries: Prediction Markets", Vortrag auf der 7th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues der European Association for the Study of Gambling, Nova Gorica, Slowenien, 2. July 2008

Publication Series

• Glücksspiel im Internet: Beiträge zum Symposium 2009 der Forschungsstelle Glücksspiel. Schriftenreihe zur Glücksspielforschung Band 6; Becker T. (Hrsg.); Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011
• Werbung für Produkte mit einem Suchtgefährdungspotential: Tabak-, Alkohol- und Glücksspielwerbung aus rechtlicher, ökonomischer und psychologischer Sicht. Schriftenreihe zur Glücksspielforschung Band 5; Becker T., Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010
• Glücksspielsucht in Deutschland – Prävalenz bei verschiedenen Glücksspielformen. Schriftenreihe zur Glücksspielforschung Band 4; Becker, T. (Hrsg.); Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009
• Der Staatsvertrag zum Glücksspielwesen und dessen Umsetzung: Beiträge zum Symposium 2007 und 2008 der Forschungsstelle Glücksspiel. Schriftenreihe zur Glücksspielforschung Band 3; Becker, T. (Hrsg.); Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009
• Glücksspiel im Umbruch: Beiträge zum Symposium 2006 der Forschungsstelle Glücksspiel. Schriftenreihe zur Glücksspielforschung Band 2; Becker, T., Baumann, C. (Hrsg.); Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007
• Gesellschafts- und Glücksspiel: Staatliche Regulierung und Suchtprävention. Schriftenreihe zur Glücksspielforschung Band 1; Becker, T., Baumann, C. (Hrsg.); Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006