Clinical trial NCT04714008: Covid-19 and ONline GAmbling
Official title: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Online Gambling in France and Sweden
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Gambling
Covid19
Keywords: Gambling
Internet
Gambling tracking data
France
Sweden
Covid 19
Lead sponsor: Nantes University Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-01-19
Enrollment: 120000
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: ECOLOGIC_OR_COMMUNITY
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Gamblers registered on the authorized gambling websites of France and Sweden, whatever the type of gambling activity.

Brief summary: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a major threat to global health. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, all eyes have been focused on the significant somatic complications of COVID-19, but the impact on behaviors, particularly those that can lead to addictive disorders, remains little studied. A set of factors could explain a change in gambling activities, both in number of gamblers and in intensity of practices, due to the pandemic. On the one hand, the reduction or even the interruption of sporting and horse racing competitions may induce a decrease in these activities (both online and offline). Moreover, the closure of certain gambling venues and travel restrictions may also lead to a decrease of offline gambling activities in general. On the other hand, gamblers who can no longer perform their usual gambling activity could refer to available online gambling activities (poker, lotteries, casinos, etc.). Moreover, the threat of a financial crisis, the negative impact on psychological well-being (due to social isolation, stress of being infected, etc.), and increased time spent freely online, could also very largely motivate an initiation or an exacerbation of the gambling activity, especially online and in people in a situation of vulnerability. Both in France and Sweden, the closing of sports and horse race events has led to a sharp decrease in sports and horse-race betting. In both countries, the increase in other gambling types, including illegal gambling, and their potential for gambling problems is a source of concerns for public health authorities. As a consequence, more research is promptly needed in this area.

The use of gambling tracking data, widely acclaimed in recent years in research on online gambling given its ecological nature, could allow observing longitudinally changes in online gambling practices (both the raw gambling activity and risky behaviors) and in the use of responsible gambling (RG) tools due to the pandemic. Moreover, the combination of French and Swedish data will allow comparing two countries with very distinct politics regarding the pandemics, i.e. a lockdown in France in March - May 2020 and then in November - December 2020 compared to no lockdown in Sweden. Finally, gambling in women is on the rise and women display specific gambling behaviors, especially in early stages of the online gambling practice. The project will include the investigation of gender specificities both in the investigation of the impacts of the pandemic and in the comparison of French and Sweden gambling behaviors. Age, type of gambling activity and country (France / Sweden) will also be taken into account.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria :

* Gamblers registered on the authorized gambling websites of France and Sweden, whatever the type of gambling activity. Those gamblers will be drawn at random from the entire active accounts datasets from the participating operators/regulatory authorities.

Exclusion Criteria :

* No exclusion criteria will be applied

Primary outcomes:
measure: Trajectories of gambling behaviors across time before and during the pandemics
timeFrame: 2019-2020
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Typologies of gamblers based on their gambling activity and their use of RG tools outside the pandemics
timeFrame: 2019
measure: Gambling activity of early registered gamblers, during and outside the pandemics
timeFrame: 6 months after registration
measure: Typologies of gamblers based on their gambling activity and their use of RG tools according to the type of gambling activity, gender, age groups and country
timeFrame: 2019-2020
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Nantes
country: France
facility: Nantes University Hospital
Study officials:
References: