The University of Mons (UMons) and the National Lottery signed a collaboration agreement on Tuesday in Mons as part of a new “Safe and Responsible Gaming” research project.
The project, financed over four years to the tune of almost half a million euros, is dedicated to studying gambling addiction.
The new academic position, a first in Belgium, will aim to conduct research that will seek to understand the extent to which gambling can lead to a form of addiction. Another objective of the research will be to analyse the profile of gamblers and the mechanisms that lead them to adopt risky behaviours.
“Gambling addiction has been studied extensively for the past twenty years, it is a concept that has been identified as a pathology." explained professor Mandy Rossignol (UMons).
"The objective of the new project will be to introduce three disciplines: cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence and game theory. The aim will be to model risky behaviour in gamblers as well as games that generate more risk in those same gamblers,” she added.
UMons chancellor Philippe Dubois and National Lottery CE0 Jannie Haek present a project on gambling addiction, Tuesday 02 May 2023 in Mons. Credit: Belga / Eric Cornu
Two doctoral theses will be funded as part of the collaboration between UMons and the National Lottery.
“A first thesis will use artificial intelligence technology and in this context we will benefit from the anonymous provision of Lottery data, which will allow us to examine the profile of at-risk gamblers; the second thesis will involve game theory and cognitive psychology to understand the extent to which the individual characteristics of gamblers can influence their rationality during the conduct of gambling behaviour and thereby contribute to the development of addiction,” the university stated.
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The CEO of the National Lottery, Jannie Haek, stressed that in order to conduct an effective policy to protect people from gambling addiction, public authorities must be able to rely on objective scientific data. “There is a lack of data in the gambling sector, and we have therefore decided to set up an independent academic study. The aim of the chair is to bring calm to this important debate for society. We would also like the debate to be held in an objective manner.”
The CEO of the National Lottery also said he was reaching out to his “colleagues in the private sector to give the same transparency” as the Lottery in terms of figures relating to, among other things, betting and gambling habits of players.
