Digital Symposium Program

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2023

CE’s
Time (ET)
Track
Session Details
0.25
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM
 WELCOME
GEN
Introduction & Welcome
1.0
12:15 PM – 1:15 PM
SESSION 1
PX
Gambling Through a Public Health Lens: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Jamie Wheaton, PhD; Ben Ford

0.5
1:15 PM – 1:45 PM
SESSION 2
RG
Good Intentions, Poor Results: Responsible Gambling Strategies among Individuals who Self-Exclude

Amanda McCormick, PhD

N/A
1:45 PM – 2:00 PM
BREAK
ALL
Break
0.5
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM
SESSION 3
RG
Language and Responsible Gambling

Gillian Russell

0.5
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM
SESSION 4
RX
Exploring the Links Between Gambling and Problem Debt

Sharon Collard

0.5
3:30 PM – 4:00 PM
SESSION 5
RG
Payment Data: Its Potential and Applications for Responsible Gambling 

Kasra Ghaharian, PhD; Alan Feldman

0.25
4:00 PM – 4:15 PM
CLOSING
GEN
Day One Closing 

THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2023

CE’s
Time (ET)
Track
Session Details
0.25
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM 
WELCOME
GEN
Day Two Introduction & Welcome 
1.0
12:15 PM – 1:15 PM
SESSION 6
TX
Gambling Disorder in England: The Impact of the 2023 Gambling Review

Henrietta Bowden-Jones, PhD

0.5
1:15 PM – 1:45 PM
SESSION 7
RX
Peer Support Groups for Women Experiencing Gambling Harms

Liz Riley, PhD

N/A
1:45 PM – 2:00 PM
BREAK
ALL
Break
0.5
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM
SESSION 8
TX
Treating Gambling as a Co-Occurring Disorder

Kenneth Litwak, ICGC-II, IGDC

0.5
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM
SESSION 9
TX
Emotion Regulation and Couple Adjustment in Treatment Outcomes

Bonnie Lee, PhD

1.0
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
SESSION 10
PX
Lessons Learned to Move Gambling Policy Into the National Spotlight

Jamey Lister, PhD; Regina LaBelle, JD; Lia Nower, PhD, JD, ICGC-II, BACC

0.25
4:00 PM – 4:15 PM
CLOSING
GEN
Closing 

Digital Symposium Session Abstracts

Emotion Regulation and Couple Adjustment in Treatment Outcomes

Bonnie Lee, PhD

Emotion dysregulation is a key factor in problem gambling development. To date, ways to enhance emotion regulation have been largely at the individual level to promote emotion appraisal and awareness. Congruence Couple Therapy (CCT), a new integrative treatment model, showed in a randomized trial to have a relative advantage over individual treatment for multiple outcomes in reducing addictive and mental health symptoms and life stress and improving emotion regulation associated with couple adjustment. This session presents the framework of CCT for improving emotion regulation and couple adjustment and makes treatment recommendations.

Learning Objectives:

  • Connect emotion regulation and couple adjustment.
  • Identify the benefits of an integrative couple-based treatment model.
Exploring the Links Between Gambling and Problem Debt

Sharon Collard

A recent UK government review concluded, “Gambling-related debt is an important driver of harm and should be a focus for future policy.” Our mixed-methods research provides new evidence about the links between gambling and problem debt, how people experience gambling-related debt; and how debt advice can help people address gambling-related debt. It finds that (1) the intersection between harmful gambling and access to consumer debt can lead to extremely complex situations; (2) if harmful gambling is not addressed, then any debt resolution is likely to be temporary; and (3) affected others are the unseen casualties of gambling-related debt.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify the links between gambling and problem debt.
  • Understand the role of debt counseling/advice in people’s pathways to recovery.
Gambling Disorder in England: The Impact of the 2023 Gambling Review

Henrietta Bowden-Jones, PhD

This presentation will examine the changes brought by the 2023 Gambling Review after the three-year consultation period. The content of the Review will be discussed in the context of gambling harms, prevention, research priorities, and treatment.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the latest approaches to reducing gambling harm in England.
  • Explain the prevalence, demographics and types of gambling and interventions as presented.
Gambling Through a Public Health Lens: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Jamie Wheaton, PhD; Ben Ford

A public health approach towards gambling requires a multi-faceted approach to eliminate harm. This talk presents the results of a recent rapid evidence assessment (REA) to explore how a public health lens can be applied to gambling. The REA synthesizes research from the gambling, tobacco, alcohol and food sectors to evaluate how a holistic public health approach could reduce gambling harms. This session will present a resultant umbrella framework, highlighting how intervention strategies relating to prevention, legislation, and targeted support – informed by education, screening and environment themes – could reduce gambling-related harm for populations, communities, families, and individuals alike.

Learning Objectives:

  • Synthesize approaches from different sectors towards a single public health framework.
  • Evaluate how a public health approach comprises different intervention strategies depending on the population group.
Good Intentions, Poor Results: Responsible Gambling Strategies among Individuals who Self-Exclude

Amanda McCormick, PhD

Individual responsible gambling (RG) tools, such as limit setting and tracking wins/losses, are used to minimize the potential negative consequences of gambling. However, gamblers may need to be made aware of or use such tools. This session will discuss awareness and use of RG strategies among a sample of self-excluded gamblers in British Columbia. While many attempted to use RG strategies, they often struggled to follow through with them. These findings have implications for RG prevention and education. They suggest a need for greater awareness among gamblers about the importance of committing to RG strategies and support to implement them successfully.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify the responsible gambling strategies people experiencing harms from gambling consider using.
  • Understand the challenges of following responsible gambling strategies among people experiencing harms from gambling.
Language and Responsible Gambling

Gillian Russell

Language is the basis for much of our communication with others. However, the use of language can, at times, be misleading or lead to errors in our understanding. This session will draw together converging evidence from studies on the relationship of implicit memory associations with gambling and problem gambling, qualitative research assessing gambling labeling, and lessons learned by conducting Dual Frame Random Digit Dial research. The presenters will discuss the unique findings from each study and how these findings may be applied to responsible gambling.

Learning Objectives:

  • Offer guidance to policymakers on how language may be considered in responsible gambling legislation.
  • Understand how language differences may influence gambling behaviors and decision-making.
Lessons Learned to Move Gambling Policy Into the National Spotlight

Jamey Lister, PhD; Regina LaBelle, JD; Lia Nower, PhD, JD, ICGC-II, BACC

Gambling is a common activity in the United States, and like substance use, if it develops into a disorder, it can lead to financial, psychological, and social harms. However, unlike substance use disorders, federal policies and programs regulating harms, expanding the trained workforce, and supporting research, are lacking for gambling. Similarly, US approaches lag behind international approaches. These issues, coupled with increasing opportunities to gamble in US states, demand the need to identify and implement gambling-specific approaches. This session will describe lessons learned from the substance use field and their application to advocacy efforts to move gambling into the national spotlight.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the lessons from substance use and international approaches to guide gambling advocacy efforts.
  • Engage in a listening session, merging panelist and attendee insights to promote advocacy.
Payment Data: Its Potential and Applications for Responsible Gambling 

Kasra Ghaharian, PhD; Alan Feldman

Machine learning-based RG products have been developed to help operators stay abreast of regulatory demands and proactively identify at-risk customers. These have largely focused on customers’ betting-related data, such as the amount and pattern of betting. Far less attention has been paid to payment-related data such as the deposit and withdrawal of funds, which is becoming increasingly available due to gambling payments modernization. This presentation will review the gambling payments landscape, explain how payment data could support harm minimization, and present results from our machine learning-based analyses conducted with payment transaction records.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the current state of machine learning applications for responsible gambling.
  • Understand the potential of payment data to support responsible gambling.
Peer Support Groups for Women Experiencing Gambling Harms

Liz Riley, PhD

Peer support has grown rapidly over recent decades, but little research has been done within the field of gambling harms. Given the widely acknowledged reluctance of women to seek support for gambling harms, women-only groups are seen as a way to change this. This qualitative research, funded by Microgaming, explores the gambling peer support groups currently offered to women in the UK. It explores the strengths and weaknesses of women who attend the groups and the organizations that provide them. The presentation will draw out valuable lessons to support US providers.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand how peer support groups can help women experiencing gambling harms.
  • Understand how to offer effective peer support.
Treating Gambling as a Co-Occurring Disorder

Kenneth Litwak, ICGC-II, IGDC

Co-occurring is the rule, not the exception, with problem and disordered gambling. This workshop will give an overview of the presenter’s lived experience working with clients who have gambling problems and substance use disorders, including opioids, alcohol, benzodiazepines, and cocaine. Treatment for men and women with gambling problems and trauma will also be discussed. Effective strategies will be highlighted, as well as less successful techniques.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify effective strategies for treating people with co-occurring gambling and substance problems.
  • Identify effective strategies for treating people with co-occurring gambling and trauma.