Between-session chasing of losses and wins in an online eCasino

Continued gambling despite negative consequences, commonly known as ‘chasing’, is a defining feature of disordered gambling. Yet chasing is also a complex and multi-faceted behavioural phenotype; for example, gamblers may chase winning outcomes as well as losses. This study characterized between-session chasing behavior in a large naturalistic dataset of online gambling data, comprising 1,909,681 eCasino sessions played by 15,544 individuals on PlayNow.com, the provincial online gambling platform in British Columbia, Canada. Analyses distinguished sessions on slot machines (as the reference category), blackjack, roulette, video poker, probability games, or mixed sessions. Overall, gamblers returned more slowly after losing sessions, and more quickly after winning sessions, across most product categories. For every standard deviation increase in the prior session net loss, slot machine gamblers took 8.59% longer to return to the website (b = 0.08, p .001). For every standard deviation increase in the prior session net win, slot machine gamblers returned 6.68% faster (b = -0.07, p .001). Loss chasing intensities in blackjack, probability, video poker, and mixed sessions did not differ significantly from slot machine sessions, but roulette was associated with a shorter interval to return (b = -0.13, p .001). Similarly, win chasing intensities across blackjack, probability games, and video poker did not differ significantly from slot machine sessions, but roulette (b = -0.08, p .001) and mixed (b = -0.02, p = 0.009) sessions were associated with shorter intervals to return. Average behavioural patterns provide limited evidence for loss chasing in the interval between sessions, but gamblers return faster after larger wins. Although slot machines are commonly considered as high-risk gambling products, in our analyses online roulette was associated with the greatest chasing intensities.