The promoters of an expansion of the legal offer of online gambling in France, and in particular the opening of legal online casinos, still have a very active lobby. Today, some parliamentarians are at the initiative to change the situation and allow the actors of the sector to benefit from a considerable manna: an aberration for all researchers and professionals working on the prevention of problematic gambling practices. The fact that public health issues are completely ignored leads us to take a stand. We will not even mention here the question of the murky links of the European online casino industry with organized crime, as just documented in a recent Arte report, but will remain on the argument of public health.
These online casino games (digital slots) combine all the risk factors of gambling addiction: high frequency of bets, speed of the result, large occurrence of small winnings and high rate of return to the player (share of bets returned in the form of winnings to players). They are addictive faster than other types of gambling, in connection with their solitary, continuous and rapid risk-taking, every three to four seconds, with no delay between one game and the next.
Online casino games particularly attract the most vulnerable players, who produce 65% of turnover.
The industry has invested heavily in their technological design: developers have sought to increase the "time spent on the device", architects have created mazes and an environment in which players can get lost until their stamina... or their money runs out. This digitized game universe, with all its refinements, induces in the player cognitive distortions, that is to say irrational thoughts to which he clings irremediably and which push him to continue to play against all logic. The jackpot is in the line of fire but it is very rarely reached; Small winnings and apparent jackpots, narrowly missed, give a feeling of victory. Illusory victory because, in the end, the machine wins. Slot machine gambling is a real drug. Compulsive gamblers are petrified, unable to leave the machines, totally caught up in the rhythm of the game that attenuates their awareness of space, time and the very value of money. They only become aware of the losses after the fact, once the excitement of the game has subsided, and then they often collapse, invaded by suicidal thoughts. Recall that about 20% of excessive gamblers who begin care have already committed a suicide attempt.
The survey carried out in France as part of an international research on online gambling (eGames project) shows that these games particularly attract the most vulnerable players: for example, 45% of players of online casino games are classified as excessive players; They produce 65% of turnover, 80% if we add players with "risky" practices. A comparative study with Germany and Quebec gives equivalent proportions for these other two countries. In other words, 80% of the turnover of online casino games comes directly from the wallet of people in difficulty with their practice. Without them, the business model of these games is simply not viable.
This new offer of games would be accompanied by measures to secure it. In this regard, we can have the greatest doubts about games that many players in the field of addiction internationally describe as "crack / cocaine gambling".
The lobbyists who are pushing for the legalization of online casino gambling in France put forward arguments of two kinds:
· Channeling an illegal offer to a legal offer would be more protective for players;
· The development of a new sector of activity will generate jobs and taxes for the State.
The channeling of supply would be justified by an exponentially growing demand: however, the 2019 national survey estimated that the distribution of these games concerned between 200 and 300,000 people, far from the "exponential growth" evoked on the basis of questionable extrapolations of data from samples of web panel volunteers.
This new offer of games would be accompanied by measures to secure it. In this regard, we can have the greatest doubts about games that many players in the field of addiction internationally describe as "crack/cocaine gambling", because of the very high prevalence of problems generated by their practice. Securing them to make them less dangerous would require a strict ban on advertising, limiting bets and deposits... In short, a complete deconstruction of their addictive mechanism. However, the current regulatory framework for online gambling is an incentive and not binding for most protective measures, apart from the protection of minors. Thus, highly addictive forms of regulated gambling, such as online sports betting, see their advertisements widely authorized, without real binding measures for operators, and flood in all possible forms public space, screens, sports fields.
Can we be ethically satisfied with promoting an economic activity, and the corresponding tax windfall for the benefit of the State, the bulk of whose turnover would be generated by compulsive gamblers?
It is more than likely that once this legalisation is active, lobbyists will immediately go back to the niche to complain to the authorities about overly restrictive operating conditions that do not allow them to compete with illegal operators, and about differential treatment compared to other forms of online gambling.
The hypothesis of creating a new sector of activity is also a delusion. The spending capacity of the French in gambling is growing steadily despite periods of crisis, but it has its limits. It is more plausible that the prosperity of this new gaming sector will be to the detriment of others and thus cause an imbalance. It is not a question of defending one sector more than another, but of avoiding promoting potentially the most problematic activities in a logic of regulation and risk reduction. We cannot be ethically satisfied with promoting an economic activity, and the corresponding tax windfall for the benefit of the State, the bulk of whose turnover would be generated by compulsive gamblers and all the human distress related to their activity?
Since 2010 and the opening of a legal offer of online games, problematic gambling practices have progressed dramatically, almost multiplied by 3 in 10 years, and more massively among young adults. In 2019, the state reaffirmed in law the need to prevent excessive gambling and established a National Gambling Authority that works to implement this goal. The legalization of an online casino gambling offer may jeopardize all efforts undertaken in this direction. Everywhere, online casino games are proving to be very harmful and impossible to regulate. All the countries that have allowed themselves to be tempted are struggling to contain the magnitude of the problem they have generated. We hope that in France the defence of public health, or more simply, common sense, will prevail in this matter.
The signatories:
Jean-Michel Costes, socio-epidemiologist, Chair in Game Research, Concordia University, Montreal.
Pr Marie Grall-Bronnec, psychiatrist addictologist, Department of Addictology (CHU de Nantes) & UMR1246 (Nantes University).
Pr Morgane Guillou, addiction department CHU Brest, president of the National Network for Care and Prevention of Pathological Gambling.
Dr Amandine Luquiens, addiction psychiatrist, CHU Nîmes, CESP-Inserm, vice-president of the RNPSJP.
Jean-Pierre Couteron, addictologist psychologist, Oppelia Association, Clémence Isaure Association (Toulouse).