Assessment Tool to Measure and Evaluate the Risk Potential of Gambling Products, ASTERIG: A Global Validation

Abstract

Although most individuals who gamble do so without any adverse consequences, some individuals develop a recurrent, maladaptive pattern of gambling behavior, often called pathological gambling or gambling disorder, that is associated with financial losses, disruption of family and interpersonal relationships, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Identifying whether different types of gambling modalities vary in their ability to lead to maladaptive patterns of gambling behavior is essential to develop public policies that seek to balance access to gambling opportunities with minimizing risk for the potential adverse consequences of gambling behavior. Until recently, assessing the risk potential of different types of gambling products was nearly impossible. ASTERIG, initially developed in Germany in 2006–2010, is an assessment tool to measure and to evaluate the risk potential of any gambling product based on scores on 10 dimensions. In doing so, it also allows a comparison to be drawn between the addictive potential of different gambling products. Furthermore, the tool highlights where the specific risk potential of each specific gambling product lies. This makes it a valuable tool at the legislative, judicial, and administrative levels, as it allows the risk potential of individual gambling products to be identified and compared globally across 10 different dimensions of risk potential. We note that specific gambling products should always be evaluated rather than evaluating product groups (e.g., lotteries, slot machines) or providers, as there may be variations among those product groups that impact their risk potential. For example, slot machines may vary on the Carlos Blanco is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, NY. Alex Blaszczynski is a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. Reiner Clement is a professor of economics at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University in Sankt Augustin, Germany. Jeffrey Derevensky is a professor in School/Applied Child Psychology and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Anna E. Goudriaan is a researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. David C. Hodgins is a professor in the Program in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, in Calgary, Canada. Ruth J. van Holst is a researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, at Radboud University Nijmegen in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Angela Ibanez is an associate professor of psychiatry and a head of section in the Department of Psychiatry at Ramon y Cajal Hospital, Alcala University, in Madrid, Spain. Silvia S. Martins is an associate professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, in New York, NY. Chantal Moersen is a researcher at Charite in Berlin, Germany. Sabrina Molinaro is head of Epidemiology and Health Services Department, Institute of Clinical Physiology– National Research Council in Pisa, Italy. Adrian Parke is a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, at the University of Lincoln in Lincoln, UK. Franz W. Peren is a professor of business administration at Bonn-RheinSieg University in Sankt Augustin, Germany, and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the International Research Institute for Gambling and Gaming in Bonn, Germany. Nancy M. Petry is a professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, CT. Heather Wardle is a research director within the Health and Wellbeing Group at NatCen Social Research in London, UK. Cf. F. W. Peren, Assessment Tool to Measure and Evaluate the Risk Potential of Gambling Products: ASTERIG, 5(2) J. Gambling Bus. & Econ. 54–66 (2011) [hereinafter Peren 2011]. ASTERIG was originally published in the Journal of Gambling Business and Economics; see id. GAMING LAW REVIEW AND ECONOMICS Volume 17, Number 9, 2013 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/glre.2013.1797