Assisting problem gamblers in the gaming venue: An assessment of practices and procedures followed by frontline hospitality staff

This study examined how frontline hospitality staff respond to patrons with gambling problems in gaming venues. Personal interviews with 48 staff in Queensland Australia yielded rich in-depth data. While overall, staff were confident they could identify signs of problem gambling and procedures to follow if patrons ask for assistance with a gambling problem, uncertainty and unresolved challenges persist over how to respond to problem gamblers who do not request assistance. While better training, systems and processes may improve staff interventions, continued reliance on human judgement and discretion are likely to see the vast majority of problem gamblers in venues ignored.

Research highlights▶ Hospitality staff generally confident in responding to problem gamblers who approach them for assistance. ▶ But staff extremely reticent to intervene with problem gamblers who do not ask for assistance. ▶ Technological solutions based on player data needed to improve assistance for problem gamblers in the the venue.