Adoption, adaptation or exposure? Novel digital gambling activities and links with gambling problems

Purpose of Review: Gambling problems are much more common amongst people who use novel gambling products, including skin gambling, esports betting and fantasy sports betting. The exposure and adaptation effects suggest that, like a novel pathogen, new products produce gambling problems until adaptation can counteract vulnerabilities. The purpose of this review is to posit, based on recent data, that an adoption effect provides a more parsimonious account for why novel gambling products are associated with problems. Recent Findings: People who are more vulnerable to a gambling problem are more likely to adopt novel gambling forms, consistent with their tendency to gamble on many forms. The high prevalence of gambling problems cannot be accounted for by the exposure effect alone, unless one assumes, implausibly, that these novel forms are dramatically more toxic than established products. As newer products diffuse in their acceptance throughout the population, the proportion of people with a gambling problem who play such games goes down. The evolution of gambling products can be described by a product lifecycle model where gambling problems are common amongst early adopters, but proportionately decrease amongst users as a product grows in popularity, reaches maturity and finally stagnates and is replaced. Summary: The adoption effect is important because it indicates the need for interventions when new gambling products are introduced. It cautions against assuming that interventions are working just because the prevalence of gambling problems declines.