Eric R. Louderback

Cambridge Health Alliance · Division on Addiction

Online crime has increased in severity and frequency over the past two decades. However, although several scientific disciplines have commonly employed criminological theories to explain this phenomenon, mainstream criminology has devoted relatively scant attention to the investigation of cyber-criminals and their victims. Drawing on this assumptio...

Increasingly, gambling stakeholders communicate that minimizing gambling harm is a shared societal responsibility. Individual gamblers’ beliefs about responsibility for minimizing gambling harm are worthy of study because these beliefs might influence gambling behavior. In this study, using a sample of casino loyalty program subscribers (N = 4,795)...

Online sports wagering is a popular and still growing gambling activity around the world. Like other types of gambling, it can lead to problems that include devastating financial, social, and health-related harms. The first analysis of actual online sports wagering activity (LaBrie, LaPlante, Nelson, Schumann, & Shaffer, 2007) suggested that levels...

Cryptocurrency and day trading have grown in popularity over the past decade following the creation of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, in 2009. These activities share important features with gambling, including risking money on an uncertain outcome, a chance of monetary rewards, and the potential to experience harm (e.g., financial or relationsh...

Research about the distribution of gambling activity and what percentage certain subgroups of gamblers are responsible for is mixed, but all indicates that a small minority (i.e., the vital few) is responsible for a greater amount of gambling activity than the large majority (i.e., the trivial many). The present pre-registered study extends this li...

Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold-standard method of evaluating interventions. We aimed to determine the extent to which articles reporting RCTs of behavioural addiction interventions adhere to CONSORT (CONsolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials) standards.Methods: We searched the PubMed database and Journal of Gambling I...

Study preregistration is one of several “open science” practices (e.g., open data, preprints) that researchers use to improve the transparency and rigour of their research. As more researchers adopt preregistration as a regular practice, examining the nature and content of preregistrations can help identify the strengths and weaknesses of current p...

Background and Aims: Cryptocurrency and day trading have grown in popularity over the past decade following the creation of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, in 2009. These activities share important features with gambling, including risking money on an uncertain outcome, a chance of monetary rewards, and the potential to experience harm (e.g., fi...

Online sports gambling involvement is discontinuous in nature, with small groups of highly involved gamblers exhibiting betting behavior that is distinctly greater than other gamblers. There is some question about whether these groups, defined by exceedingly high levels of play, also have equivalently high rates of gambling problems, and whether th...

Technological advancements and worldwide television exposure led to a poker boom in the early 2000s, and poker (both live and online) has retained some of that popularity today. The present study examined online poker playing trends based on actual electronic betting records data for 2489 subscribers to a major global internet gambling operator fro...

The replication crisis has stimulated researchers around the world to adopt open science research practices intended to reduce publication bias and improve research quality. Open science practices include study pre-registration, open data, open access, and avoiding methods that can lead to publication bias and low replication rates. Although gambli...

Objective: Responsible gambling (RG) tools that include play management software, self-limit features, and self-exclusion are relatively common offerings on major online gambling platforms. However, how online gaming and daily fantasy sports (DFS) players use such tools is less clear. The goals of this article were to understand how players use se...

A considerable body of literature has examined elements of responsible gambling (RG) programs in land-based gambling venues. The present pre-registered study examines GameSense RG program awareness and engagement trends and relationships with gambling beliefs and behaviors, at MGM’s U.S.-based casino properties using three samples of MGM’s loyalty...

Despite the size and scope of responsible gambling (RG) programs in the U.S., relatively few studies have evaluated these programs. Using survey data from 4795 subscribers to a casino loyalty program, we examined respondents’ awareness of and engagement with the GameSense RG program, and gambling beliefs and behaviors. We compared how differences i...

Online gambling poses novel risks for problem gambling, but also unique opportunities to detect and intervene with at-risk users. A consortium of gambling companies recently committed to using nine behavioral "Markers of Harm'' that can be calculated with online user data to estimate risk for gambling-related harm. The current study evaluates these...

This study presents results from a third wave of data collection of a longitudinal project investigating implementation of an RG program, GameSense, at MGM Resorts International (MGM), and how casino employees perceive responsible gambling (RG) efforts. Survey data at three time periods – Year 1 (baseline, N = 2,192), Year 2 (one-year follow-up, N...

The replication crisis has stimulated researchers around the world to adopt open science research practices intended to reduce publication bias and improve research quality. Open science practices include study pre-registration, open data, open publication, and avoiding methods that can lead to publication bias and low replication rates. Although g...

There is a greater need for contemporary research to empirically examine actual internet casino gambling behavior with valid data. To fill this gap in research, the current study examined two years (1 February 2015 to 31 January 2017) of prospective longitudinal data from 4,424 actual online casino gambling subscribers to one of the E.U.’s largest...

Online gambling poses novel risks for problem gambling, but also unique opportunities to detect and intervene with at-risk users. A consortium of gambling companies recently committed to using nine behavioral "Markers of Harm'' that can be calculated with online user data to estimate risk for gambling-related harm. The current study evaluates these...

Objective: Academics, gambling regulators, and the gambling industry increasingly espouse a shared responsibility view of preventing gambling harm, considering individual gamblers and external stakeholders (e.g., gambling industry employees, government regulators, and public health workers) to be jointly responsible for this task. This study is the...

Study preregistration is one of several “open science” practices (e.g., open data, preprints) that researchers use to improve the transparency and rigour of their research. As more researchers adopt preregistration as a regular research practice, examining the nature and content of preregistrations can help identify strengths and weaknesses of curr...

Background and aims Online sports wagering is a popular and still growing gambling activity around the world. Like other types of gambling, it can lead to problems that include devastating financial, social, and health-related harms. The first analysis of actual online sports wagering activity (LaBrie et al., 2007) suggested that levels of financia...

Objective: To help individuals avoid potential negative consequences associated with their gambling, researchers have developed lower risk limits for time and financial involvement among populations of land-based gamblers. The present study extended these efforts to online gambler populations with prospective longitudinal data. Method: We used r...

Objectives Systematic mapping of evaluations of tools and interventions that are intended to mitigate risks for gambling harm. Design Scoping Review and z-curve analysis (which estimates the average replicability of a body of literature). Search strategy We searched 7 databases. We also examined reference lists of included studies, as well as pap...

Scientists across disciplines have begun to implement ‘open science’ principles and practices, which are designed to enhance the quality, transparency, and replicability of scientific research. Yet, studies examining the use of open science practices in social science fields such as psychology and economics show that awareness and use of such pract...

Scientists across disciplines have begun to implement “open science” principles and practices, which are designed to enhance the quality, transparency, and replicability of scientific research. Yet, studies examining the use of open science practices in social science fields such as psychology and economics show that awareness and use of such pract...

Objective: Early big wins might have a psychological impact upon gamblers that increases their likelihood of intemperate gambling; however, there has been a paucity of empirical research examining this effect using actual gambling data. Method: We assessed the effects of daily fantasy sports (DFS) big wins on subsequent play by analyzing a prosp...

This study investigates the spatial and temporal patterns of property crime at the census block level in the mid-sized, medium- to high-income city of Coral Gables, Florida, USA, between 2004 and 2016. Specifically, we analyzed residential and vehicular burglary. We used Emerging Hot Spot Analysis (EHSA) to locate and identify crime hot and cold sp...

Objective: To help individuals avoid potential negative consequences associated withtheir gambling, researchers have developed lower risk limits for time and financial involvementamong populations of land-based gamblers. The present study extended these efforts to onlinegambler populations with prospective longitudinal data. Method: We used receive...

Purpose This study investigates how employees perceive responsible gambling (RG) programs, which are part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework for minimizing negative impacts associated with problematic gambling. Casino employees have different levels of interaction with gamblers, which could affect employees' opinions about RG. De...

Researchers and gambling operators have developed game-based responsible gambling tools and interventions that are intended to mitigate risks for gambling-related harm. We conducted a scoping review of this literature, with a focus on replicability and transparency. We charted 86 studies on characteristics such as study design and sample size. No t...

Diverse funding sources, including the government, nonprofit, and industry sectors support academic research, generally, and gambling research, specifically. This funding allows academic researchers to assess gambling-related problems in populations, evaluate tools designed to encourage responsible gambling behaviors, and develop evidence-based rec...

This study tests the effects of behavioral and cognitive measures of self-control on computer-focused cyber deviance and cyber victimization with survey data from 1,036 adult employees. We examine moderating effects of cyber deviant peers and gender in the relationship between self-control, and cyber deviance and victimization. Cognitive and behavi...

This chapter aims to examine cybercrime viz-à-viz technological developments by identifying key research studies in the field and crime resulting from technological changes. The industrial revolution technological process and innovations are discussed to illustrate their significant role in shaping and creating cybercrime research. In the age of th...

This study investigates the relationship between land use, walkability, and the outcomes of neighborhood crime rates of larceny and aggravated assault. We use a combination of OLS regression models, harmonic analysis of diurnal patterns, and geospatial statistical techniques to examine the spatial patterning of larceny and aggravated assault in 782...

Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) — an innovative geospatial approach to analyze the locations of high crime areas within cities— was used to analyze criminogenic spaces and identify the riskiest places contributing to vehicle and residential burglary in the city of Coral Gables, Florida from 2004 to 2016. Official crime incident data on residential and...

In recent years, the United States has experienced increasing structural trends of steeply increasing crime rates in some urban neighborhoods and a widening gap in wealth and income inequality between social classes. The primary criminological theory applied to explain neighborhood crime rates is social disorganization theory, while the primary the...

This study investigates the effectiveness of citizens’ community crime watch (CCW) programs and community crime theories by testing the relationship between CCW programs and crime, integrating concepts from social disorganization (SD) and routine activity theories (RATs). Using data from 290 Census tracts in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United State...

Objectives Investigate the relationship between thoughtfully reflective decision-making (TRDM) and computer-focused cyber deviance involvement and computer-focused cybercrime victimization. Method Survey data collected from samples of 1,039 employees and 418 students at a large private university were analyzed using ordinary least squares and nega...

The combination of crime mapping and geospatial analysis methods has enabled law enforcement agencies to develop more proactive methods of targeting crime-prone neighborhoods based on spatial patterns, such as hot spots and spatial proximity to specific points of interest. In this article, we investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of the nei...

In comparison to other industrialized, capitalist societies, the United States is characterized by far higher rates of economically-motivated crime, also known as instrumental crime. These acts are directly harmful to immediate victims, are more than seven times more prevalent than violent crime, and they involve billions of dollars of economic los...