ONLINE GAMBLING

IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
A DESCRIPTIVE REPORT OF GAMBLING PARTICIPATION ON THE PLAYNOW.COM PLATFORM
Tilman Lesch, Eve Limbrick-Oldfield and Luke Clark
Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia

ONE MONTH OF PLAY (June, 2015), 41,401 USERS,

OVER 48 MILLION BETS WITH A TOTAL WAGER OF OVER $118 MILLION

1 WHAT TYPES OF GAMES DID PEOPLE PLAY?

eCasino Lottery Sports Social Bingo
0.9%
79.7%

96.7%
BY USER BY BET
30.0%

Just 30% of users play eCasino games but 96.7% of all bets made are in the eCasino

Slots Tables Probability Video poker

BY BET
Slots were the most popular game within the
eCasino, accounting for 79.54% of all bets.

2 WHEN DID PEOPLE PLAY?

Tuesdays were the most popular ... $11.7m wagered

$15.8m wagered ...Sundays the least.

Betting rose steadily from 4pm ... ~$9m wagered

~$6m wagered ... to a peak at 10pm.

luke.clark@psych.ubc.ca
 3 HOW DID THE AVERAGE PLAYER BEHAVE?
The average (MEDIAN) player made 17 bets of $3 over the month with a
total wager of $57.80. They played 6 sessions over 5 days, and 4 different games.
But average player behaviour varied considerably across game type:

LOTTERY 9 bets 763 bets eCASINO

$3.40 per bet $1.20 per bet
Total wager: $36 Total wager: $1,048
5 sessions, 4 days, 3 products 6 sessions, 5 days, 6 products

4 SO WHAT DID THE HEAVIEST USERS LOOK LIKE?

Engagement in all games was skewed, a small proportion of players accounted
for a large proportion of the total wager.

TOP 20% MOST ENGAGED PLAYERS

Pareto value (from economics):
eCasino
20% most engaged players generate 80% of total wager
Lottery
Sports
20% most engaged eCasino players
Social
accounted for 81.8% of total wager
Bingo
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of total spend 20% most engaged Lottery players
accounted for just 53.0% of the total wager

TOP 5% MOST ENGAGED PLAYERS

LOTTERY eCASINO
1,666 players 619 players
32 bets 12,594 bets
$7.80 per bet $6.40 per bet
Total wager: $230 Total wager: $66,361
Account for 18.5% total wager Account for 45.9% total wager

5 DID PEOPLE PLAY MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF GAME?

~59% of all users played the Lottery and nothing else

~ 62% of all bets were made by players who played more than one type of game

As the number of types of games a user played went up, the

relative number of bets on the Lottery decreased.

luke.clark@psych.ubc.ca