When it comes to gambling games, mobile devices have become the primary platform. Several factors have contributed to the rise of mobile gaming, including a growing number of digital casinos that offer a variety of casino apps for players to use on their smartphone or tablet. Most of these apps feature an easy-to-use interface that is ideal for playing on smaller screens. In addition, mobile apps allow players to play their favorite games anytime, anywhere — as long as they have access to the internet.
As the mobile casino market continues to grow, more and more people will be using their smartphones or tablets to gamble. As a result, the gambling industry will need to adjust its strategies to meet these new demands. This includes focusing on user experience and developing new features for mobile applications. Among these new features will be mobile games that are designed to create immersive gambling environments that can provide players with a more engaging and exciting experience than traditional online casino sites.
In the past, cell phones were primarily used to make calls and text messages. However, the newest generation of cellphones are essentially mini-computers, with a full operating system and heavy-duty processor power. Many of these smartphones also come with high-resolution color screens. While these graphical improvements are important, the most significant advancements have been in the software on which they run. Unlike a PC, which uses a standard programming language like Java to run programs, most cell phones use a competing technology called BREW to execute software (called applets). This allows developers to build applications that can run on a phone and perform complex tasks, such as dealing a card in blackjack or placing a bet on a horse race.
A recent study examined how mobile users interacted with a simulated gambling game that was developed specifically for their smartphones. Participants were asked to interact with the app over a number of weeks in a naturalistic setting. The results indicated that engagement with the app was highly predictive of gambling behaviour, even when there were no winnings. It was also found that the longer latencies between gambling events – known as near-misses – predicted the likelihood of perseverative gambling behaviour during extinction.
While the results of this study are promising, further research is needed to understand how mobile gambling may influence addictive behaviour. This is particularly important because previous studies investigating the relationship between new technology and addiction have typically relied on self-report data or on markers of harm that may be contrived or inappropriately translated from other forms of technology-facilitated addictions. In particular, there is a need for research that focuses on the role of smartphone software in the initiation and maintenance of gambling behaviour. Such research should take into account the fact that mobile gambling is based on an associative model of addiction, and should examine the effects of short, interspersed bouts of activity that have been compared to snacking.