The Role Of Gamification In Online Casinos: Benefits And Ethical Concerns
Gamification is very attractive to many companies, including casinos, but it can lead to unethical practices if certain considerations and observations aren’t made.
Author:Suleman ShahReviewer:Han JuSep 13, 20243K Shares45.2K Views
Gamification is a term for introducing game-like elements to something that is not inherently a game. This technique has been adopted across many markets, such as streaming services, fitness apps, and even online casinos.
By gamifying a service or product, elements such as badges, achievements, points, and leaderboards are introduced, adding a sense of progress or competition where there wasn’t one before. There are many benefits to gamifying, but interestingly enough, these also come with a number of ethical problems that go alongside them, especially in the online casinoand gambling sphere.
It’s All Just A Game
Chances are, at some point, you have used a service that has introduced gamification. Even companies like Netflix had a brief spell where they decided to give viewers achievements for completing an entire TV series or watching a certain number of hours. This was short-lived, but many othershave become mainstays.
Looking at services like fitness apps and diet programs, gamification is more or less what makes them so appealing. Rather than just working through a routine or diet, gamification awards points or sets goals, giving badges and setting leaderboards to encourage people to progress. This makes the particular hobby or focus, be it jogging, nutrition, or reading, into a competitive and goal-based task. It has now become a game.
Casinos are doing something similar with their products, games, and tables. This has a myriad of benefits, but it also raises some ethical concerns. In online casinos, in particular, there are a number of types of gamification.
Types Of Gamification
Here’s an overview of various gamification elements that can enhance user engagement:
- Quests: Storylines and goals are added to a product, creating a sense of journey and familiarity with a narrative.
- Awards: By jumping through certain hoops or meeting set criteria, awards are given for completion. These can be things like the Slotozilla bonuseson their site or loyalty points.
- Badges: These are displayable trophies given for completing tasks such as playing a certain number of slots or depositing a set amount into an account.
- Points: Points can be earned by playing for a certain number of hours or winning a certain amount. These points are usually only used for small bonuses, such as discounts or cosmetics.
- Leaderboards: These are very commonly seen and will pitch players against each other in interesting ways, such as the biggest payout of the month.
- Challenges: Set goals that must be met to win points or discounts.
All Fun And Gamification
There are plenty of benefits to gamifying online casinos, making it much more appealing for companies to do so. The core of the appeal comes down to engagement and retention. By turning an online casino into a game, the repetitiveness of loss and wins begins to become secondary. The game elements of an online casino help retain players' attention, giving an alternate focus other than simply winning and losing money. Where a player may have dropped away from a slot machine after a loss or two, they continue in order to win the next ‘Badge’ or ‘Quest’.
The addition of personalised gamification can tailor an experience to individual players. By bringing in elements such as avatars, personal leaderboards, and goals, players begin to feel much more catered to in their online casino experience. Being able to tweak the gamified casino time to a personal preference, the user experience is completely changed.
The Impact Of Gamification On Broadening Audience Engagement And Enhancing Retention
Gamification can also open up the various tables and slots to a wider audience. Gambling isn’t everyone's pastime of choice, but it’s been proven that customers are drawn to games. By adding a game element to online casinos, more players are likely to be drawn in, focusing on the gamified aspects as well as the gambling.
Data collection is a key element to gamifying everything from apps to casinos. By observing players' habits, it is possible to collect data and see just what interactions fare best for things like retention and spending.
One of the biggest draws of gamification is the element of loyalty it can introduce. Duolingo is the perfect example of people sticking to something simply for the gaming elements. By introducing usage streaks and leaderboards, Duolingo has quickly become one of the largest language platforms available despite being quite useless for actual learning.
A Dangerous Game
Gamification is a fantastic tool to use for many services, adding many elements that will keep people coming back. However, some ethical issues need to be observed in a market, such as online casinos and gambling. Unlike fitness and dieting apps, casinos are designed to make you money, not weight.
With every conversation about the ethics surrounding gambling, addiction needs to be addressed. For many, the draw of gambling isn’t something that can be enjoyed responsibly or with restraint. Introducing more elements designed to increase playtime and placing retention hooks could be critical for people suffering from gambling addiction. The rewards and incentives can easily trigger compulsive gambling patterns.
Gamification can be used to hide losses with subtle and not-so-subtle techniques. These can be things like ‘near misses’ or valueless awards showered on players during losing streaks. These injections of gratification are designed to hit the same endorphin triggers as a win, making a loss feel less dramatic and encouraging people to play beyond their means.
When a casino starts using gamification, it must clearly and openly display the various rewards and goals. Usually, gamification results in little to no actual financial benefit. This needs to be addressed and highlighted to players to avoid deception or false hope.
Most important is the casinos' responsibility to the players. Gamification is a bright and exciting draw into the world of gambling. It is essential these games are not targeted to the wrong audience, such as addicts, children, or the vulnerable.
Benefits And Their Issues
Here’s a comparison of the benefits of gamification in online casinos alongside the associated ethical concerns:
| Benefit | Ethical Concern |
| Increased engagement and retention | Addiction and problem gambling |
| Enhanced user experience | Predatory practices |
| Improved player acquisition and conversion | Fairness and transparency |
| Data-driven insights | Social responsibility |
| Customer loyalty and advocacy |
There Are Rules To The Game
While gamification is a very attractive prospect for online casinos due to the increased loyalty, engagement, and user experience, care needs to be taken when employing the methods in various online casino games. Introducing gamification needs to address the issues of predatory practices, be fair and open about the rewards and their values, and ensure that it isn’t aimed at the wrong people.
In the past, companies have turned what is essentially gambling into games, and the results have not been good for players or the companies themselves. The Fifa football franchise was heavily criticized and forced to change its practiceswhen a slot machine-style ‘loot box’ system was found to be gamified gambling. However, by this point, many children had invested a lot of money into the game.
Gamification must be approached with caution and delicacy, no matter how attractive it may seem to a business.
Suleman Shah
Author
Suleman Shah is a researcher and freelance writer. As a researcher, he has worked with MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (Pakistan) and Texas A & M University (USA). He regularly writes science articles and blogs for science news website immersse.com and open access publishers OA Publishing London and Scientific Times. He loves to keep himself updated on scientific developments and convert these developments into everyday language to update the readers about the developments in the scientific era. His primary research focus is Plant sciences, and he contributed to this field by publishing his research in scientific journals and presenting his work at many Conferences.
Shah graduated from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (Pakistan) and started his professional carrier with Jaffer Agro Services and later with the Agriculture Department of the Government of Pakistan. His research interest compelled and attracted him to proceed with his carrier in Plant sciences research. So, he started his Ph.D. in Soil Science at MNS University of Agriculture Multan (Pakistan). Later, he started working as a visiting scholar with Texas A&M University (USA).
Shah’s experience with big Open Excess publishers like Springers, Frontiers, MDPI, etc., testified to his belief in Open Access as a barrier-removing mechanism between researchers and the readers of their research. Shah believes that Open Access is revolutionizing the publication process and benefitting research in all fields.
Han Ju
Reviewer
Hello! I'm Han Ju, the heart behind World Wide Journals. My life is a unique tapestry woven from the threads of news, spirituality, and science, enriched by melodies from my guitar. Raised amidst tales of the ancient and the arcane, I developed a keen eye for the stories that truly matter. Through my work, I seek to bridge the seen with the unseen, marrying the rigor of science with the depth of spirituality.
Each article at World Wide Journals is a piece of this ongoing quest, blending analysis with personal reflection. Whether exploring quantum frontiers or strumming chords under the stars, my aim is to inspire and provoke thought, inviting you into a world where every discovery is a note in the grand symphony of existence.
Welcome aboard this journey of insight and exploration, where curiosity leads and music guides.
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