Developing a mobile gambling game involves building a unique concept and designing a high-quality user interface and user experience. This is an important step because the quality of your app will determine its success in the market. In addition, you must find a team of skilled developers who are familiar with the gaming industry and can create apps that meet all the requirements set out in the Google Play Store’s guidelines.
The latest cell phones are essentially mini-PCs, complete with operating systems and heavy-duty processor power. They have bright, color screens and can handle large amounts of data. In addition, they are often portable and can be used with a WiFi connection. This makes them the perfect platform for casino games.
While the popularity of mobile casino games continues to grow, some experts worry about their impact on gambling habits. They fear that mobile gambling will lead to increased problem gambling and addictive behaviors. However, there is little empirical evidence to support these concerns. Most of the existing research has been based on self-reports and on markers that are often contrived or inappropriately translated from other addictions.
A recent study examined the effects of a simulated gambling app on smartphone users’ behaviour. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires (e.g., gambling questions, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory) and a computerised contingency judgment task that probed the illusion of control, a cognitive bias known to be associated with gambling behaviour. They also completed a personality measure and participated in a behavioural experiment in which they were exposed to random-reinforcement gambling on a simulated mobile phone gambling application.
Results indicated that gamblers showed considerable perseverance in the face of losses, even when those losses were linearly related to their previous engagement with the app. This may be because gamblers on mobile phones have access to a more extensive pool of reinforcement than those playing on desktop computers. In addition, mobile devices have latencies that punctuate periods of reinforcement, both as a natural part of the mobile device experience and as deliberate design strategies that are intended to encourage prolonged engagement with the game.
The study’s findings are significant because they suggest that there is a strong potential for smartphone gambling to be especially regressive, and that the reinforcement and latency dynamics of the mobile gambling experience may have particular pitfalls that can promote problem gambling. Specifically, these pitfalls could include:
Despite the fact that there is a growing interest in gambling-style mobile phone games, it’s unlikely that legislation will stop their development. Moreover, many state-level laws do not mitigate losses created by these games. For example, the state of Washington considered a bill that would have defined Big Fish’s games as not being gambling, but it ultimately failed to pass. Meanwhile, Phantom Fiber is already receiving inquiries from companies that want to offer wireless betting on sports and horse races using its software.
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