Harvard Medical School and Bwin, the online casino operator, have joined forces to perform a five year study. The study will determine the best way to create responsible gaming conditions that will help prevent problem gambling.

The Cambridge Health Alliance Division on Addictions announced the study will continue as the online casino operator and School have been in cooperation for the last three years. The study was created in the hopes that the group could discover the reason for problem gambling, prevent it.

Bwin has released access to their customer data to the School, which are over 47,000 customers. The School can use the information to get better results in their research. Through research, the School hopes to be able to recognize patterns that will help create methods to creating a safe gaming environment.

The Chief Executive Officer for Bwin, Manfred Bodner, commented: “We need to understand what goes on in consumers' minds and be able to answer fundamental questions about online gaming based on scientific evidence - and not based on speculation. Ultimately, we are interested in creating behavioral models capable of predicting certain outcomes."


- 2008-12-16