LeoVegas and Karolinska Institutet to fight problem gambling

LeoVegas Group has made a fresh commitment to addressing problem gambling through a newly launched project with the Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Neuroscience in Stockholm, Sweden. The Karolinska Institutet is praised as a world-class university and one of the best medical institutions of higher learning.

The gambling operator will fund a four-year research program which will look into problem gambling, and specifically how to identify the early signs and symptoms of the issue. The findings will be used by LeoVegas Group to seek meaningful ways to ensure that it can intervene and prevent problem gambling at an early stage, but also to inform the debate on the issue, which is taking on bigger dimensions by the day and is of increasing relevancy to the long-term sustainability of the industry.

This project is set to start in the autumn of 2022 and LeoVegas Group will secure both the funding and the raw data that researchers can use. LeoVegas wants to use this program and other similar initiatives to help prevent and treat problem gambling, but also to provide substantiated evidence during discussions on regulatory level.

Through this initiative, LeoVegas is confident that it can help reduce harm in gambling or help eliminate it. Commenting on the announcement of the new project, LeoVegas Group CEO Gustaf Hagman said how important it is for the company as an industry stakeholder to continue tackling problem gambling, and welcomed the opportunity to be teaming up with an esteemed institution to further address the issue:

"We are proud to be partnering with Karolinska Institutet to carry out this valuable research and hope that decision-makers and the igaming industry will be able to apply the findings in order to support more responsible gambling."

The new project was also hailed by Karolinska Institutet research group leader and associate professorPhilip Lindner who welcomed the opportunity and said that the university was committed to spreading knowledge that is useful to society. Lindner added that he hoped that through this collaboration and research, the industry will have new ways of identifying and helping players who are at risk at an early stage.

The associate professor also thanked LeoVegas Group for providing the data that wasn’t previously available for analysis. The industry has been agog facing tougher regulatory pressure and attempting to respond by intensifying its understanding into responsible gambling which is an important pillar of its long-term business sustainability.

Casino Guru has made Responsible Gambling one of its pivots for the upcoming Casino Guru Awards, which will be judged by a number of industry specialists who have spent considerable parts of their academic and professional lives to understand problem gambling and offer guidance on policies.

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