Associations between childhood use of coin pusher and crane grab machines, and adult gambling: A replication study in the USA

Youth gambling is a risk factor for lifetime harm from gambling (Delfabbro, King, & Derevensky, 2016; Emond & Griffiths, 2020), and disordered gambling rates at estimated at 0.2 – 12.3% of youths (Calado, Alexandre, & Griffiths, 2017; Derevensky & Gupta, 2000). A majority of research in this area concentrates on illegal use of age-restricted gambling machines and services, however, their use of legal gambling machines is often overlooked. These non-age-restricted gambling machines include coin-pushers and crane grab machines and are commonly found in arcades where they can be played for prizes of real, albeit small amounts of, money or tangible prizes of greater cash-value than the cost to play. The childhood use of legal gambling machines has been investigated in one study, which found an association between recalled engagement with these machines during childhood, and subsequent gambling disorders as an adult (Newall, Russell, Sharman, & Walasek, 2020). Furthermore, this association has been demonstrated in replications in both the UK (Parrado-González & Newall, 2023), and Australia (Newall, Russell, Sharman, & Walasek, 2021). These findings suggest that in addition to adolescents’ use of illegal gambling machines, we should be wary of adolescents’ use of legal gambling machines as these may lead to later gambling problems also. However, this current evidence is limited by the retroactive nature of recalling childhood use of legal gambling machines. As participants are tasked to recall years after the occurrence, we cannot be certain that these recollections are accurate as they may be influenced by memory biases. Additionally, problem gamblers are suggested to experience cognitive distortions, such as hindsight bias and selective memory (Toneatto, 1999). This could suggest that the frequent childhood use of legal gambling machines may be inaccurately recalled by participants with gambling problems. In one replication, a younger sample was recruited to address these limitations (Parrado-González & Newall, 2023), to try to reduce the memory biases that participants likely experienced. Whilst this change might have reduced overall levels of memory biases, it didnot reduce potential differential effects, such as adult gamblers being more likely to recall these childhood experiences as these are more consistent with their current identity. Another method to aid this would be to add confidence judgements after recall. By tasking participants to consciously assess how confident they are of their recollections, we could measure if they believe that their memories are less accurate due to time. Longitudinal data collection would be necessary to verify accurate recollections, but in its absence, confidence judgements would add another layer to assess the accuracy. Therefore, the current study will replicate these previous studies, aiming to investigate the association between legal childhood gambling and adult gambling problems. To minimise potential memory biases, we will also recruit a young adult sample, aged 19-24 years. Confidence judgements will be taken from participants to measure if they believe their memories to be accurate. Additionally, to investigate whether this association is limited to the UK and Australia, this will be conducted using a sample from the USA. Implications of this research would inform the growing literature of legal childhood gambling and resolve the ambiguity that previous findings may be due to memory biases.