Addiction 40: Rachel Volberg on 40 Years of Gambling Research, Massachusetts Casinos, and the Evolution of Harm Prevention

This episode – brought to you by GLI! – we meet Rachel Volberg, retired research professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and president of Gemini Research, as she reflects on more than four decades studying gambling behaviour and gambling harms. The conversation moves from the long-running Massachusetts casino impact study to the shift toward public health framing, sports betting regulation, and how lottery products keep evolving. Hosts Dr Michael Auer and Jon Bruford steer the discussion through policy, measurement, and the practical realities of research, including why baseline data matters and why the field still struggles to define and detect harm consistently.

This episode comes to you courtesy of the excellent Gaming Laboratories International.

GLI is a world-class testing, inspections and certification company committed to delivering the highest quality land-based, lottery and iGaming testing and assessment services, working in more than 710 jurisdictions.

For more information, visit gaminglabs.com.

Stuff we discuss, in a list :

• Rachel explains how she led the Massachusetts study on the social and economic impacts of casino gambling, a project that ran from 2013 to 2025 and was tied to the 2011 casino legalization statute.
• She breaks down the Massachusetts casino rollout across three regions, including Plainridge Park, MGM Springfield, and Encore Boston Harbor.
• Rachel describes how Encore Boston Harbor had to pivot after Chinese outbound gambling travel was restricted, forcing the property toward a more local market.
• She shares how her work expanded beyond casinos to include COVID-era gambling changes and the early impacts of sports betting in Massachusetts.
• Michael asks how the field has shifted from problem gambling language to a broader harm-based public health approach, and Rachel explains that the study covered both social harms and economic flows.
• Rachel details why Massachusetts is unusual: host communities voted on casino proposals, the law created funding for problem gambling services, and annual research was required.
• She and Michael discuss how most U.S. gambling data is still state by state, with no national prevalence survey comparable to what exists in the UK.
• Rachel reflects on how she entered gambling research in 1985 through an evaluation of one of the first treatment programs for problem gambling in the U.S.
• She explains the importance of validated screening tools like the South Oaks Gambling Screen and later the PPGM, especially the difference between screening and diagnosis.
• Jon and Rachel explore the limits of self-report data, the challenge of recall bias, and why gambling harm is broader than just a small group of “problem gamblers.”
• The conversation turns to sports betting, including how informal betting long predated legalization and why regulation in the U.S. is still fragmented.
• Rachel and Jon discuss lottery products, instant tickets, pull tabs, and how game design increasingly resembles slot-like behaviour with high-frequency play and immediate reinforcement.

Chapters, but add about 30 seconds or so because of the music and all that magic:

• 00:00 - Opening banter and introduction of Rachel Volberg
• 02:35 - How the Massachusetts casino impact study was built
• 04:46 - Three casino regions and the rollout of Massachusetts gaming
• 06:46 - COVID, sports betting, and the study’s unusually long time span
• 07:43 - Encore Boston Harbor’s market pivot after Chinese travel restrictions
• 10:16 - Growing up in Ghana and Switzerland shaped Rachel’s worldview
• 13:27 - A sociology background that led into survey research
• 14:30 - Why the study title focused on social and economic impacts
• 15:59 - How Massachusetts gave communities a real voice in casino siting
• 19:30 - Local hiring, local spending, and community reinvestment effects
• 22:12 - Waste reduction and the casino’s wider community footprint
• 26:44 - Entering gambling research through a New York treatment evaluation
• 28:12 - The first validated problem gambling screen in a prevalence survey
• 29:41 - Why prevalence surveys spread across the U.S. state by state
• 32:19 - Massachusetts as an unusual case with annual research funding
• 33:24 - Sports betting legislation and the lack of research funding elsewhere
• 35:47 - No U.S. state mandates player limit setting
• 36:46 - A study now underway on play management tools in Massachusetts
• 40:31 - Why college sports create a uniquely difficult U.S. gambling issue
• 43:50 - The problem of missing baseline data in many jurisdictions
• 44:49 - Massachusetts baseline data and what changed by 2021
• 46:32 - Informal betting, Nevada, and the long U.S. history of sports wagering
• 49:46 - Cohort studies and what follow-up work revealed in New Zealand
• 51:30 - Why many people reduce gambling without seeking treatment
• 53:22 - Screens versus diagnoses and the need for better clinical screening
• 56:42 - The measurement problems behind identifying gambling harm
• 58:34 - Why the PPGM uses control and harm as separate dimensions
• 60:20 - Prediction, regulation, and the mismatch between risk tools and policy goals
• 61:57 - Gambling harm as a broader spectrum than problem gambling alone
• 63:02 - How lottery games evolved toward slot-like features
• 66:57 - Massachusetts online lottery launch and responsible gambling tools
• 69:00 - Pull tabs, scratch cards, and the psychology of visible odds
• 71:16 - Why uncertainty is central to gambling behaviour
• 72:00 - Closing remarks

Choice quotes:

• “I think I have more than 70 prevalence surveys that I've done over my career.”
• “There’s no breathalyzer test for problem gambling.”
• “It’s not that you’ve got 1% or 2% of the population classified as problem gamblers. It’s that you’ve got 10% of the population that’s experienced one or more harms.”
• "Casinos can be drivers for community growth."
• "Gambling harms extend beyond problem gamblers."
• "Without baseline data, impact assessment is difficult."

Resources & Links:

GLI: https://gaminglabs.com/

Rachel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelvolberg/

The Gambling Files on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-gambling-files-podcast/

Addiction: An Hour With Auer is a weekly podcast where hosts Dr Michael Auer – he of the title – and Jon Bruford talk about addiction in all its forms. Not just gambling addiction, they discuss all forms of addiction with experts, academics and researchers from around the world.

Dr Auer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-auer-51a48a/

Jon Bruford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-bruford-84346636/

Podcast homepage: https://www.thegamblingfiles.com/addiction/

Media behemoth homepage: https://www.thegamblingfiles.com/

Other podcasts we do:

https://www.thegamblingfiles.com/the-gambling-files/

https://www.thegamblingfiles.com/dessert-island-discs/