Risk of gambling disorder based on participation level for the Japanese gambling games of pachinko and pachislot: a preliminary study

It has been reported that Japan may have many disordered pachinko/pachislot players, and taking some countermeasures is required. This study proposes high-risk limits, an index developed by employing a calculating method of low-risk limits to identify disordered players and to contribute to the development of countermeasures. High-risk limits can be established by gambling disorder scale items and participation levels measured in a population survey. The study preliminarily examined how different high-risk limits could be established by using three commonly used scales: SOGS, PGSI and DSM-5. The sample comprised 522 registered panel members for a web survey company, who lived in the Tokyo metropolitan area and played pachinko/pachislot in the last year. They answered items on three gambling disorder scales and four types of participation, such as average monthly loss. Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that the three scales had same optimal limits for high-risk participation: average monthly loss of 20,000–50,000 JPY and the average monthly loss/yearly household income of 0.003-0.005. Logistic regression analysis confirmed that high-risk participation predicted the disorder irrespective of demographics. The results of this study suggested that high-risk limits can be established using the disorder scales commonly used in prevalence surveys.