This is a guest article from IAGR2025 panellists:

• Tracy Schrans, President, Focal Research Consultants
• Dr Tony Schellinck, CEO, Focal Research Consultants
• Dr Melissa Salmon, Applied Research Lead, Focal Research Consultants
• Dr Kasra Ghaharian, Director of Research, International Gaming Institute, UNLV, United States

Find out more about Focal Research Consultants

To learn more about this topic, register for IAGR2025, taking place from October 20-23 in Toronto, Canada.

Academic and Applied Research Collaboration: Using Industry Data to Support Evidence-Based Regulations

Advancements in technology continue to drive the expansion of land-based gambling management systems, which includes the availability of new data and new opportunities for advancing player protection.

Despite these advancements and opportunities, little empirical research has used the wealth of behavioural and transactional data available through gambling systems to draw conclusions about indicators of harm specific to land-based gambling products. This marks a significant gap given the unique potential for objective player data to inform evidence-based policies and programs for supporting people at-risk of harm.

We argue that effectively harnessing systems data to advance player protection requires new approaches to research, data utilization, and knowledge dissemination. By fostering collaboration between independent academic and applied research institutions, such a model can bolster integrity, produce more robust findings, and better inform policy and practice.

That’s why researchers at Focal Research and the UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI) have embarked on a collaborative program of self-funded research to understand what works, what doesn’t work, and why.

In this joint presentation, we share our approach to collaboration where we bridge academic rigor with applied practice to advance the current evidence base for knowledge dissemination and real-world regulatory application. This approach includes establishing a collaborative workflow where our teams independently analyze operator datasets and validate each other’s findings, ensuring adherence to IGI’s research policy and commitment to rigorous, independent research.

To this end, our multi-disciplinary team has analyzed hundreds of thousands of machine data points linked to risk scores from thousands of carded players to test current theories and validate what we know about risky play using high-quality player tracking data.

We share key findings relevant to current regulatory issues, including:

• Is there a right time to interact with players in a continuous play session?
• What is the relationship between breaks in play and risk?
• How do low-value gambling incentives impact player behaviour?

Content will focus on new analyses and findings that have been validated and replicated across multiple data sets from multiple jurisdictions, with emphasis on recommendations for successful research collaborations between academic and applied research using industry datasets for supporting evidence-based regulations.

In this session, we will also speak to how current regulations are performing in identifying the right players, why these rules may or may not be reaching at-risk players at the right time, and recommendations for tailoring interactions so players receive the right message.

Although results of this applied research may challenge current assumptions about risky play, they are among the first to use real-world behavioural tracking data for policy purposes, opening the door for more nuanced approaches on how to effectively prevent and reduce gambling-related harm.

Our goal is to open the door to more nuanced approaches on how to effectively prevent and reduce gambling-related harm, support uptake of evidence for regulatory application, and invite further collaboration in the process.

We look forward to continuing the conversation around supporting evidence-based regulations in Toronto at the IAGR 2025 Conference.

About the presenters

Tracy Schrans | tschrans@focalresearch.com
Tracy Schrans serves as the President of Focal Research Consultants, pioneering innovative approaches in the realm of player protection and responsible gambling. Collaborating closely with CEO Dr. Tony Schellinck, she stands as a trailblazing researcher, recognized for her utilization of player tracking data in crafting algorithms aimed at identifying and managing customer risk and harm. Tracy’s ongoing commitment to progressive applied research extends globally, where she continues to set industry standards for responsible gambling. Her work revolves around leveraging data and technology to not only identify at-risk gamblers but also to actively contribute to harm mitigation and prevention efforts to safeguard individuals facing gambling-related risks.

Dr. Tony Schellinck | tschellinck@focalresearch.com
Dr. Tony Schellinck is the CEO of Focal Research Consultants. During his full-time tenure at Dalhousie University, Tony held the FC Manning Chair in Economics and Business, publishing articles and papers in consumer psychology, research methods and gambling. As co-chair of the Informatics Initiative at Dalhousie University, he was responsible for the research program in data science, measurement, and construct development, working with large consumer databases for financial, retail and insurance clients. At Focal, Tony leads a team of data analysts setting new standards in risk detection and safer gambling through research, data insights, leading-edge processes, analysis, and predictive modelling.

Dr. Kasra Ghaharian | kasra.ghaharian@unlv.edu
Dr. Kasra Ghaharian is the Director of Research for UNLV’s International Gaming Institute. He is a global gaming expert who’s research interests center around in AI applications and ethics, machine learning, consumer protection, and payments modernization. His work has been published in leading journals in gambling studies, hospitality, human-computer interaction, computer science, and psychology. Dr. Ghaharian has also presented his research at academic and industry conferences
across North America and Europe, including ICE, G2E, RGC Discovery, and GLI’s Regulators Roundtable. Ghaharian has also been called upon by media outlets including BBC, Business Insider, and GGB Magazine to offer industry insights.

Dr. Melissa Salmon | melissa.salmon@focalresearch.com
Dr. Melissa Salmon is the Applied Research Lead at Focal Research Consultants. Melissa has specialized in the field of gambling studies for over 10 years with a background in psychological research and knowledge mobilization to guide her work. Throughout her career, Melissa has led several research and evaluation initiatives focused on preventing and reducing gambling-related harms, working with national and international stakeholders in the gambling field to achieve this common goal. At Focal, Melissa continues to explore meaningful approaches to harm prevention through examining play behaviours associated with gambling risk and evaluating safer gambling outcomes using real-world player data.