House-edge information yields lower subjective chances of winning than equivalent return-to-player percentages: New evidence from support forum participants

Abstract

Information messages that communicate the average cost of play are a helpful consumer protection tool in gambling. In Australia and the United Kingdom, cost of play information is typically communicated via the ‘‘return-to-player’’ statistic, e.g., ‘‘This game has an average percentage payout of 90%.’’ Through a sample recruited through a gambling support forum (n = 49), this paper reports how house-edge information (e.g., ‘‘This game keeps 10% of all money bet on average’’) is associated with lower perceived chances of winning, as opposed to equivalent return-to-player information. Accordingly, this study also extends the literature on optimal gambling messaging to a group of support forum users.