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The Funding Effect

Gambling addiction research at Harvard University has been called into question this week because the land and online casino gambling industries help fund the research. Studies recently released from the Harvard gambling addiction research institute indicate that severe gambling addiction is a biological problem within the individual contends Howard Shaffer, who heads the research institute. But some of Shaffer’s colleagues fault the research evidence because a large portion of the funds are actually coming from the land and online casinos.

Shaffer’s latest report on gambling addiction made headlines last week because it shows that a mere 2 percent of the U.S. population suffer from the most severe forms of gambling addiction – pathological gamblers. And while this number is low by some previous estimations, what really causes an uproar with other contemporaries is the fact that Shaffer’s research implies that pathological gambling is not caused by the land and online casinos and their practices and policies, but rather that the individuals have a biological reason for the addiction.

One critic though, Oliver Staley of the Bloombergs business news, has faulted Shaffer’s research and claims because of what is called “the funding effect.” Because the land and online casino gambling companies partly fund the gambling addiction research Staley asserts that some of the data will come out skewed. Shaffer though dismisses the notion and notes that not only did he openly acknowledge where some of the funding came from, but he contends that the land and online casinos have not been involved in the research process and that his research institute stands by the integrity of its research results.