Abstract
<p>Introduction: People place larger bets on risky events when they can cash-out before the bet concludes. This study experimentally investigates how cash-out availability impacts wider betting behaviour in a simulated betting task and whether risk of gambling problems moderates observed effects.Method: An incentivised, between-participants online experiment (n=377; 70.8% males, 28.6% females; Mage = 39.9), where participants could place bets on horse races via a simulated bookmaker’s website. Participants were randomly assigned to either have the option of cashing-out their bets or not. We examined choices to engage with the gambling task, stake sizes and implied win probabilities of placed bets, and measured risk of gambling problems by administering the PGSI.Results: The cash-out group was more likely to choose the gambling task over a distractor game (χ²(1, N=377)=4.59, p=0.032) and engaged with the gambling task for longer than the no-cash-out group (β=0.61, SE=0.23, p=0.0077). The cash-out group also made larger bets (W=19761.5, p=0.021), though this finding was more nuanced. There was no effect of cash-out availability on the average odds of placed bets (W=10635.5, p=0.67). No significant interactions between cash-out availability and PGSI were observed for either the implied win probability of placed bets (β&lt;0.01, SE&lt;0.01, p=0.44) or stake size (β=-0.02, SE=0.02, p=0.15), though a subgroup analysis revealed groupwise differences in stake size within a low-PGSI (W=6909.5, p=0.0076, n=260) subgroup. No such difference was found in the high-PGSI subgroup (W=1699.5, p=0.89, n=117).Conclusion: The provision of cash-out options in betting products results in significant changes in betting behaviour, which could potentially lead to increased risk of gambling harms.</p>