Meta-analysis of the relationship between problem gambling, excessive gaming and loot box spending
Garea first author. A meta-analysis pooling 15 studies on problem gambling and seven on excessive gaming reported a small to moderate positive correlation between loot box spending and problem gambling symptoms, about 0.26, rising to about 0.37 once corrected for publication bias, and about 0.25 for excessive gaming. Causal direction is not established. These figures come from the accepted manuscript rather than the published version of record.
Garea first author. A meta-analysis pooling 15 studies on problem gambling and seven on excessive gaming reported a small to moderate positive correlation between loot box spending and problem gambling symptoms, about 0.26, rising to about 0.37 once corrected for publication bias, and about 0.25 for excessive gaming. Causal direction is not established. These figures come from the accepted manuscript rather than the published version of record.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-18.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Garea, S. S., Drummond, A., Sauer, J. D., Hall, L. C., & Williams, M. N. (2021). Meta-analysis of the relationship between problem gambling, excessive gaming and loot box spending. International Gambling Studies, 21(3).