MGM Resorts-owned LeoVegas Group has agreed a new collaboration with Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Neuroscience, one of the world’s leading medical universities.
The four-year research project will aim to increase understanding of gambling problems and improve methods for identifying and preventing them by studying the operator’s customer data
LeoVegas, which was recently acquired by New York-listed MGM Resorts, is providing funding and raw data to the research team, who will begin the project before the end of this year.
Philip Lindner, an associate professor and leader of the university’s research unit with expertise in clinical and applied research in digital psychiatry, will lead the project.
The university’s research unit aims to develop, evaluate, and implement new tools for mapping and treating mental illness. The collaboration guarantees the researchers academic freedom, and the research will shortly be submitted for ethical review.
“Responsible gaming is an important priority for LeoVegas Group. We believe that our industry must take greater responsibility for contributing knowledge and facts about gambling-related problems, and learning how to minimise these issues,” said LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman. “We are proud to be partnering with Karolinska Institutet to carry out this valuable research and hope that decision-makers and the igaming industry will be able to apply the findings in order to support more responsible gambling.’’
Lindner added: “As researchers at universities, we have a duty to spread knowledge that is useful to society. This collaboration gives us a unique opportunity to study data that hasn’t previously been available for research. We hope that the collaboration will lead to new ways of identifying and helping players at risk, at the earliest possible stage.”
Shares in LeoVegas parent company MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) closed at $32.46 per share in New York Thursday.