UConn Prof Thinks VR Casinos Can Help Real World Problem Gamblers Find Relief
Posted on: August 26, 2025, 01:46h.
Last updated on: August 26, 2025, 01:57h.
- UConn is studying whether virtual reality casinos can help problem gamblers
- VR is thought to help with other addictions, including smoking
- Problem gambling rates are rising in the US.
Can a virtual reality casino help problem gamblers overcome their addictions? An associate professor at the University of Connecticut (UConn) is betting on it.
Robert Astur, an associate professor of psychological sciences at UConn, is amid a study involving students at the public research university’s main campus in Storrs. The participants, all of whom are admitted problem gamblers, are seeking to curb or eliminate their addiction to gambling.
Astur’s study provides them a simulated casino environment where participants can take out their frustrations on the games they’ve become addicted to playing, including slot machines and table games. In the VR casinos, the study participants can destroy slot machines with hammers and set fire to decks of cards.
We’ll track physiological responses and behavioral changes to see if this intervention helps cut down gambling habits,” Astur told UConn Today, the university’s official news outlet. “If successful, this approach could revolutionize addiction treatment, not just for gambling, but for other compulsive behaviors like cannabis use and even cell phone addiction. The future of addiction therapy might just be virtual.”
Astur says preliminary findings suggest the VR casino experience is beneficial.
Similar Study Helped Smokers Quit
Astur was part of a research program in 2009 that involved tobacco smokers entering similar virtual reality environments where they could take out their built-up anger about being a smoker. In that study, conducted by the psychology department at the University of Quebec, smokers were able to crush and stomp on cigarettes.
The smoking VR study fielded strong results, with 15% of the participants abstaining from tobacco in the aftermath of the simulation compared to just 2% in the control group.
“Self-efficacy is such a critical component of controlling your behavior in life,” added Astur.
Finian Zakas, a doctoral student at UConn who is working on the problem gambling study, said the focus is to see if a person’s gambling behavior can be changed through virtual reality.
“What we’re really looking for is changes — urges and feelings they can control in the face of gambling stimuli,” said Zakas.
Problem Gaming Rates
Problem gambling is thought to be on the rise across much of the United States, as gaming has become more mainstream in recent years, largely because of the proliferation of legal sports gambling.
At the University of Massachusetts (UMass), a study made public this month by its School of Public Health and Health Sciences concluded that the number of gamblers experiencing gambling-related harms jumped from 20.9% in 2022 to 28% last year. Frequently cited issues included the inability to pay bills and family and relationship struggles.
In July, the National Council on Problem Gambling reported that an estimated 20 million American adults experienced “at least one problematic gambling behavior ‘many times’ in the past year.”
Problem gambling increases have been most experienced by younger people, including those on college campuses. Problem gambling rates among college students are thought to be occurring at a rate two to four times higher than among older adults.
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