Don't Go There: A Geospatial mHealth App for Gambling Disorder

The goal of this project is to develop and to test the efficacy of a novel mHealth app for gambling disorder. The app capitalizes on smartphones' global positioning software (GPS) that recognizes a user's location to within 15 feet. Users will receive an alert of this go near a gambling venue. The project will conduct a 12-week pilot randomized clinical trial to test the short-term efficacy of the app with gambling disorder individuals.

Study Overview

• Status: Withdrawn
• Conditions: Gambling Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: mHealth App

• Study Type: Interventional
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Missouri
    • St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63108
      • Saint Louis University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Currently meets DSM-5 criteria for gambling disorder
• At least 4 non-online gambling episodes in past 60 days
• Wagering at least $100 total over past 60 days
• Willingness to accept random assignment
• English speaking
• Android phone user

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age <18 years old
• Severely disruptive behavior
• Serious uncontrolled psychiatric behavior that requires acute psychiatric care
• Decline permission to collect zero permission data from smartphone.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: mHealth App; Participants will receive the gambling disorder mHealth app.	Behavioral: mHealth App; The app uses smartphones' global positioning software (GPS) that recognizes a user's location to within 15 feet. The app will construct a customizable geofence (e.g., 3 miles) around a gambler's favored gambling venue (e.g., casino, gas station). If the individual crosses the fence boundary his or her phone will raise the alarm with a personalized motivational message.
No Intervention: Wait List Control; Participant will be placed on a wait list for 12 weeks, after which they will be offered the gambling disorder mHealth app.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
App usage (feasibility)	Number of days the app is active on a user's smartphone. Days can range from 0 to 84.	From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)
Patient satisfaction with the gambling app	Investigator derived patient satisfaction self-report questionnaire. Five items, using a 7-point Likert scale from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (7). Higher scores indicate a better outcome.	From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Gambling behavior via Timeline Followback (Weinstock, Whelan, & Meyers, 2004)	Self-report gambling frequency and intensity as assessed by the Gambling Timeline Followback - a retrospective self-report calendar. Gambling frequency can range from 0 to 84; gambling intensity is measured in $ and time (hours). Dollars wagered can range from $0 to unlimited $. Time is measured in hours and can range from 0 to >1,000 hours. Higher scores indicate a worse outcome.	From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)
Gambling-related harms (Browne et al., 2018)	Self-reported gambling harms as assessed by the 72-item Gambling-Related Harms Questionnaire (yes/no responses). Scores range from 0 to 72. Higher scores indicate a worse outcome.	From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)
Quality of Life Inventory (Frisch et al., 1994). A self-reported quality of life measure assessing 17 domains of life for importance and satisfaction.	Self-report quality of life questionnaire. Participants rate 17 domains on importance (range not at all important [0] to extremely important [2]). The 17 domains are then rated on how satisfied the individual is regards to his or her life (-3 [very dissatisfied] to 3 [very dissatisfied]). A total score is then generated by summing the product of importance multiplied by satisfaction. Scores range from 0 to 102. Higher scores indicate a better outcome.	From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: St. Louis University
• Collaborators: National Center for Responsible Gaming
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jeremiah Weinstock, PhD, St. Louis University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 31, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 5, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 7, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): November 8, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): August 27, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 20, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: mHealth App
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders; Behavior; Risk-Taking; Gambling
• Other Study ID Numbers: 30494

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No