'For people with problems, with a gambling addiction, that's in their face,' Brett said. Spokespeople for Google and Apple, which run the most popular app stores, declined to comment. His solution: Move social casino apps to a separate section of app stores, so it's less likely a player will find them just by swiping through their home page. 'I have to be really strong, and my clients have to be strong about how they do it.'Īddicts who encounter the games on their own, without the sort of guidance Lawrence offers, may not have that strength.īrett said gambling apps shouldn't be so pervasive, particularly because they make it harder for him and other gambling addicts to stay clean.

'I look at it in terms that I am a gambling addict, and that if I start purchasing credits online, that would be the end of me, and I would just struggle from there,' Lawrence said. Lawrence trains his clients to pick games where there aren't continual pop-ups for buyable extras, saying they can trigger the addiction. Still, the freemium model presents a challenge. 'It gives them that little bit of adrenaline rush and helps control their addiction and modify their behavior,' says Lawrence, who spends up to two hours a day on Slotomania himself. Tony Lawrence, a 58-year-old recovering gambling addict, and a counselor at the Aboriginal Gambling Help Service in Adelaide, Australia, says he's used social casino games as a teaching tool for himself and his clients. Though games might feed addiction for some, they can help manage it for others. 'It's about the individuals that kind of have that kind of obsessive aspect in their own personality.'

'It's not the games themselves that are addictive,' said Andrew Pedersen, senior vice president and general manager of social casinos for the cable channel Game Show Network, whose GSN Games division makes casino apps for smartphones. Game makers have struck deals with celebrities and popular brands to help increase their profile.

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