Smartphone app will help problem gamblers

Bo Bernhard, the executive director of the Las Vegas-based International Gaming Institute is one of several professional inputs to Health-E Gambling, a new smart phone application currently being developed by the University of Las Vegas and Harvard Medical School to help foster responsible gambling and assist problem gamblers.

The app can point users to the closest Gamblers Anonymous chapter, and track how much time and how much money the user is devoting to gambling, along with indicators of a developing problem.

“You can track down to the millisecond all of your gambling activity. How long you’ve been playing. You can track all of the money that you’ve been spending. You can look at your ups and your downs. You can set limits,” Bernhard said.

Berhard claims that gamblers are notoriously poor at recalling their own gambling behaviors.

“If we were to poll people at McCarran Airport about how they did when they were here in Las Vegas, they probably wouldn’t have a very strong recall or very precise recall. This app forces you to recall and to measure that,” Bernhard said.

The Health-E Gambling app is expected to be released this spring and will be available free of charge.