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My name’s Amy, and I’m a first-year ESRC-funded PhD researcher at Loughborough University, working in collaboration with Ygam.
My doctoral project, Digital Gaming/Gambling Harms and Students: Financial Literacy and the Transition to Adulthood, explores how Higher Education students experience and make sense of the increasingly blurred boundaries between digital gaming and gambling. This research sits at the intersection of digital culture, financial independence, wellbeing and harm prevention.
In this blog, I will explain a little more about my research, why it matters, share early insights from the existing research literature and from my work with Ygam, and outline where the research is heading next.
Video gaming is woven into everyday student life. For many young people, it offers enjoyment, community, and a way to decompress. Yet many digital games now contain gambling-style mechanics – such as loot boxes, ‘gacha’ systems, or other randomised reward mechanisms – that mimic key psychological and structural features of conventional gambling.
These features often fall outside of existing gambling regulation. As a result, they are widely accessible to young people and subject to fewer formal safeguards, often appearing playful and harmless despite resembling conventional gambling in how they operate and are experienced. This “gaming–gambling” convergence has therefore attracted growing attention from policymakers, educators, and researchers. However, the lived experiences of older teenagers and university students – those at a key developmental and financial life stage – remain understudied. This is an important gap because without understanding how they experience and respond to these reward systems, is difficult to assess potential risks or develop effective education and policy responses tailored to this group, many of whom are navigating new financial independence and increased autonomy. My PhD seeks to address this gap, with a particular focus on students in Higher Education.
The transition into adulthood brings new freedoms and pressures. Students are navigating independent budgeting, student loans, part-time work, and the rising cost of living – all while spending time in digital environments where chance-based systems are normalised.
My research focuses on:
Understanding these experiences is vital because it highlights where students may be vulnerable and where support or guidance could prevent harm without restricting positive forms of engagement.
The project will also be guided by four core research questions:
Crucially, the project centres students’ own accounts, rather than assuming harm or risk. I am using qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with students and university professional services, to build a grounded understanding of how these systems are encountered, interpreted, and negotiated.
This project brings together themes that have shaped my academic interests: digital infrastructures, platform design, ethical ambiguity, and how people make sense of risk and value in everyday digital life. I’ve always been drawn to grey areas where ordinary, enjoyable practices intersect with ethical tension or potential harm – and gambling-like mechanics in games are a perfect example of that complexity.
Across my work, I’ve been interested less in whether behaviours are “right” or “wrong” and more in how people themselves interpret what they’re doing, how they rationalise choices, and how broader social and digital contexts shape those decisions.
This PhD is meaningful to me because it takes young people’s own interpretations seriously. By grounding harm-prevention in lived experience – not assumptions – I hope the project supports more nuanced, realistic and compassionate approaches to education and policy.
Mapping the literature
Much of my early work has focused on reviewing pre-existing research across psychology, gambling studies, media and communications, sociology, law, and geography. Yet one key (and unexpected) challenge has been inconsistent terminology. Terminology matters because these differences shape how players experience these mechanisms and how we understand risk. However, the word loot box is often used as a catch-all term for systems that differ dramatically in structure, cost, integration into gameplay and regulatory implications.
Adopting a clearer framework: Randomised Reward Mechanisms (RRMs)
To navigate the terminology challenge, I am adopting Randomised Reward Mechanisms (RRMs) as a neutral, structural descriptor for any system that gives players rewards through chance after meeting an eligibility condition – e.g., paying money, spending in-game currency, completing tasks (Nielsen & Grabarczyk, 2019; Xiao, 2022).
RRMs already allow important distinctions to be made, including:
However, not all RRMs operate in the same way. In my research, I am considering extending this framework by also considering:
These distinctions are essential for understanding how students perceive value, risk and spending – and for making sense of their lived experiences.
How RRMs are shaping my literature review
Structuring the literature using RRMs has allowed me to organise the review around four main strands:
The review process has also highlighted gaps that exist amongst the current research literature. Identifying these areas, particularly the limited qualitative research centred on older teenagers and Higher Education student’s experiences, has clarified where my project can make a meaningful contribution.
Work with Ygam
Lastly, attending Ygam’s University Roadshows early in my PhD has given me invaluable practical context. The discussions emphasised that “students” are not a homogenous group: experiences of risk vary by financial circumstances, cultural background, accommodation, employment, nationality, and more. This reinforced the need for nuance, segmentation and context-awareness – all now central to my research design.
I’ve also supported analysis of Ygam’s annual Student Gambling Survey which offers valuable insight into students’ behaviours, motivations, and experiences across the UK, helping to plan and organise focus groups with Ygam’s student ambassadors. These conversations add vital qualitative texture to survey findings by exploring whether statistical patterns resonate with lived experience.
A recurring challenge is avoiding overly simplistic narratives about gaming and gambling. Gaming is not inherently harmful; for many students it supports wellbeing and social connection. Yet some games are deliberately designed to encourage repeated engagement and spending, and these design features can contribute to harm. Understanding these dynamics therefore requires recognising both how students actively engage with games and how gaming systems are designed to shape behaviour, without assuming that harm occurs in every case.
Another challenge is the project’s interdisciplinary nature, which spans geography but also psychology, public health, law, media studies, and social sciences. Each field brings its own assumptions and methods and weaving these together while maintaining conceptual clarity requires careful work. But this is also what makes the project both intellectually exciting and practically valuable.
The next phase of my research will deepen my literature review by engaging more directly with digital geographies, geographies of childhood and youth, and more specifically, student geographies – as well as related literatures that examine student life and digital infrastructures. While RRMs have been widely discussed in psychology, public health and law, far less work has examined how space, place and everyday routines shape engagement with these systems.
A geographical perspective offers a way to situate gambling-style mechanics within the everyday worlds of student life – from accommodation and campus environments to digital platforms and budgeting routines.
Alongside developing the literature review for this project, I will be refining the research design and completing the ethical review process in preparation for data collection. The aim is to begin collecting data with Higher Education students in Autumn this year. I’ll also be attending various conferences and events throughout the year to refine ideas and strengthen the project.
If you are interested in this research, or work in Higher Education and may be able to support the project, please do get in touch. Also stay up to date with my research and progress by following Ygam on socials. Or check out other research projects supported by Ygam here.
Nielsen, R. K. L., & Grabarczyk, P. (2019). Are Loot Boxes Gambling? Random Reward Mechanisms in Video Games. Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.26503/todigra.v4i3.104
Xiao, L. Y. (2022). Which Implementations of Loot Boxes Constitute Gambling? A UK Legal Perspective on the Potential Harms of Random Reward Mechanisms. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20(1), 437–454. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00372-3
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