Recruiting Gamblers from the General Population for Research Purposes: Outcomes from Two Contrasting Approaches

Multiple means exist by which gamblers including problem gamblers may be recruited from the general population for research survey purposes. However, there appears to be limited discussion in the published literature about the relative merits of one or other approach. This paper addresses this gap, in part, by reporting the experiences of employing two contrasting approaches to survey recruitment: passive advertisement versus active solicitation outside gambling venues. Fifty participants were recruited by advertisement and 54 by active solicitation. The former group was found to be less ethnically diverse and more likely to be problem gamblers than the latter group which, due to the nature of the recruitment process, showed a more even distribution of ethnicity and PGSI classified risk and problem gambler categories. Results also indicated that recruitment by advertisement was more cost effective for reaching problem gamblers whilst active solicitation was more cost effective for the recruitment of low risk and moderate risk gamblers.