The study was undertaken by Schottler Consulting, Brisbane to identify and measure a range of factors within electronic gaming machine (EGM) players and within the EGM gaming environment, which may influence the ability of gamblers to adhere to pre-committed limits.

Observational methods was used to address its aims, and define pre-commitment as "monetary and other limits set for gambling by a player to guide their personal behaviours".

The study showed that players are more likely to exceed their expenditure limit, if they experience the following during gaming machine play:

* an increase in the number of free spins (after moving from the first to the second gaming machine)

* being highly absorbed and involved in gaming machine play

* stronger urges to continue during gaming machine play

* high excitement after receiving features during gaming machine play.

Problem gamblers who exceed expenditure limits tend to play at a faster rate of play than low risk gamblers.