ELLEN: A Practitioner-Focused Evaluation Pipeline for Community-Based Gambling Prevention Programs
Session Title
Responsible Gambling: Evaluation Frameworks
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation
Start Date
26-5-2026 12:00 AM
Abstract
Programs that promote responsible gambling often lack practical ways to collect, interpret, and act on meaningful data, limiting their ability to demonstrate impact, secure funding, or guide improvements without costly external evaluators. ELLEN (Engage, Log, Load, Navigate Forward) provides a structured, user-friendly evaluation pipeline that translates raw data into actionable insights, even for practitioners without formal data expertise. The framework uses five key questions: knowledge acquisition, impact awareness, reflection, behavioral intent, and perceived program relevance. Prebuilt templates and reproducible RStudio code generate analyses and visualizations with guidance. By giving practitioners ownership of data insights, ELLEN supports evidence-based decisions, program refinement, and learning. A pilot at a senior center promoting responsible gambling demonstrated feasibility, engagement, and early behavioral change. Findings informed program improvements and illustrated potential cost savings. ELLEN was also used to obtain funding through the National Council on Problem Gambling for youth Mobile Escape Rooms, which deliver preventive messaging and learning outcomes on sports and gambling risk.
ELLEN: A Practitioner-Focused Evaluation Pipeline for Community-Based Gambling Prevention Programs
Programs that promote responsible gambling often lack practical ways to collect, interpret, and act on meaningful data, limiting their ability to demonstrate impact, secure funding, or guide improvements without costly external evaluators. ELLEN (Engage, Log, Load, Navigate Forward) provides a structured, user-friendly evaluation pipeline that translates raw data into actionable insights, even for practitioners without formal data expertise. The framework uses five key questions: knowledge acquisition, impact awareness, reflection, behavioral intent, and perceived program relevance. Prebuilt templates and reproducible RStudio code generate analyses and visualizations with guidance. By giving practitioners ownership of data insights, ELLEN supports evidence-based decisions, program refinement, and learning. A pilot at a senior center promoting responsible gambling demonstrated feasibility, engagement, and early behavioral change. Findings informed program improvements and illustrated potential cost savings. ELLEN was also used to obtain funding through the National Council on Problem Gambling for youth Mobile Escape Rooms, which deliver preventive messaging and learning outcomes on sports and gambling risk.