Matthew Rockloff — Author Page | King Billy Casino
My name is Matthew Rockloff. I’m a professor at CQUniversity Australia and head of the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory (EGRL) — one of the most active gambling research centres in the Southern Hemisphere. I’ve spent the better part of two decades running controlled experiments on electronic gaming machines (EGMs), studying how ordinary Australians make decisions when money is on the line, and working out why some people walk away fine while others can’t stop. I write for King Billy Casino not to glamorise gambling, but because I believe that honest, evidence-based content is the best thing a casino can offer its audience. If you’re going to play, you deserve to understand what’s actually happening.
Who is Matthew Rockloff?
I grew up in Australia at a time when pokies were already woven into the social fabric — every pub, every club, every RSL had a row of them glowing in the corner. That familiarity made me curious rather than dismissive. What is it about these machines that holds people’s attention so effectively? Why does a near-miss feel more exciting than a small win? These questions pulled me into academia and have kept me there ever since. My work sits at the intersection of psychology, economics, and public health — and the gambling industry, like it or not, touches all three.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Matthew Rockloff |
| Country | Australia |
| University | CQUniversity Australia |
| Research unit | Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory (EGRL) |
| Role | Professor, Head of EGRL |
| Specialisation | EGMs, behavioural studies, problem gambling, experimental research |
| Currency focus | A$ (Australian dollar) |
My Research Background
The EGRL at CQUniversity is a lab built specifically to study gamblers in conditions as close to real play as possible. We don’t just run surveys — we build experimental simulations, recruit real players, track actual betting behaviour, and measure physiological responses. Over the years my team has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers covering topics like:
- EGM game features — how autoplay, speed of play, and bonus rounds affect spending
- Near-miss effects — why a reel stopping just short of a jackpot increases arousal more than a clear loss
- Erroneous cognitions — the beliefs players hold that have no statistical basis but feel completely real
- Harm minimisation — what actually works when you want to help at-risk players slow down
- Social gambling environments — how being around other people changes individual risk tolerance
This isn’t armchair theory. Every finding I write about here either comes from my own published research or from peer-reviewed work that I can point you to directly. I have no interest in telling you what you want to hear.
Why I Write for King Billy Casino
I get asked this question fairly often, and I think it deserves a straight answer. King Billy Casino is an online casino operating under a legitimate licence, targeting the Australian market among others. When they approached me to contribute content, my condition was simple: I write what the data says, not what marketing wants. They agreed, and so far that arrangement has held.
There is a real gap in the quality of gambling content online. Most casino review sites are written by people with no research background who repeat the same SEO-optimised sentences about “exciting gameplay” and “generous bonuses.” That content doesn’t help players make better decisions — it just fills a page. I’d rather write fewer pieces that actually give someone a useful frame for thinking about variance, return-to-player percentages, or session budgeting.
King Billy Casino targets Australian players specifically, which means A$ transactions, payment methods relevant to this market, and games that comply with Australian consumer expectations. That specificity matters to me. Generic advice written for no-one in particular tends to help no-one in particular.
What I Cover in My Articles
My writing on this site falls into a few consistent categories:
Game mechanics and mathematics: I explain how specific game types work — not just what they look like, but how the RNG functions, what the theoretical RTP means in practice over 500 spins versus 50,000, and how volatility affects your session experience depending on your bankroll.
Behavioural traps and cognitive biases: The gambler’s fallacy, hot-hand bias, loss-chasing — these are documented phenomena, not moralising. I describe what the research actually shows about how and why players fall into these patterns, and what that means for someone sitting at a pokie or a blackjack table.
Responsible gambling tools: Deposit limits, time alerts, self-exclusion — I review how these tools work and what the evidence says about their effectiveness. Some work better than others, and the nuances matter.
Casino product reviews: When I review a game or a casino feature, I approach it the way I’d approach any experimental condition: what are the rules, what are the odds, what does the data say about outcomes? I don’t use phrases like “thrilling experience” unless I can back up what that actually means behaviourally.
My Approach to Responsible Gambling
| Principle | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Transparency | I state RTPs, house edges, and variance levels wherever relevant |
| Evidence-based | Every claim links back to published research or verifiable maths |
| No moralising | I don’t lecture — I inform. Adults make their own choices |
| Harm awareness | I flag risk factors clearly, especially around EGMs |
| Local context | Australian regulatory environment and A$ figures throughout |
Problem gambling affects roughly 1% of Australian adults at a severe level, with another 1–3% experiencing moderate harm. Those numbers sound small until you consider the population size — we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people. My research has always taken that seriously, and so does my writing here. If you’re reading an article of mine and something resonates uncomfortably, the resources are there: Gamblers Help (1800 858 858), and the National Gambling Helpline are both free and confidential.
Selected Topics I’ve Written About
- How to read an EGM paytable properly
- What “97% RTP” actually means for your A$100 session
- Bonus buy features: maths versus marketing
- Blackjack basic strategy — the version backed by simulation data
- Live dealer games and the psychology of perceived control
- Setting a loss limit that you’ll actually stick to
