Clinical psychology Ph.D. student Cassandra Grinstead explores if video game “loot boxes” can be an early introduction to the mechanics and psychology of gambling
Cassandra Grinstead
By Taylor Pedersen, CLA Student Writer - January 26, 2026
For as long as she can remember, Cassandra Grinstead has been playing video games. She has fond memories of playing games like Minecraft with her siblings, and the night her family got a Wii and played Wii Sports for hours. As she grew up, she made lifelong friendships through online games and communities such as Destiny 2. But while gaming was her hobby, she wanted a different career path.
“I always knew I wanted to be a psychologist, but I wasn’t sure what path to take,” she said. “I interviewed people and asked, ‘how do I become a psychologist?’ Most of them told me, ‘do research and see if you like it.”
So she did.
At the University of Arizona, where she was a fifth-generation Wildcat, Grinstead majored in psychology and Japanese. She joined multiple research labs, including the Social Connectedness and Health Lab, as well as the Child Cognition Lab, where she eventually became lab manager.
After studying abroad in Japan as an undergraduate student, she ended up moving to Japan in 2021 to begin a master’s program at Ochanomizu University, a women’s national university in Tokyo. "I think learning about another culture and language is important for having a healthy brain,” she said. “It makes you a more positive member of society.”
Soon after, Grinstead joined Washington State University’s IMPACT Lab as a lab manager, where she focused on youth substance use and prevention research. “That job was actually perfect,” she said. “I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing—learning how you can intervene across the healthcare continuum, from prevention to treatment to recovery. It really shaped the kind of research I’m doing now.”
When it came time to apply to graduate school, Grinstead looked for programs that would allow her to continue both research and clinical training. She found the right match at Oregon State, joining the inaugural cohort of the College of Liberal Arts’ clinical psychology Ph.D. program at the School of Psychological Science
Now working with Dr. David Kerr, she’s exploring a different but increasingly urgent form of addiction: gambling. Her research focuses on how online gaming environments, particularly those with built-in “loot box” systems, can condition players to engage in gambling-like behaviors.
“I play video games every single day. I love them,” she said. “They’ve had a really positive influence on my life; it’s how I met a lot of my favorite people.” Grinstead wants to research more about the psychology of players and games, specifically their monetization models. “Buying ‘loot boxes’ or playing ‘gacha games’ looks a lot like gambling, but this field needs more research to understand if loot boxes are truly risky or similar to gambling.”
Loot boxes: virtual items that players can purchase for a random in-game reward, are often dismissed as harmless. But for many young players, Grinstead said, they can be an early introduction to the mechanics and psychology of gambling. “Gamers actually tend to say they think it’s similar to gambling,” she said. “But because it’s in a game, it’s often free, legal, and not considered gambling in the U.S.” She pointed to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which has officially stated that loot boxes aren’t gambling. “But if you look at the scale of it—hundreds of millions of dollars spent every year—it deserves another look to truly understand if it is similar to gambling or not, especially considering other countries have enacted restrictions.”
Grinstead is looking to potentially collaborate with Japanese researchers to study loot box behavior among youth in Japan, where most kinds of gambling are illegal. “Japan is starting to open up to new forms of gambling; they’re building their first integrated gambling resort similar to what we have in Vegas,” she said. “So I’m interested in how people there perceive loot boxes. Are they seen by players as more harmful or less? What kinds of games are popular, and how does that shape attitudes? Even if the results show no difference, that’s still really important information.”
Despite focusing on addiction, Grinstead’s outlook is far from pessimistic. “Having a particular monetization model doesn’t make a game inherently harmful,,” she said. “There’s a lot of evidence that games can be positive and even therapeutic. And for people in rural or marginalized communities, online games can be their main source of friendship and connection. I know games have created amazing connections for me.”
That balanced perspective, one that recognizes both the risks and the potential of gaming, mirrors Grinstead’s larger goal as a researcher: to understand behavior without judgment, and to use that understanding to help people lead healthier, more connected lives.
“Psychology doesn’t always focus on the positive,” she said, “but I think it’s just as important to ask what protects people as what harms them. That’s the kind of research I want to do.”