New Research in favour of Online Gambling
21st April, 2009
A new research study into increased gambling and its impact on problem gambling, has found that due to regulations in place problem gambling has decreased in the last two decades.
The study was conducted by Dr Howard Shaffer and the European betting group Bwin, and focused on the understanding of responsible gambling. It found that the vast majority of gamblers who gamble online, do so in a moderate way when compared with gamblers from the 1970’s.
According to Dr Shaffer, who is director of the Harvard Medical Scholl’s Addictions Department, the findings disputed an early hypothesis that suggested the increased accessibility of online gambling would have lead to more gambling related problems.
Dr Shaffer stated, “The very first thing we learned, which we didn't expect, was that the vast majority, the overwhelming majority, of gamblers online gamble in a very moderate and mild way.”
It is also likely that the results will be key to the current debate over legalisation of online gambling in the US, where despite there being a large demand for new legislation, it is still illegal.
Many researchers and online gambling campaigners believe the problem to be with a lack of understanding. Dr Shaffer also said, “Preventing people from gambling online is likely to be ineffective in reducing problem gambling, rather, education, public awareness programs and truth in advertising regulations will be more successful in helping to keep gambling safer.”
By Rommon
