Cyran said:
JWeinCom said:
That's posted by an organization whose purpose is to encourage gambling, so gotta take that with a grain of salt. The studies they cite seem to be from reputable institutions, but I'd like to see the full studies, because data can be cherry picked.
The studies seem to indicate that online gaming itself is not more addictive than something such as casino gaming, which seems pretty logical. Being able to control the entire environment would definitely be an advantage in getting people to gamble. So, that's a good point as to why online gaming might not lead to major problems.
But the question is in scale. The study found 1-5% of people did in fact gamble "excessively". That's a fairly significant portion and unlike those who gamble excessively at casinos, but unlike the casino goers, there's little to stand in the way of excessive gambling.
The study they quote to address that issue user Pokerstars as an example, but I think Poker is not a great comparison. Poker is a game where you play against other players, and success is largely skill based. Because of this, it naturally limits the amount that people who are not good at poker are going to play. If you perceive your loss as simply bad luck and next time you might have good luck, then you're more likely to keep playing, compared to if you you view your loss as a result of other players being better than you, and you're probably going to lose in the future as well.
Of course, it's possible that online gaming isn't a major issue and there's no justification for any extreme regulation, but those studies don't convince me.
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Sport betting was also included in study as mention in the dataset(university of Hamburg. Bwin provided access to 4,000 online casino players and 40,000 sports bettors.). Tracking down these PHD studies online is a pain because a lot of time they under some Harvard database that not easy to find or available for none students etc. Even the study mention in your article they not providing a link to original study.
Here a link talking about the study from a less bias source when it comes to gambling
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-psychology-of-online-gambling-versus-going-to-a-casino/374107/
EDIT: also for the 1-5% what was found to compulsively online gamble the study said that being able to gamble online was not a trigging event meaning they was addictively gamble before they could gamble online. People like that will find a way to gamble legal or not legal till they get help. If anything maybe collecting of data could help identify these people quicker to get them help.
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I couldn't find the studies either, so it's hard to say how useful they are.
Even if the online gambling is not triggering, then still giving addictive gamblers access 24/7 is potentially problematic.
It's a good point that the online interface can be used to identify problem gamblers. That's an argument I'm largely in favor of when it comes to most drugs and possibly prostitution. But, I'm not arguing for a strict ban on online gambling. I'm open to the possibility of online gambling being legal with regulations to limit the potential abuse. But as far as I know, that's not the case in NY.
