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Study: Legalize and Regulate Online Gambling
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16-Jul-2008, 17:02
According to a study released on Tuesday, Canada and the United States should legalize and regulate online gambling to contain its potentially harmful effects because players tend to bet more frequently and aggressively than they do in live casinos.
The study, conducted jointly by academics of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), found that online gambling is readily accessible via the Internet even though it is outlawed or in a "legal grey area" in the United States and Canada. Placing wagers online is a problem, according to the academics, as it has the potential to be more addictive than casino gambling since online players can mask their activity more easily than casino players, and wagering can quickly become a routine part of their habits.
As part of the study, 20 regular casino players and 10 regular online players were asked a series of questions. Pictures were used to stimulate in order to discover what gambling feels like and how it is perceived by the participants. Results show online gamblers bet more frequently and more aggressively.
The study's authors suggested that governments encourage large corporations to enter a new, regulated online gambling market. The study also suggested government sponsors in Canada might enter the market and regulate it with measures like more effective age checks when signing up, setting limits on bets and implementing mandatory "cooling-off" periods that force gamblers to stop betting for a set amount of time.