Internet gambling has rapidly grown into one of the fastest-growing forms of gambling, offering potentially addictive forms that may lead to harmful behaviour such as addiction or mental health issues.
Governments must address the social harms associated with online gambling and understand how technology can be utilized to minimize them. This article highlights how different stakeholder groups can work toward the common goal of minimizing online gambling’s effects on society.
Online casinos
Internet gambling has quickly become a favorite form of casino play for casino enthusiasts. While its convenience and accessibility offer several advantages, more must still be done to limit harmful gambling behavior related to online gaming.
Betting online has been linked with an increase in problem gambling prevalence [2,4,6,9,12]. Unlike land-based casinos, there are no established policies pertaining to acceptable or unacceptable designs in online gambling sites.
Regulators and policy makers must therefore be cognizant of all of the ways individuals access Internet gambling, and its implications on problem and moderate risk gambling behaviors.
This research explored the relationship between access mode and gambling harms among gamblers who reported experiencing either problem gambling or moderate risks over the last six months, and whether they preferred PCs or additional devices or offline gambling for gambling activities. Researchers discovered that those using additional devices or offline gambling more often than PC users experienced problems.
Online sportsbooks
Online sportsbooks have quickly become one of the most convenient ways for people to place bets on sporting events, particularly since many states have legalized such gambling activities.
Some sportsbooks provide new customers with free bets without needing to make an initial deposit, providing the perfect way for them to test out a site before risking their hard-earned funds.
Depending on which sportsbook you select, there are various payment methods you can use to fund your account: credit cards, e-wallets and debit. Each option comes with its own rules regarding deposit amounts and withdrawal requests.
Many sportsbooks also provide sign-up offers and promotions designed to lure new customers, giving you a chance at winning thousands in bonus cash and bets that could be matched up to 100% or distributed over time – providing an ideal way to begin betting at online sportsbooks.
Online poker
Online poker has quickly become one of the most popular ways to gamble for real money online. This is because it provides access to multiple games, flexible deposit/withdrawal options, and competition with players worldwide.
However, online poker does present some unique challenges. First of all, it is not legal in all states and secondly the Wire Act forbids transferring funds across state lines for gambling purposes.
Though online poker may appear unsafe at first glance, this does not indicate its lack of safety. Online poker operators utilize advanced firewalls and encryption tools to protect their players’ personal data.
Despite these challenges, online poker continues to experience rapid growth and is projected to reach $28 billion by 2022. This trend can largely be attributed to COVID-19 pandemic’s increased traffic to poker platforms that offer both free roll games and cash tournaments.
Online lottery
An increasing number of individuals are betting online due to a variety of reasons, including increased accessibility of gambling platforms and enhanced security processes. This trend could also be explained by other factors.
Internet gambling behavior is expected to evolve quickly in the years ahead, and studies using convenience samples or unweighted panels offer ample research on this subject.
Overall, 17 studies fulfilled inclusion criteria; half were cross-sectional assessments while others collected early gambling data from participants. Each of the 17 reported an overall reduction in gambling frequency and expenditure during lockdown periods [4].
Two studies evaluated participants’ perceptions of their reasons or motives for cutting back on gambling: Health Promotion Agency’s New Zealand study provided a checklist while YouGov in Great Britain used open-ended questions to measure them; boredom was most frequently mentioned among them along with earning extra money.