Online Gambling Problems Common U.K.Study

Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

According to an article on the net by EGR recently, new research to be presented at the British Psychological Society's Social Psychology Conference suggests problem gambling is ten times more common among those who gamble online than offline. The British Psychological Society's Social Psychology Section annual conference, is taking place at The Edge in Sheffield England until the 17th of September. Over 200 psychologists from the UK and other parts of the world will gather to present their research and debate their theories.

Professor of Gambling Studies at Nottingham Trent University, Dr. Mark Griffiths, led his team of researchers, through the Internet gambling; A secondary analysis of findings from the 2007 British Gambling Prevalence Survey project. The group used information from the most recent British Gambling Prevalence Survey to point out that the level of problem gambling among those who had used the internet to gamble, 5% of those surveyed was in fact ten times higher than among those who gambled at conventional venues.

Dr.Griffiths said, "This study's findings suggest that the medium of the internet may be more likely to contribute to problem gambling than gambling in offline environments. It is clear that gaming companies need to acknowledge they will need to provide even better social responsibility infrastructures online than offline to minimise the harm to problem gamblers." The study used data from a survey of 9003 adults aged 16 years and older who had gambled online and or used a betting exchange in the last 12 months.

Professor Griffiths also said, "There is also the issue of how internet problem gamblers can be helped. Recent research suggests that online problem gamblers appear to prefer to seek help online, therefore online help, guidance and treatment may be a potential way forward to help those who may feel too stigmatised to seek traditional face-to-face help for their gambling problems."

The research was a collaboration with the National Centre for Social Research and Professor Jim Orford of the University of Birmingham, and was funded by the Gambling Commission.