Greater accessibility to online gambling doesn't result in greater risk
The key findings are the following:
Harvard Findings
Addiction specialist Dr Howard Shaffer presented findings in 2011 from a Harvard research study he performed on online gambling. Shaffer started his research as far back as 2005 with data provided by global gambling operator bwin, before it merged with PartyGaming to form bwin.party.
After years of analyzing betting data, Shaffer was able to determine that greater accessibility at online gambling sites does not actually result in a higher rate of problem gambling. Furthermore, he also concluded that 75% of online problem gamblers had already displayed addictive behavior before playing online.
CAP Findings
A more recent report from UK advertising authority CAP provides perspective on TV marketing. Having evaluated the TV advertising methods of online gambling operators since 2007, CAP found that adverts had no impact, with UK problem gambling rates remaining flat over the past several years.
In fact, the report even stated that problem gambling rates among young people had remained static in spite of years of growth in the industry.
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