Online Gambling involves the use of electronic payment methods to play casino games, sports wagering, fantasy sports, online poker and lottery tickets. This activity is now an estimated $9.5 billion per year business, but it can lead to serious gambling-related harms in some individuals. The emergence of the Internet has transformed the gambling industry, providing more opportunities to gamble than ever before and attracting new players. In addition, advances in technology have increased the speed and accessibility of the games.
Excessive online gambling can result in a variety of signs and symptoms that may indicate addiction. These include neglecting personal responsibilities, lying to family and friends, spending excessive time gambling and experiencing withdrawal symptoms when trying to cut down or stop. Moreover, many individuals also find themselves chasing losses after suffering substantial financial setbacks.
Identifying, detecting and acting on early risk indicators is a key strategy to reduce gambling-related harms. Various tools are available to help people manage their online gaming and avoid gambling-related problems, including setting time-out periods and losing limits. The latter feature allows players to restrict the amount of money they can spend in a session, and can help to prevent over-gambling.
As online gambling becomes more widespread, identifying and addressing the risks is an increasingly important challenge for governments, operators, regulators and players. More research is needed to untangle whether game-specific characteristics play a causal role in the emergence of problem gambling, and more emphasis should be placed on online self-exclusion programmes, which have been shown to be effective in the prevention of problem gambling.