Into the battles being waged over whether online gambling must be controlled in america, one argument that is major been that online games could result in a higher level of gambling addiction. The theory is that the access that is increased gambling items means that those many vulnerable to addiction will have an instant pipeline that allows them to pay money they can’t pay for to reduce.

It’s something that generally seems to seem sensible on a level that is intuitive however the data that’s being gathered therefore far isn’t backing it up. A series of studies from the Harvard Medical School’s Division on Addiction has found that the majority that is vast of gamblers aren’t addicts, and are, in reality, extremely casual gamblers who are quite good at setting limits for themselves.

Studies Conducted with bwin

The studies were done with the cooperation of bwin, which gave researchers access to data on tens and thousands of players who continued various online casino games over a two-year period. The studies included sports betting, poker, and casino gambling that is general. And in each full case, 95 percent or more of the gamblers studied gambled in moderation, while only one to five percent were said to exhibit ‘intense gambling behavior.’

In the instance for the casino gambling research, significantly more than 4,000 case studies were analyzed. The average player gambled only once every two weeks, losing about 5.5 percent of the money they wagered over a nine-month period. When it came to recreations bettors, another study viewed 40,000 players, and unearthed that the median gambler ended up being making 2.5 wagers every fourth day, with the bets averaging $5.50.

Another study by the University of Hamburg, built to help supplement the ongoing work being done at Harvard, seemed exclusively at poker players. More than two million online poker players were analyzed over the course of six months. The median player was at the tables for just 4.88 hours over that period, and nearly all players were paying less than a dollar per hour in rake.

Typical Gambler Spends Little Online

None of this is designed to say that compulsive gambling isn’t a nagging issue, or that issue gambling doesn’t exist on the online world. But it does declare that the degree to which the Internet exacerbates problems that are such been exaggerated. An element of the reason behind this may sleep in the way the information is presented: researchers used medians to show just what the ‘typical’ gambler looked like, largely must be percentage that is small of’ gamblers significantly affect the average numbers.

That research backs up previous numbers that have come out of studies, such as one carried out in 2007 by regulatory body eCOGRA. That study discovered that online poker players typically played two to three times a week for on average one to two hours, and that they paid about $1.20 an hour in rake. That study also unearthed that players just took about 6 per cent of their bankroll to a table on average, meaning most players exercised reasonable bankroll management while playing.

One reason that the access supplied by on line gambling has not triggered a spike in addiction might be as a result of distinctions between brick-and-mortar venues and their Internet counterparts. Researchers are finding that a ‘playground’ model in a casino, one that uses warm colors, moving water, and green spaces, was most successful for encouraging people to gamble. These features can not be included for most gambling that is online while some sites have actually tried to boost the casino feel with the use of live dealer games.