Internet Gambling More Addictive Than Offline Gambling
By Leslie Davis
Away from the clanging slot machines, smoke-filled rooms and high-stakes poker tables, you may think the money you’re feeding into online gambling sites isn’t really gambling, and that there’s no way you could become addicted.
You’d be wrong.
Online gamblers are 10 times more likely to be compulsive gamblers than are those people who frequent casinos, according to the 2007 British Gambling Prevalence Survey. The convenience of having poker tables, sports betting, casino games and bingo streaming 24 hours a day into your living room makes what once took effort - or a trip to Las Vegas - exceedingly easy.
Growth of Internet Gambling Sites
Like anything else on the Internet, the number of online gambling websites has increased significantly over the past decade. In 1999, the Cato Institute estimated there were about 100 gambling sites on the Internet. By 2009, that number increased to more than 2,100, according to the American Gaming Association.
The number of online gambling sites is unlikely to decrease any time soon. Even in 1999, the Cato Institute was concerned about the rise of Internet gambling. A March 25, 1999, digest from the National Center for Policy Analysis cited Cato analysts as arguing that attempts to ban online gambling will “inevitably fail because the architecture of the Internet ‘makes prohibition of online gambling easy to evade and impossible to enforce.’”
Why Internet Gambling is So Addictive
Internet gambling can quickly morph from hobby to addiction. An online gambler may compulsively feel the need to gamble, destroying relationships and draining savings. Though compulsive Internet gamblers may never leave their homes, online gambling is no less dangerous.
There are several reasons why Internet gambling can be addictive:
- It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning anytime you want to gamble, you can.
- You are able to gamble from the comfort of your own home and give the appearance to your family that you are just online doing some work, or checking the weather.
- With online gambling, you have anonymity. Nobody will run into you while you are lying in bed betting your latest paycheck, and you won’t have to account to anybody for your whereabouts.
- While most gambling sites purport to be for people 18 years and older, there is rarely viable age verification. A 2004 study by Action for Children found that 16-year-olds with credit cards were able to gamble on 30 out of 37 examined gambling websites.
- Faster Internet speeds mean better and quicker access to gambling websites, and a faster ability to lose even more money.
Statistics have shown that the prevalence of gambling addiction doubles within 50 miles of a casino. With virtual casinos entering the homes of millions every day, the chances for addiction are only going to increase.
Treatment for Internet Gambling Addiction
Telling yourself that it is okay to gamble online in your living room because you aren’t actually in a casino does not make the fact that you may have a gambling addiction any less true. If you are a compulsive online gambler, the ease of accessing the Internet makes breaking your addiction all the more difficult.
Overcoming an addiction to gambling often requires you to invest your money in a sure thing - yourself. Enrollment at a residential treatment center that specializes in gambling addiction can provide you a safe and supportive environment away from the Internet that allows you to break your habit.