News

Wednesday, 27 July 2011 06:16

The latest Harvard research paper to be published on the study of gambling debunks the popular myth that online gambling causes problem gambling.

Harvard University's Howard J. Shaffer is acknowledged as being a leading expert on gambling and its associated problems. He has just concluded a lengthy study into modern day gambling problems and along with colleague Ryan Martin, has published his findings in a research paper that is entitled: "Disordered Gambling: Etiology, Trajectory and Clinical Considerations." The paper, published in Clinical Psychology's Annual Review, concludes that problem gambler instances have actually decreased over the last few years, while online gaming was not found to encourage problem gambling at all.

Since the mid 1970s, land gambling has seen remarkable growth in the US, yet incidences of problem gamblers have actually fallen from 0.7 percent to 0.6 percent. Shaffer is reported as saying that gambling is still a predominantly enjoyable activity that is controllable for the vast majority of Americans. His study is a blow to politicians and lobbyists who are opposed to online gaming, as it negates the message they are trying to propagate. It debunks the view that there is a risk online gaming creates more problem gamblers.

Shaffer also said that people who gamble online change their gaming patterns from more often to less often inside of a few weeks. He said that was something he would not have predicted. His study found that the true extent of online gambling for the majority of people was astoundingly moderate.

Shaffer's study on Internet gambling made some interesting conclusions. It found that only one percent of gamblers globally had ever gambled online. There is no solid evidence to suggest being exposed to online gaming increases the risk that gamblers may become addicted. Only 0.6 percent of the total gamblers in the US are classed as problem gamblers. Interestingly, around three quarters of problem gamblers have additional addictions such as smoking, drinking and drug abuse.

This latest study by Shaffer and Martin has been appended to the existing research at Harvard into problem gambling, which forms an extensive knowledge base. There are two main objectives to the accumulation of this knowledge. One is to enable more accurate diagnosis and treatment of the problem. The other is to cultivate a more impartial and considered examination of problem gambling, basing viewpoints on true facts and not relying on politically motivated opinion or the emotionally fuelled antigambling propaganda.

These studies corroborate the extensive findings of other similar researches into problem gambling in several different areas and with differing objectives. It highlights problem gambling to be a psychological dysfunction that is treatable in most cases, but not a runaway threat to society that its opponents project it to be.