Recent Study Shows Online Gambling Less Addictive Than Thought

May 31, 2009

A recent study by the Harvard Medical School has turned up that most online gambling sites are not the problem when it comes to gambling addiction that actually comes from the land based ones. The study looked at the way online gambling is handled and how those that participate wager when winning or losing. The study says that there is more of a fear of developing an online gambling addiction problem from the standpoint of a land based casino.

The study focused on those that were playing poker and sports online gambling and said that they were not compulsive in their betting, unlike what was previously thought. Many counselors have come forward in the days since the study saying that they see this as ultimately being the case. They say that addiction is �a substance or behavior that controls the person and effectively makes the person powerless to stop without intervention.�

They say that the study shows that just because you gamble it doesn�t mean that you are going to develop an online gambling problem anymore than eating will give you a food addiction or eating disorder. Becoming an addict to anything means that you have to do it no matter what � and at times that you know it is not right to be doing it. For online gambling this is simply not the case. The study has found that you can gamble for long periods of time on the internet without it becoming a case of online gambling addiction.

Counselors say that online gambling is less addictive because there is less pressure at home to gamble than there is at the land based casinos. Some see it that they have to win while they are there or it is a wasted trip, others see it that they have to keep playing because of the alcohol and free drinks that they have been given, etc. There are numerous cases of those that say that they became addicted to gambling while visiting a land based casino but they were not aware of any of their gambling addiction patients that had developed one from online gambling.

 

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