Online Gambling Addiction
Online gambling is any type of betting conducted via the Internet. This includes casinos, online poker and online sports betting. The first online gambling website opened to the public, was ticket selling for the famous Liechtenstein International Casino Games in October 1994. The idea of online gambling spread all over the world very quickly. The internet has become the most popular source of information and the medium of choice for all forms of businesses and transactions. The internet gambling business is a multi billion dollar a year industry.
Unfortunately, due to these very nature of online gambling there are many people who choose to work illegally for these particular businesses. This brings us to the issue of consumer protection and online casinos. Recently we have seen the introduction of new laws and regulations by certain jurisdictions to protect online gambling from harmful people and companies. Many of these laws and regulations were put into place in response to pressures from the United States Justice Department and other international regulatory agencies.
Many people do not realize that one of the main drivers of growth in online casinos is the rise of gambling addiction. Gambling addiction is described as a psychological dependence on gambling, alcohol or other substances. It is a chronic and progressive habit which can only be broken by gradually decreasing the amount of use. Many people do not realize that many gamblers develop an addiction to gambling on a subconscious level, long before they are ready to admit it to themselves or anyone else. This explains why so many people cannot get rid of their online casinos debts and why they keep going back to these gambling websites.
There are also many celebrities who openly discuss online casino and gambling on their shows and in interviews. We hear about the glamour and fun of gamblers online and in the casinos. One famous US President, Bill Clinton, openly discussed online gambling while he was President. In fact his Chief of Staff called for legislation on online gambling and the regulation of online casinos in the United States. Many prominent politicians and celebrities openly support the online gambling and online casino industry and lobby against the ban of online gambling legislation in many countries around the world.
The argument against online gambling is primarily the access that internet gambling has to people with severe psychological disorders. The research into this aspect is inconclusive and there is no evidence that internet gambling has any significant effect on people who are normally healthy. There is a large body of research on online casinos being harmful to children and teenagers, however. The main concern is that young people have become more socially and economically liberalized and have an easier time accepting and engaging in internet pornography and other forms of online gambling and they also tend to lack respect for traditional authority figures and the social conventions that support them.
While it may be true that some gambling can lead to problems such as substance abuse and addiction, the research into this area is still inconclusive and the link between gambling and addiction is not very strong. One of the concerns about online gambling and addiction is that people from families that are prone to addiction will have an easier time developing an online gambling addiction than others who are not. This is a problem with all types of addictions but it seems to be especially relevant to internet gambling. The link between gambling and addiction is more of a theoretical concern and there is no real evidence that shows that internet gambling leads to a real world addiction to gambling or any other type of addictive behavior.