Gambling Involvement and Increased Risk of Gambling Problems
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Gambling Involvement and Increased Risk of Gambling Problems James G. Phillips • Rowan Ogeil • Yang-Wai Chow • Alex Blaszczynski
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract The opportunity to gamble has undergone rapid expansion with technology allowing for access to gambling products 24 h a day. This increased online availability challenges governments’ abilities to restrict access to gambling. Indeed, the ready access to multiple forms of gambling may potentially contribute to impaired control over urges for problem gamblers. The present study considered whether problem gamblers manifested a tendency to engage in multiple forms of gambling and identified forms of gambling which were more strongly related to problem gambling. In reanalyses of two surveys (Sample 1, N = 464, Sample 2, N = 1141), significant relationships accounting for between 11.3 and 13.5 % of the variance were found between the numbers of forms of gambling accessed and degree of problem. Participation in online poker, playing cards and sports wagering were linked to problem gambling. Access to multiple forms of gambling may pose difficulties for the tracking and control of gambling. Keywords
Gambling Availability Access Online Involvement
Introduction The worldwide expansion of gambling has led to concern that ready availability and accessibility contributes to a greater incidence of problem gambling within communities (Abbott and Volberg 1991, 1996; Potenza et al. 2005; Wood and Williams 2011). Concern as to the harmful effects of increased availability have to some extent been allayed by J. G. Phillips (&) R. Ogeil School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] Y.-W. Chow School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia A. Blaszczynski School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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J Gambl Stud
indications that communities adapt to gambling (Shaffer et al. 2004a) with some communities not exhibiting an increased incidence of problems with increased gambling availability (Abbott 2006; Abbott et al. 2004). Nevertheless, such observations indicate that degree of harm is a dynamic process that can vary as communities evolve (Shaffer and Martin 2011). Given that the Internet potentially affords access to gambling 24 h a day, 7 days a week, the present study investigates whether increased access to, in contrast to availability of, more forms of gambling products for individuals is associated with an increased risk of developing a gambling problem. There are likely to be relationships between access to gambling and gambling problems. Studies have previously observed relationships between the geographical distribution of gambling availability (particularly electronic gaming machines) and gambling related harm (Clarke et al. 2006; Marshall and Baker 2002). Indeed, Phillips and Ogeil (2011) found that problem gamblers reported frequenting a specific gambling venue more often (N = 2.7
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