A Rise in Online Gambling and a Decrease In Problem Gambling

An increasing number of countries around the world are calling for and passing legislation to ban online gambling all together even though the government supports land-based gambling. These countries believe that online gambling leads to gambling addiction or problems although there is not much concrete evidence to support this.

For years now online gambling industry leaders and experts have been claiming the opposite is true. Recently, Hollands released a study that supports the experts’ beliefs. At the request of the Dutch Ministry of Justice’s Research and Documentation Centre, a study was conducted in 2011 to gather facts about problem gambling, gambling in general and online gambling.

The results of the study were compared to a previous study done in Holland in 2005. The report showed that even though there are now more Dutch citizens gambling in online casinos the number of problem gamblers has dropped. When compared to 2005, the number of problem gamblers is 29% lower than it previously was.

Land-based casino gambling has dropped due to the smoking ban, economic downturn and the convenience that online gambling offers its clients. The amount of online Dutch gamblers in 2011 has almost doubled since 2005.

This is not to say that online gambling cannot lead to problem gambling but it does show that there is no direct correlation between the two. Player’s groups and gambling lobbyist have been saying for years that players and the community in general would benefit from a regulated online gambling market where strict controls are imposed on operators and players get to enjoy increased protection from the online gambling regulators in their country.

If governments really want to protect their citizens they need to make sure that the casino operators respect a player’s self-exclusion from online casinos and that a player is allowed, and even encouraged, to set their own betting limits.