Since online gambling was presented to casino fans all around the world, there have been speculations and guesses that iGaming will be a factor for increased rates of problem gambling. However, three long-term studies have shown that even though the gambling industry is constantly growing, the rates of problem gambling have remained the same.
The first research study that presented very amusing findings in 2011 is the one by Harvard. The leader of the research was addiction specialist Dr. Howard Shaffer, who started his work back in 2005 and used data provided by the popular gambling operator bwin which operates bwin Casino. The final results of Shaffer’s research study showed that greater accessibility to online gambling sites does not necessarily results in a higher problem gambling rate.
The second study that is worth mentioning is conducted by CAP, a UK advertising authority which specialises in TV marketing. This research started in 2007 and its field of interest was the connection of problem gambling and TV adverts. According to the findings of the researchers, TV adverts have no impact on the UK problem gambling rates. Furthermore, the report went even further into explaining that problem gambling among young people hasn’t changed despite the major growth of remote gambling industry.
Finally, the University of Buffalo carried out a research study that only supports the results by the two previously mentioned studies. This study was lead by Dr. John Welte and its findings were presented to the public in 2014. Even though at first Welte believed that there is a link between problem gambling and people who live near land-based casinos, at the end his results only confirmed what Harvard and CAP have already found out: problem gambling rates remained unchanged in spite the constant growth of the iGaming industry.