Harvard Medical School Says Don’t Worry About It
Added: July 21, 2014
Although there was certainly no fanfare attached to a series of studies by none other than Harvard Medical School, one would think proponents of online gambling would have been dancing in the streets.
Here’s what’s going on. As you probably know, the status of online gambling varies all over the world. Some countries are all for it, some countries are dead set against it, while still other countries are doing it sort of half way (like the United States for example).
Those that are opposing the expansion of online gambling sound like the proverbial Chicken Littles. These opponents stand up on their pulpits and loudly proclaim to any one that will listen that the expansion of online gambling and online casinos in particular will bring on a pile of trouble.
Not so much. That’s not what the researchers at Harvard found at all. First, a bit of background information. Up until online gambling became widespread, it was in fact, difficult, if not impossible to study gamblers in a scientific way. This difficulty was due to a distinct lack of reliable data for researchers to examine. Prior to the online era, research studies had to contend with small sample sizes, unreliable data, as well as the misreporting (intentional or otherwise) of true gambling data from land based casinos or other gambling establishments.
Yet, the online era changed all of that. Suddenly, there a vast amount of data became available for examination. This data showed up through the rapid growth of the online casino industry over the last decade or so. Recognizing this opportunity, Harvard Medical School’s Division on Addiction partnered with a large established European Gambling site (Bwin). The researchers were given access to tens of thousands of data sets representing the three main categories of online gamblers: sports bettors, online casino players and online poker players.
The conclusion of these studies is groundbreaking, especially for the proponents of online gambling. Harvard Medical School concluded that without question, the vast majority of Internet gamblers show a respectable level of restraint. In other words, the typical online casino player is not rushing down to the corner pawnshop to get more cash to play his favorite online casino game. Not at all. In fact, the researchers noted that the vast majority of online casino players gambled online infrequently and in moderation.
Conclusion: online casinos and online gambling is here to stay and it’s expansion is nothing to be concerned about.