Internet Gambling Amongst Adolescents: A Growing Concern

Internet Gambling and Problem Gambling Among 13 to 18 Year Old Adolescents in Iceland

“…Specifically as the results also revealed that problem gambling prevalence was predominantly identified among youth who gambled on the Internet. The results for problem gambling among Internet gamblers are comparable to other studies that show that prevalence of problem gambling tend to be much higher among Internet gamblers than non-Internet gamblers (Derevensky and Gupta 2007;Griffiths and Barnes 2008;Ladd and Petry 2002;Petry 2006;Wood and Williams 2007). However, it should be noted that these findings could either mean that Internet gambling is simply more addictive or alternatively that problem gamblers are gambling on the Internet to a greater degree than before (Wood and Williams 2007).…”

“…Age restrictions on legal gambling activities in Iceland have become stricter which might also make Internet gambling more attractive for Icelandic youth as age restrictions on the Internet are generally poor and the possibility of anonymity is greater than in land-based activities (Derevensky and Gupta 2007;Griffiths and Barnes 2008). Further studies are necessary to examine in more detail Internet gambling among Icelandic youth.…”

Gambling Initiation in Preadolescents

“…Although it is illegal for minors under the ages of 18 to 21 years to gamble in regulated venues, evidence is accumulating that a growing number of youth are participating in both regulated and nonregulated gambling including cards, sports betting, and internet gambling [2][3][4] . Turchi and Derevensky [5] state that, although most adolescents are "occasional" or "social" gamblers, as many as 10% to 15% are at risk for developing a gambling problem, with 3% to 8% having serious problems.…”

La autorregulación de las marcas de juegos de azar online a través de su publicidad en televisión

“…Numerosos autores han puesto de manifiesto los desajustes emocionales, conductuales y cognitivos que provocan los juegos de azar, que desestructuran las relaciones sociales, familiares y laborales y alteran gravemente la economía doméstica, aunque los juegos de azar online presentan mayores riesgos, habiendo facilitado la confluencia de las variables principales en la expansión social de cualquier adicción: la disponibilidad, accesibilidad (Grun y McKeigue, 2000;Nutt, et al, 2010) y comodidad (Derevensky y Gupta, 2007), falta de control físico y una intensa publicidad de apuestas deportivas, casino y póquer online (Chóliz y Lamas, 2017), que se consideran más adictivos que los propios juegos físicos para el público más joven (Chóliz, 2016). Pese a la prohibición de que los menores participen en el juego, la realidad revela que el 62,1% ha practicado algún juego de azar en el último año, especialmente las apuestas deportivas (Chóliz y Lamas, 2017).…”