Did you guys hear the news? Online casinos cause swine flu. And playing online blackjack for more than one hour leads directly to enhanced sexual pleasure. Don’t believe me? Well, good, because it’s not true. At least I don’t think so. The truth is that nobody really knows jack diddly doo-dah about the effects of excessive online gambling, at least not nearly as much as they think they do.
Following a recent British survey on online casinos, previous findings from well-respected organizations come into question, leading us back to square one. Sponsored by the UK Gambling Commission, this study used figures from the British Gambling Prevalence Study to conclude that problem gambling is more prominent among online casino users than brick-and-mortar gamblers by a factor of ten. Ten! Pretty significant finding, right?
Not so fast. Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Howard Shaffer came to another conclusion. After a lengthy two-year study, he discovered that problem gambling occurs less often in online casino gamblers. What’s that about?
Not clear. Shaffer isn’t the only one to come to this conclusion. Professor Dan Rose of South Africa’s National Responsible Gambling Program did as well. However, Keith Whyte, a representative of the United States National Council on Problem Gambling found no difference between online casino gamblers and land-based.
Here’s a possible explanation: some suspect that the scientists behind the recent study coming out of Britain was influenced by bias. One of the professors is known to have been seeking for partners to stop the loosening up of gambling laws in the UK. If this is the case, clearly further investigation needs to be done before accepting these findings as conclusive.
Until then, back to the online casino for me! Or didn’t you hear? Online blackjack helps to reverse hair loss.
