Online Gambling

In the past fifteen years, the use of the Internet has transformed the way gamblers engage in gambling. With the availability of more betting products and faster feedback, there is now a greater incentive to engage in internet gambling. However, this pathological use of the Internet has the potential to cause harm.

The United States has imposed various legal and regulatory barriers to internet gambling, and the federal government has attempted to enforce the federal statutes that apply to this activity. Some of these restrictions are rooted in the Commerce Clause, which protects free speech, while others are based on the Due Process Clause and the First Amendment.

In order to better understand the relationship between gambling and problem gambling, a number of surveys have been conducted on Internet gamblers. These surveys have revealed a variety of problems and patterns of use. For example, problem gamblers consume more alcohol, self-harm, and have higher rates of disability.

While these results are inconclusive, the increased prevalence of disordered gambling may be due to the fact that more people are able to access gambling via an immersive interface. Other researchers have suggested that some problem gamblers may actually have a genetic predisposition to their gambling-related problems.

Research on the effects of online gambling on problem gambling has been limited to cross-sectional studies. Moreover, a significant portion of these studies were too small to determine the relationship between participation in online gambling and a person’s risk of developing a gambling problem.