Online Gambling is an estimated $9.5 billion per year business, and for millions of people, it can be fun and exciting. But for some, it can also be harmful. It can cause serious financial problems, addiction, and even mental health disorders. In fact, the American Psychiatric Association classifies gambling disorder in the same category as substance-related and addictive disorders, such as alcohol and drug addictions.
Online gambling is a type of gambling in which a person uses a computer or mobile device to place bets or play games. It can be done through a number of websites or apps, including sports betting sites, online casinos, and fantasy sports leagues. In addition to slots and poker, some other popular forms of online gambling include horse racing, bingo, and lottery-style games.
To investigate knowledge about risk factors and protective factors in online gambling, we conducted a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed studies. Our search strategy was based on the PICO model: population, intervention, comparison, outcome. We used PubMed, PsychInfo, and Scopus to find articles. We limited our search to peer-reviewed studies from the past decade.
We identified a total of 60 articles that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The results show that, in general, internet gamblers are more likely to spend more time gambling than non-internet gamblers and to be at a greater risk for problematic gambling. However, the vast majority of studies have cross-sectional designs and use nonrepresentative samples, which limits their ability to identify true relationships between variables.