Internet gambling

Today, the NCRG is excited to share two new resources that focus on important issues impacting the understanding, identification and treatment of gambling disorders and the development of responsible gaming strategies.

The first resource is a white paper that provides an overview of the upcoming fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and what it means for diagnosing and treating gambling disorders; the second translates the latest research on Internet gambling and its impact on gambling disorders.

Today’s Gambling Disorders 360˚ post comes from Simo Dragicevic, president and CEO of Bet Buddy. Dragicevic will present findings from his latest research on gambling disorders and responsible gaming for those who gamble online at the 13^thAnnual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction. Dragicevic’s plenary session, titled “New Research: Educating Online Players about the Risks Associated with Gambling,” will take place on Monday, October 1 from 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. PST, and the NCRG’s social media team will be sharing the highlights of his talk in real-time on Twitter (@theNCRG, #NCRGConference). For more information on the NCRG Conference or to register, visit the NCRG Conference website. To learn more about Bet Buddy, you can visit their website or watch Dragicevic’s interview with Cass Business School.

Part two of the series recapping Dr. Howard Shaffer’s keynote address at the 25^th National Conference on Problem Gambling in Boston, Mass. To read part one of the Gambling Disorders 360° series, click here.

After laying the foundation for his presentation by outlining the theoretical revolutions that have defined our understanding of gambling disorders, Dr. Howard Shaffer then proposed that the next revolution in understanding gambling disorders will come from the way online gambling behavior can now be studied. Until recently, information about people’s gambling behavior has come almost exclusively from self-report (asking a person questions about their past gambling behaviors). Self-report is considered to be acceptably accurate by the scientific community, but it relies on recollections of individuals that may be influenced by a variety of factors such as desire to please interviewers or to downplay losses. For years these problems with self-reported data have presented a challenge to researchers studying gambling disorders. However, Dr. Shaffer suggested that new innovations in research methods will decrease the role of self-report and allow researchers to look directly at the gambling behavior of online gamblers.

Click below for the NCRG Blog Team interview with Sarah Nelson, Ph.D., an associate director for research at the Division on Addictions at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Nelson discusses internet gambling and self-exclusion.

The “Room for Debate” section of The New York Times recently posed the question, “Should Internet gambling be legalized?” Several respondents identified an increase in gambling addiction as the probable outcome if Congress lifts the current ban on online gambling in the United States. The belief that the easy access and social isolation of Internet gambling make it an especially risky behavior has become conventional wisdom.