Online Gambling involves placing wagers via a computer, tablet or smartphone connected to the Internet. The practice has been growing in popularity and it is now available in most states of the United States, several provinces of Canada, many countries in Europe and a few nations in Latin America. It is a form of gambling that circumvents traditional laws, and it has some unique characteristics that are different from land-based gambling establishments.
This article presents an overview of the literature concerning risk and protective factors associated with Internet gambling, which is a fast-growing sector of the gaming industry. A search of PubMed, PsychInfo and Scopus was conducted to obtain 42 articles that were analysed on the basis of cross-sectional data. Risk and protective factors were classified at three levels: individual, relational and contextual.
Across the studies, it was found that early detection of problems could reduce gambling-related harms by identifying and acting on early risk indicators. These indicators are mostly related to a person’s behaviour. For example, chasing losses and other negative patterns of behaviour can lead to addiction.
However, these results should be taken with caution because the studies analyzed are often small and do not control for the type of game played or the number of games a person plays. A clearer understanding of the role of these factors is needed, particularly in regard to gender. It was found that women gamble more frequently than men and that their gambling is more problematic. This is in line with the idea that online access to gambling facilitates a more solitary behaviour and isolation of gamblers.