Critique of Online Gambling Article

The title of the article that will be critiqued in the following paper is "Problem gambling on the internet: implications for internet gambling policy in North America." Robert T. Wood and Robert J. Williams of the University of Lethbridge in Canada carried out the research. The article was published in the journal titled New Media and Society in the month of June in the year 2007.
According to the abstract of the article, the rationale for this particular study was to see whether or not the increasing use of internet gambling was comprised of a significant percentage of problem gamblers. The authors focused on North American gamblers, though they administered their online survey to "1,920 American, Canadian, and international internet gamblers" (520). They claim that past research has predicted that a significant portion of internet gamblers are at risk for developing a gambling problem and another significant portion of them already exhibit symptoms of problem gambling. Though the purpose for the article is to identify what percentage of online gamblers are identified as having a gambling problem, the end rationale for this study is to provide empirical data for lawmakers and governments to consider while they are creating internet gambling policies. In other words, the authors want to make sure that proper considerations are made concerning problem gambling when governments generate policies for internet gambling.
The authors of this article cite a great deal of past research on this topic in their introduction and literature review sections. They open with the claim that, though many people in the North American society still consider gambling to be a vice, it is still an important part of the economy. They cite the National Gambling Impact Study Commission of 1999 and the Canadian Partnership for Responsible Gambling of 2004 when they claim that over half of US residents have access to gambling and even more have access to gambling in Canada (521). The authors also cite a study by Korn and Schaffer (2002) that found an increase of almost 20% in the percentage of gambling among the US adult population from 1975 to 1999. The authors use this increase to posit that gambling, especially internet gambling, will continue to increase among the North American population over time.
The authors then go on to solidify their argument that gambling has a firm niche in the economy with past research. With the increase in gambling activity over the last 30 years, there has also been an increase in the revenues from legal wagers of 1600%, according to the National Gambling Impact Study. The authors also cite the 2001 text The Wager when they claim that a legalized and regulated online gambling infrastructure could generate a significant amount of tax revenue for the government. According to the text, revenues are expected to be over $10 billion every year by the end of the decade. Clearly, research shows there is a strong incentive to funnel this revenue into the mainstream economy with the legalization and regulation of internet gambling in order to boost economic success.
However, despite the positive economic possibilities associated with legalizing and regulating internet gambling, the authors also cite several previous studies that indicate possible negative outcomes on the social level due to problem gambling. With the help of Smith and Wynne's study of 2002, the authors define problem gambling as "gambling behavior that creates negative consequences for the gambler, others in their social network, or the gamblers' community." The proportion of North Americans that fit this description is very small, only 4% according to Shaffer and Hall in 2001.
When taking into account the impact of internet gambling sites, the authors highlight many recent studies that found them to increase the likelihood of aiding online gamblers in developing a gambling problem due to the interface, the lack of promotion of responsible gambling, the ease associated with gambling from home, greater frequency of play, and the overall experience (Griffiths, 2003; Griffiths and Parke, 2000; Griffiths and Smeaton, 2004; Griffiths and Wood, 2000; LaRose et al., 2001). However, despite these studies, the authors cited other studies that showed a very low prevalence of internet gambling activity among adults in the US and Canada, less than 1%. The authors do suggest that this is changing quickly with the advent of hundreds more internet gambling sites being created every year. These studies lead back to the fundamental hypothesis of this study – does the increase internet gambling lead to an increase in problem gamblers?
The research methodology employed by the researchers in this study was an online survey directed by a banner ad and a pop-up window at three internet gambling portals for a period of 5 months. To increase the incentive for internet gamblers to complete the survey, the researchers sent them a small gift after they completed it. They were able to accumulate 1,920 usable surveys by the end of the study. The online survey itself was in English, anonymous, and comprised of 46 closed and/or open questions. 2% of the respondents had submitted multiple entries to capitalize on the free gifts, which throws off the results by that percentage. The first portion of the questions were about the respondent's age, gender, and general background while the second portion was taken from the Canadian Problem Gambling Index, or CPGI, which is a reliable method of determining who is a problem gambler and who is not, according to the authors.
The subjects for this study, if it is not clear already, are those who used at least one of the three internet portals and submitted their surveys during the 5-month period of the study. The average age of respondents was 34 years old, and was made up of 56% men and 44% women. For more details on the actual subjects of the study, see the demographic characteristics listed on page 530 of the journal. The authors note that not all online surveys are trustworthy, including this one. The researchers are not able to completely affirm that the subjects of this study are truly representative of the entire online gambling population. They do affirm, however, that the respondents were "highly diverse" in their "demographic characteristics, internet use and gambling activity." Thus, the authors believe that the study was relatively valid in its conclusions about correlations between internet gambling and problem gambling.
The results of the study showed that 42.7% of the respondents scored in the moderate or severe problem gambling category, which is 10 times higher than the national average of gamblers as a whole. The authors boasted about the size and accuracy of the study in their conclusions, but also highlight the need for more insight on this complicated relationship between internet gambling and problem gambling. They concluded that two possible relationships exist – problem gamblers gravitate towards online gambling because of the ease and accessibility, or that internet gambling is creating an entirely new problem where none existed before. In order to shed more light on these relationships, the authors suggest more research is needed, especially among specific populations of internet gamblers. They also contain in their conclusion of this study many recommendations for governmental policies, including heightening controls to regulate access, use, promotion and advertising of internet gambling, and a method for providing feedback to the gamblers "about their problem gambling status."
My thoughts on this study are as wide-ranging as the demographics of the respondents in their study. Though the researchers seemed well pleased by the size of their sample and the accuracy of their data, I am still skeptical that these are definitive results. 1,920 people does not seem to be an adequate size of a sample population of online gamblers. This could be due to the fact that they only used a survey-linking banner in 3 out of the many online gambling portals. Where these particular portals the most popular? Most easily accessed? The authors do no elaborate enough on where exactly they were "fishing" for their data – it was 3 "reefs" out of an "ocean full of fishing spots," to extend the metaphor. Other than the sample size, the study was also weak in their definition of what problem gambling is. I want to know precisely what damages can occur from problem gambling other than the gambler losing all of his or her money. What are the other correlated disadvantages to problem gambling? They even cite a positive aspect to problem gambling (that it leads to a great percentage of the total revenues) without fully explaining the exact negative social implications of internet gambling and problem gambling.
On the other hand, I believed the study was strong in the diversity of the demographics of the respondents, despite the small sample size. The wide range of types of people involved in studies such as this one is often overlooked, and entire populations are left unaccounted for. However, this study covers a very wide range of demographics. The article was also well written and clear in its intentions and results. I was able to follow the rationale for the study as well as the past literature on the subject (which is often too dense for me). Another strength was the subject of the article itself, which I find quite relevant in my own life. As the authors mentioned in the study, university students make up a significant portion of online gamblers. In fact, I have several friends that frequently gamble online, and I have seen them lose and win significant amounts of money at a time. I wonder if they would be considered problem gamblers or not by the definition of problem gambling, but it is difficult to say due to the vagueness of the definition itself. The last strength I will identify in this article is the fact that they included provisions and steps for a government to take to ensure problem gambling will not result from the legalization and regulation of internet gambling sites and that I also agree with the authors that these are necessary steps to keep online gambling from getting out of control.