Online Gambling is the practice of playing games of chance on an internet-based gambling website. These games can include slot machines, roulette, video poker, sports betting and tons of other casino-style games. Online casinos may offer a variety of payment methods including debit and credit cards, e-wallets and web money. Some also offer 24/7 customer support to answer any questions or concerns.
While many of the factors that influence gambling are common across both offline and online settings, some specific aspects related to online gambling have not been well investigated in selected articles. At the individual level, the choice of gambling modality appears to be influenced by attitudes towards gambling and the motivations for doing so. Social motives are more commonly related to offline gamblers and nonproblem gamblers, whereas financial reasons are more often linked to internet gambling and problem gamblers.
At the contextual level, a number of variables that are associated with Internet gambling have been identified, including academic issues among university students and low quantity and quality of relationships at home. Nevertheless, research into the role of context-specific factors needs to evolve in order to better understand the influences of online gambling. As a result, it is recommended that future prevention interventions take into account the unique characteristics of this mode of gambling. It is also important to continue to investigate the potential for the development of risk indicators and develop mechanisms for the identification of early signs of problems in this group.
