Web offers dangers to problem gamblers

David Strow

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 5:13 a.m.

The Internet has proven an addictive medium for a minority of users in recent years. So too has gambling.

The two are now combining, potentially putting products such as video poker, sports betting and blackjack in the home of everyone with Internet access.

And that's creating fears that a new breed of problem gambler may be created by this technological innovation.

"(Gambling is) not at arm's reach anymore, it's at fingertip's reach," said Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling. "This is a much more fertile environment for those folks predisposed to a gambling addiction in the first place."

The video nature of Internet-based gambling has already proven especially addictive in the form of video poker. And over the Internet, addicted gamblers can play in the privacy of their own home. Currency -- one of the "reality checks" in casino gambling -- is completely taken out of the equation, as most online gambling sites use credit cards.

"(Problem gamblers) get lost in the game, seeking a morphine-like zone," said Bo Bernhard, director of operations at Las Vegas-based Problem Gambling Consultants. "I think that's multiplied to a significant degree with Internet gambling because it's much more isolated gambling. It is absolutely something we need to be hypervigilant about."

Then there's an element that many potential problem gamblers have never dealt with before: the fact that gambling is immediately accessible, 24 hours a day.

Even a Las Vegas problem gambler must now leave his home to play at a casino, store or video poker bar.

"We've eliminated those access issues, and dropped it into the lap -- the laptop -- of these individuals," O'Hare said. "There are (potential problem gamblers) who would never go in the door of a casino ... some of those physical barriers are now being eliminated."

New medium

Exactly how many Internet players are addicted to gambling isn't certain, as the medium is so new. The most often cited study on problem gambling -- from Harvard Medical School's Division of Addictions -- found that about 3 percent of gamblers could be considered "problem" gamblers, while less than 1 percent were "pathological" gamblers, a far more serious gambling addiction. This 1998 study was bankrolled by the casino industry.

However, such studies do not refer specifically to Internet gamblers.

While experts agree the Internet creates more dangers for problem gamblers, many believe it will also create opportunities for intercepting and treating those addicted to gambling.

"Ostensibly they (Internet casinos) will have access to financial records that casinos do not," Bernhard said. "So there is, potentially, the ability to oversee the casino gambling (on the Internet) to a significant degree. We can monitor exactly how much they're gambling, and be much more vigilant."

That's the focus of Christiansen Capital Advisors and Gemini Research, a Massachusetts-based firm devoted to the study of gambling and problem gambling. The firms are developing a software package that will allow Internet casinos to more effectively identify problem gamblers, they said. A July release is expected.

Sebastian Sinclair of Christiansen calls it a problem gambling "smoke detector," tracking warning signs such as a loss of control over one's gambling and the "chasing" of losses by upping bets. The system can take intervention steps, such as placing limits on the player's betting or sending messages urging the player to seek help.

The system will take the player's normal betting behavior into account, so large bets or heavy betting won't, by themselves, raise red flags.

"Ultimately, regulators will have to make the decision for how to handle this abnormal behavior if it continues," Sinclair said. "The fact that a flag goes up doesn't bump you off immediately."

Although Sinclair said the system is being developed for the Internet, it can be modified to work with other forms of gambling, such as lotteries or land-based casinos. And as the system is rolled out, Sinclair said he hopes fresh progress could be made into understanding problem gambling -- and into the problem of trying to diagnose a problem gambler before he gets out of control.

"We'll know more about problem gambling than we've ever known before," Sinclair said.