We turn a blind eye to online sports betting at our peril. And it's our young men who will pay the price.
While there has been some debate about the issue in Australia for over a decade, there is limited data about the current extent and impact. Gambling help services see relatively few people with online gambling as the main cause of their gambling problems — pokies still dominate gambling harm in Australia.
But there is emerging international evidence of the risks associated with online gambling. The Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre released a comprehensive report in 2009. They concluded that 'the prevalence of problem gambling is three to four times higher among internet gamblers than non-internet gamblers'.
They also reported that 'internationally, the prevalence of problem gambling is higher in European countries ... and that the Caribbean, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand have lower rates'.
Estimated international internet gambling (including online sports betting) prevalence rates indicate that the rate in Australia is 4.3 per cent for the population, 2 per cent for New Zealand, 3 per cent in the UK, 4 per cent in the US, 7 per cent in Sweden, 3.5 per cent in Canada and 14 per cent in Finland.
Sweden has some of the earliest research about internet gambling. Their first wave of a longitudinal gambling study (SWELOGS) reported in 2009 that for Sweden 13 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women gambled on the internet the previous year, and 18 per cent of the men playing poker on the internet were problem gamblers.
Of great concern is the revelation that 33 per cent cent of the men aged 16–17 who gambled on the internet were problem gamblers and 33 per cent were at low risk, while 21 per cent of the men aged 18–24 who gambled on the internet were problem gamblers and 38 per cent were at low risk.
This study reinforces the findings of the Canadian study and subsequent research that internet gamblers are more likely to be young males.
This is why the online sports betting industry aims so much advertising at young men, and also partly explains the low numbers of people coming to help services with gambling problems — young men are notoriously difficult to attract to any