Online Gambling Addictions Soar in North America

Submitted by Gary on Wed, 2010-02-03 at 20:29

A recently published article on online gambling statistics found that hundreds of thousands of people in North America are addicted. The games range anywhere from online poker to online bingo and problem gamblers are both men and women of all ages. This shows that there is not one specific group of people that is more likely to develop and addiction but instead covers both genders and a wide variety of ages and cultures.

The addictions are being blamed on aggressive online casino operators and irresponsible advertisements. Policymakers are banning ads that suggest gambling will fix financial problems or cause any kind of financial stability.

Women are now becoming a focus of advertisement for online casino operators. Gambling used to be directed at males but lately women are coming out of the woodwork and claiming to be fans. This has shifted some attention onto women and one of the banned advertisements depicted a single mother having just won a great deal of money.

Governments are hesitant, however, to enforce stricter regulation out of fear of their country losing the revenue they have come to rely on. The economy hit many countries hard and leaders don’t want to make any decisions that would halt their recovery. As North America becomes closer to being united in regulating online gambling, national leaders want to ensure they stay on the right path economically.

Those against online gambling are fighting for casino operators to tone down the messages in their ads and make them less aggressive.