Online gambling is a global phenomenon that has seen massive growth since its inception in 1995, driven by the ability to gamble from any location with a computer or mobile device. It is legal in some states in the US, most provinces in Canada, and a number of countries in Europe.
It is believed that the majority of online gambling activity occurs on betting sites, which act as virtual casinos. These websites offer a variety of gambling games, and players can place bets against the house or other users. Players can also use online transaction services to deposit and withdraw funds.
Research into the risk factors, protective factors, and correlates of online gambling has been sparse. To address this, a systematic literature review was conducted using three different academic databases (PubMed, PsychInfo, and Scopus). Searches were limited to peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2020. Analogous syntaxes were launched for each database, and each search was restricted to include keywords such as “gambling” and the following combinations: “online, internet, interactive” and “risk factors, protective factors, predictors, correlates”.
Several studies have compared online gamblers with offline non-problematic gamblers. The majority of studies have found that online gamblers are significantly more likely to exhibit personality traits linked with gambling problems, such as impulsivity and dissociative identity disorder. Other characteristics that seem to be associated with problem gambling, such as high sociability and low frugality, have been less extensively investigated. As such, it does not appear necessary to create new prevention interventions that are exclusively focused on online gambling, and it may be more effective to incorporate existing intervention strategies into broader preventive efforts.