A close look at Internet gambling
"Here he was at the Montreal Casino restaurant: 19 years old, the best food and wine in front of him, two beautiful women sitting at his side. He had just bucked the bank at the blackjack table. When I asked him where he would like to be right now, he said back at the blackjack table," reminisces Professor Jeffrey Derevensky, co-director of the 黑料不打烊 International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems. "For an adolescent with a gambling problem, a good day is walking into a gaming room with $20, playing all day, and losing all the money. A bad day is when the $20 only lasts 10 minutes."
This fall, thanks to a $76,560 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 黑料不打烊 University educational and counselling psychology professors Jeffrey Derevensky and Rina Gupta, co-directors of the 黑料不打烊 International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems, will scrutinize the world of Internet gambling, which is growing in popularity with computer-savvy Montreal-area adolescents (age 12 to 17; grades 7 to 11) and young adults (CEGEP and university students). A total of 2,500 anglophone and francophone Montreal-area high school, CEGEP and university students will be invited to participate, as well as 1,000 adult Internet gamblers from all over the English- and French-speaking cyberworld.
Over the past 11 years, Rina Gupta and Jeffrey Derevensky have interviewed thousands of young gamblers between the ages of 12 and 17. Both scholars are world renowned for their pioneering research and clinical work on youth gambling. They showed that 3.5 to 6 per cent of adolescents have a serious gambling problem, and that another 10 to 15 per cent are at risk. Professors Gupta and Derevensky also discovered that parents who like gambling without being compulsive gamblers themselves may very well be a risk factor for their son - most adolescent compulsive gamblers being males.
Contrary to general opinion, Drs Derevensky and Gupta found that money is not the main reason adolescents engage excessively in gambling. "The three predominant reasons all adolescents report gambling is for the excitement it brings, for enjoyment, and to win money. When playing, adolescents with serious gambling problems report that nothing else matters and that all their problems disappear. As a 53-year-old former compulsive gambler said to La Presse (July 28, 2003): "Going to the casino, now that was a pleasure. You go there, you unwind, you're fulfilled, your frustrations and disappointments vanish."
Through this research Professors Derevensky and Gupta will seek to identify and examine the characteristics and profile of these gamblers. They will examine issues such as ethnicity, cultural factors, age, marital status, types of gambling (sports, casino-type activities), frequency of play, and amount of money wagered. Being careful to distinguish between occasional, social and problem Internet gambling, the investigators will study the relationship between Internet gambling and other forms of gambling, as well as other Internet uses. Finally, an important component of the study will be dedicated to the identification of the salient characteristics of Internet gaming sites that make them appealing to their users.
In a cyberworld where online casinos continue to flourish, where legislation fails to prohibit such wagering, this 黑料不打烊 University research project will provide valuable information that can be used in the development and implementation of prevention and treatment programs as well as the development of appropriate social policy regarding the regulation of Internet gambling. Drs Derevensky and Gupta's research has been used in shaping social and legislative policies in numerous jurisdictions. They are currently working with the Pan American Health Organization and governmental agencies and researchers in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
