During the past few years, the online gambling industry in the United States has been developing with a tremendous speed, which made the gambling regulators in most states reconsider making the online gambling activities legal and the state of New York was not an exception.
The state faced the same issue that all the other states had to deal with. A great number of experts hurried up to warn the authorities that the free access to online wagering automatically results in an increased number of players who are in danger of becoming addicts.
However, the authorities at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions are about to completely disapprove that theory.
In an announcement, given by one of the leading researchers, it became clear that the free access to online gambling activities shouldn’t necessarily lead to an increased percentage of problematic players.
The authorities said that they have compared the results of two surveys.
The first one was conducted ten years ago while the results from the second one have just been announced. Bearing the details from both surveys, in mind, the authorities concluded that the difference in the data ten years ago and today was not too significant.
John W. Welte, the senior researcher, said that now, the gambling opportunities are far more accessible than they were a decade ago but that should not be regarded as a key factor that leads to more gambling addiction problems.
Welte even gave precise information about the essence of the surveys and the social status of the participants.
More than 2,600 people took part in the first poll; the number of participants in the second one was almost 3, 000. Every one of them was asked about their preferred game, their standpoint about the online gambling activities, sports betting, the availability of the gambling machines.
Needless to say, the predictions of the experts were based on serious and complicated estimates rather than on randomly gathered data. According to them, the percentage of people, affected by the free access to gambling activities has slightly increased and reached 5.5%.
However, researchers also found out that the number of people, willing to take part in gambling activities has decreased. The respondents, who admitted having taken part in gambling activities during the previous year was 77% while the percentage of respondents, who gave a positive answer a decade ago, was more than 82%.
Surprising or not, the researchers also concluded that the residents who live within 10 miles of a casino venue, are more likely to have troubles with the frequent participation in gambling activities.
Nevertheless, the survey raises the following question: Why the growing number of available casino venues doesn’t make the percentage of problematic gamblers higher?
According to Walte, nobody can give a clear answer to the question above. He considers the global financial crisis to be the main reason for the steady downfall of the gambling industry, not only in the United States but also all over the world.
