Orig. title: La epidemia de la adicción al juego online en la adolescencia: un estudio empírico del trastorno de juego
Engl. transl.: The epidemic of online gambling addiction in adolescence: an empirical research of gambling disorder
Keywords
Gambling addiction
online gambling
prevention
epidemic
public health
Publication details
| Year: | 2019 |
| Issued: | 2019 |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Volume: | 44 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Start Page: | 20 |
| End Page: | 34 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Chóliz M.; Marcos M. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Revista Española de Drogodependencias |
| Topics: | Content-related issues; Wellbeing; Risks and harms; Online safety and policy regulation; Other |
| Sample: | The study involved 7,964 schoolchildren from 104 public and private schools in the three provinces of Valencia Community. The schools belonged to both rural and urban areas. Those aged between 15 and 19 years (49.1% female and 50.9% male) were selected for this study. males). The sample was incidental, as participation in participation in the research was the result of the implementation of the gambling addiction prevention programme, Ludens (Chóliz, 2017). |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parental practices / parental mediation; Parenting guidance / support ; Other |
| Other Parent Implication: | Parental risk awareness to prevent potential online gambling addiction |
| Implications For Educators About: | Other |
| Implications For Policy Makers About: | High-quality content online for children and young people; Stepping up awareness and empowerment; Creating a safe environment for children online |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Industry; Healthcare |
Abstract
Licenses to operate with online gambling establishments (casino, bingo, slots, bets, and online poker) started in Spain in June 2012. Since then, the gambling offer choice, advertising, and spending among Spaniards have strongly increased heavily. Since online gambling is more addictive than traditional gambling, new cases of pathological gambling have appeared due to online gambling, mainly in the younger population. In this study, the gambling pattern and the associated problems (risk and pathological gambling) are analyzed in 7,265 schoolchildren between 15 and 19 years old, taking into account differences according to age and sex. From the results obtained it is concluded that adolescents mostly engage in sports betting, the gambling that adolescents participate with more regularity are sports betting, finding statistically significant differences both in frequency and in gambling problems (pathological gambling and risk gambling) between women and men, and between minors and adolescents between 18 and 19 years old. Differences were also obtained between women and men, as well as among minors of age and adolescents of 18 and 19 years old. In all cases, the prevalence of addiction to online gambling in adolescents between 15 and 19 years old is higher than in the general population in terms of gambling disorders, standing at 0.72%. An epidemic is a health problem that affects a part of the population at a certain time in a way that is higher than expected. Therefore, we can affirm that now we are now seeing have an epidemic of addiction to online gambling in adolescents. And the causes of this are the legalization, promotion, and the absence of any regulation that defends the right to health over the economic interests.
Outcome
From the results obtained it is concluded that adolescents mostly engage in sports betting, the gambling that adolescents participate with more regularity are sports betting, finding statistically significant differences both in frequency and in gambling problems
(pathological gambling and risk gambling) between women and men, and between minors and adolescents between 18 and 19 years old. Differences were also obtained between women and men, as well as among minors of age and adolescents of 18 and 19 years old. In all cases, the prevalence of addiction to online gambling in adolescents between 15 and 19 years old is higher than in the general population in terms of gambling disorders, standing at 0.72%.
The authors highlight that market pressures to promote online gambling have led to a current epidemic of online gambling addiction, especially gambling among teenagers, and they remark that "the risk is that if conditions do not change-and this requires strict regulation-, we may soon be talking about a public health problem" (Chóliz & Marcos, 2019: 34). The authors advice that the prevention of gambling problems in adolescence must be tackled from various angles, mainly two: "a) through school programs or guides for educators and b) from the administration and the gambling companies themselves through adequate regulation of gambling based on good practice guides based on responsible gambling or ethical gambling" (Chóliz & Marcos, 2019: 33).