A Systematic Review of the Literature on Online Gambling

Online Gambling is betting or playing games of chance or skill for money, using a computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile device with an Internet connection. It is a global industry, and it is growing fast, with new providers entering the market almost daily. While many state authorities restrict or ban online gambling, it is legal in some states of the United States, several provinces of Canada, most countries in the European Union, and some Caribbean nations.

While there are numerous studies that examine various aspects of online gambling, few studies focus on risk and protective factors. To fill this gap, a systematic literature search was conducted in three different academic databases: PubMed, PsychInfo, and Scopus. Analogous syntaxes were used to explore a variety of topics, such as “gambling”, “online, internet, interactive”, and “risk factors, protective factors, predictors, correlates”.

The majority of the papers investigated the association between gambling and various individual-level characteristics. However, the results are not always consistent, and it is important to note that a significant proportion of online gamblers do not experience pathological gambling. Among those that do, high impulsivity is the most frequent characteristic associated with gambling problems. Moreover, studies that compare online and offline gamblers report a greater psychological distress in those who play on the Internet compared to those who do not. In terms of contextual factors, only one study reports that online gamblers who are students may be more likely to develop a problem, but the findings should be considered with caution.