Problem Gambling Numbers Used Without Definition

The article continues to mention that two million children as young as ten years old are at risk of suffering from problem gambling.

One of the issues in treating and preventing problem gambling is in the area of definition and measurement. Laymen toss around the term, along with compulsive gambling and addictive gambling, without using the proper scientific methods to define what constitutes problem gambling. In this respect, the situation is similar to the UIGEA, which forbids payment transactions to illegal online gambling sites,  without explaining what defines illegal online gambling.

A recent article in the Daily Mail Online asserted that a government commission found Great Britain to contain 284,000 compulsive gamblers. What the commission used as criteria to be considered a problem gambler is left unexplained.

Online Casino Advisory problem gambling specialist D. Henry Watson says, "It is of utmost importance to distinguish between everyday people who get carried away, lose more than they should, and suffer a painful lesson, from true problem gamblers.

"The difference is the same as between a regular person who drinks too much on New Year's Eve, has a bad hangover, and learns to watch his alcohol intake, and someone getting sloshed after already having several DUIs. And the percentages between those who occasionally have a drink too many and alcoholics is about the same as gamblers and compulsive gamblers."

The British numbers were uncovered by the opposition party, fighting against the government's loosening of gambling laws and casino restrictions in the country, hardly an objective source.

The article continues to mention that two million children as young as ten years old are at risk of suffering from problem gambling. Yet Watson says that several recent studies, conducted under scientific methods rather than just created by subjective parties, show that children exposed to gambling at early ages are more likely to learn of gambling pitfalls, and thus less likely to become addictive gamblers.

Even the amount of debt is raised as a standard of proof of the epidemic that Britain suffers from problem gambling. Yet crushing debt is a trap that has caught millions, the vast majority of which have little or no gambling experience.

If anti-gambling advocates want to be taken seriously, they need to stop using ridiculous scare tactics and approach the subject with obnjectivity. "Scientists have found that addictive behavior is not specific to the form of addiction, and needs to be treated by intensive therapy and education rather than attempting to remove the symptom, whether it be alcohol, gambling, or anything else," says Watson.