Abstract
Online gambling has demonstrated a significant and growing impact on overall gambling involvement. To examine online gambling practices and associated problems, we conducted surveys with national samples of Internet users in several European countries. The objective of this paper is to provide a portrait of online gambling practices and problems in five European countries (i.e., France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Poland) with different online gambling regulatory systems. This paper is the first presenting national comparisons of online gambling practices. Participants reported on their gameplay patterns, demographic characteristics, gambling-related problems, gambling frequency, average spending on different online gambling activities, and offline gambling participation over the past 12 months. The Problem Gambling Severity Index was used to assess the severity of gambling problems in relation to online gambling (Ferris & Wynne, 2001 in The Canadian Problem Gambling Index: Final report, Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, 2001). Pairwise logistic regressions examined the association between problem gambling and sociodemographic variables as well as gambling patterns and problem gambling. In all countries except Italy, the most popular online gambling activity was lotteries with nearly three quarters of participants reporting participation. The prevalence of at-risk and problem gambling was high in all countries with Poland reporting the highest prevalence and Switzerland the lowest. Gamblers who participated in gambling activities other than lottery were more likely to experience gambling-related problems. The rates in the present study are well above the levels usually found in surveys. High online gambling frequency, high spending, and participation in multiple online gambling activities were significantly associated with experiencing gambling-related problems.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all participants that collaborated in this study and all members of the research team.
Funding
Sylvia Kairouz is holder of the Research Chair on Gambling Studies (Fonds de recherché du Québec–Société et culture [FRQ-SC], Grant No. 170115). Rafal P. Bartczuk and Bernadata Lelonek-Kuleta were funded by a grant from the Ministry of Health of Poland [Ministerstwo Zdrowia], Gambling Problem Solving Fund awarded to John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Grant No. 10/HEK/2019). Adele Minutillo was received funding from the Italian National Institute of Health [Istituto Superiore di Sanità]. Luca Notari received funding from the Programme intercantonal de lutte contre la dépendance au jeu (PILDJ).
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Costes, JM., Kairouz, S., Fiedler, I. et al. Online Gambling Practices and Related Problems in Five European Countries: Findings from the Electronic Gam(bl)ing Multinational Empirical Survey (E-GAMES) Project. J Gambl Stud (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-023-10229-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-023-10229-8