The present study is the first to compare online and offline gambling among a Portuguese population. The study demonstrated evidence of several differences between PGOF and PGON in both individual and external dimensions (i.e., situational characteristics). However, these differences are not conclusive in confirming Internet gambling as being more harmful or more problematic than offline gambling, although they could be perceived in such a way. In this study, most online pathological gamblers were more likely to endorse statements related to situational characteristics influencing their gambling than individual characteristics. The combination of external and individual risk factors may create augmented risks for problem gambling. The introduction of the Internet to gambling activities may change some of the fundamental situational and structural characteristics and make them potentially more addictive and/or problematic for susceptible individuals (Griffiths and Barnes 2008). Based on the findings of the present study, situational characteristics are important factors regarding the attractiveness and potential harmfulness of gambling. Based on the results of the present study here in Portugal, the PGON are more susceptible to the situational characteristics of gambling. Consequently, there is an additional responsibility that gambling promoters, legislators, and the gambling regulators should implement at various levels (e.g., more preventive information, time/money limits, marketing, self-exclusion, etc.) particularly focused on youth gamblers.
PGON also had higher mean scores on individual characteristics such as motivations to gamble (e.g., betting for money, daytime plus nighttime gambling opportunity, etc.) and consequences (e.g., increased amount of time and money spent, etc.). The fact that PGON were much younger than PGOF (mean 31.05 vs. 39.75 years) may indicate strong risk factors that are inherent to youth—such as immaturity, identity construction, and poor decision-making and problem-solving, and poor impulse control, that may contribute to the development of pathological gambling. Previous research has emphasized that adolescents do not appear to distinguish between the concepts of probability, fate, luck, and chance, and that young problem gamblers have more faith in their ability to manipulate chance and “beat the system” (Froberg 2006; Griffiths 2011; Moore and Ohtsuka 1999). The results demonstrated that almost half of PGON were between 16 and 20 years old, and the age and is a cause for concern. Public and private services (i.e., those involved in treatment, prevention, research) should redirect their strategies to this new gambling accessibility mode and young age (such as online treatments and tracking systems targeted at this “new” online gambling population). One major consequence of young PGON appears to be that, although they appear to have a shorter duration before they become problem gamblers (i.e., 30 years old compared to 40 years for PGOF) and fewer suicidal thoughts, they have less control over their impulsiveness and coping with frustration, which may explain why there is the same level of PGON suicide attempts as PGOF. Dedicated health professionals, telephone helplines, and other strategies facilitating urgent intervention should be introduced in Portugal for these specific situations.
Previous research has shown that adolescent at-risk/problem Internet gamblers appear to be specifically associated with non-peer involvement, heavy alcohol use, and poor academic functioning (Potenza et al. 2011). Given that PGON are younger, this will influence various other parameters—such as being unemployed, having fewer children, and having less money—which were significantly different to those gambling offline. There are even fewer female pathological online gamblers than those gambling offline. This lower number of female PGON is difficult to explain (see Table 1). However, their proportion is increasing in the 16–20-year-old range, possibly due to the early exposure of Internet technologies of these new generations, the availability of gambling within social networks, and targeted marketing. Gender differences in gambling behaviors have been reported, both with respect to types of problem gambling for women as compared to men, as well as regarding patterns for the development of gambling problems (Potenza 2009) and males would be significantly more likely to be problem Internet gamblers than females (Griffiths and Barnes 2008). PGOF gambled fewer hours a week compared to the PGON group, and believed that less gambling time was more suitable/balanced. PGOF gambled in shorter periods, but more intensively and in an uncontrolled way that increased their negative consequences. This was coupled with the other results comparing PGOF and PGON. The results showed that offline pathological gamblers were winning and spending more money; had more intense feelings of excitement and evasion, had more alcohol, drug, and tobacco-related problems; had more diagnoses of depression, anxiety, stress; and had higher ratings on their need to substitute gambling with work, sex or television than PGON, although these latter items did not have a statistically significant difference. Pathological gamblers, most probably, already had some individual vulnerability regarding comorbidities such as other addictions. As their gambling problem develops their vulnerabilities (such as depression) may also get worse (i.e., a gambler who uses gambling as a strategy to overcome their unwanted mood states may develop gambling problems, and may also worsen their depression). These results may indicate the pathogenesis of longer problematic gambling careers and requires a different treatment approach (i.e., medication, inpatient treatment).
PGON exposure to gambling may be less intense and less prolonged in time and consequences because they are on average 10 years younger than PGOF. Given that in the present study vulnerable online gamblers acquired problem gambling 10 years earlier than offline gamblers, more help for this population is needed including online interventions and dedicated public youth departments, as well as strategic partnerships with schools, colleges, universities, and employment centers. The PGOF group demonstrated higher degrees of sensation seeking while gambling than PGON, including excitement/euphoria, evasion/escape, and disconnection while gambling. This might indicate the need to compensate for the negative consequences of a longer problem gambling career (such as the increased amount time and money spent, family conflicts, homeless situations, anxiety, depression, etc.) with higher involvement during gambling sessions, or could perhaps be a symptom of the loss of control associated with the longer time in developing problem gambling. Given that a high percentage of PGOF also gamble online, the search for these reinforcing experiences can be facilitated easily on the Internet, representing another risk factor in the development of problem gambling severity (i.e., as land-based gambling venues close, problem gamblers may go home and continue to gamble online).
The 24/7 accessibility of online gambling may be a way or possibility for offline pathological gamblers to continue their gambling. The limited data to date suggest that it is not the medium of gambling that is more problematic per se but that to vulnerable people such as problem gamblers, the Internet may be providing easily accessible “convenience” gambling that perhaps explains why problem gambling prevalence rates among online gamblers appear to be much higher than non-online gamblers (Griffiths and Auer 2011). However, this is still a cause for concern as it suggests that the Internet is a facilitating factor in the development of already vulnerable individuals (Griffiths and Barnes 2008).
The main situational dimension in this study was related to attractiveness. The question in the survey was: What attracts you more about online or offline gambling? With the exception of winning money, all variables had higher figures for PGON and all had statistically significant differences (see Table 2). These figures are most meaningful when we consider the individual characteristics of PGON concerning age, unemployment, impulsiveness, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and sensation seeking, combined with the situational characteristics of the Internet. Individual characteristics of PGON and situational characteristics concerning online gambling mode may contribute an augmented risk factor due to the strong relationship that may be created (e.g., youth and impulsiveness combined with 24/7 availability). Other risk factors are associated with this emerging online population; the “always on” culture, unemployment, online peer pressure, online aggressive marketing, streaming (sport betting, videogames tournaments, and bets), and devices that allow access anywhere and on the move (e.g., smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.).
With the exception of EuroMillions, games such as poker and live sport betting (which were more likely to be played by online pathological gamblers) have the following characteristics that may facilitate problematic use: rapid event frequency, high/fast money rewards, no spending limits, no ending, convenience, easy access, and diversity. Internet games have higher event frequencies that in turn lead to instant reinforcement and the ability to forget about losses (Griffiths and Barnes 2008).
When it comes to feeling trust, confidence, protection, and security while gambling online (i.e., because of the opportunities to self-exclude, the ability to set time and money limits, etc.), almost all PGON had higher mean scores and were more statistically significant than PGOF. Gamblers appear to have become less suspicious about the online gambling mode. The most highly rated variables that revealed a stronger bond between a pathological gambler and the Internet medium were having privacy, more information (probabilities, rules, dangers), historical information (previous bets, moves/hands), time and money control, self-exclusion, protection from criminality, and professional help. The relationship of gamblers in online modes must be used by health professionals to implement more online interventions (i.e., online treatment, online helplines, online information, and online self-help groups).
The importance of gambling for money (83.6% for PGOF and 76.3% for PGON) showed how important money became relative to the online gambling mode. New technologies have brought convenient accessibility and individuals appear to have more trust concerning online security and money transfers in recent years. Money and the attempt to win it is a fundamental factor in problem gambling, especially chasing losses and all its related the consequences. Nevertheless, PGON felt they had spent less money, won less money, and had fewer significant wins/rewards during gambling sessions, even though the figures are rather similar when compared to PGOF. Such a finding may show how money spent online seems of lesser value to online gamblers. In addition to socialization, research suggest that youth view gambling as an activity to win money (Wood and Griffiths 2004), and have beliefs that gambling can be a lucrative activity (Delfabbro et al. 2006) perhaps indicating that adolescents overestimate their chances of winning (Wood and Griffiths 2002).
PGON spent more time gambling in terms of number of days per week (PGON = 5.14 vs. PGOF = 3.33) but were almost equal in terms of hours per day and hours per weekend day. PGON were also more likely than PGOF to believe they could gamble for longer periods of time without it causing problems. In general, this perception of time and life priorities may be seen as another cognitive distortion that affects social, marital, professional, and/or academic goals. The lack of awareness or the selective memory in relation to time could be due to, among others: age, family dysfunctionality, comorbidities, denial, poor coping mechanisms, as well as, of course, familiarity and easy access to a PC and the Internet. Structural changes in games could perhaps help online pathological gamblers to overcome immersive feelings and lead to healthier gambling with the known online tracking strategies (i.e., amount of time and money spent, pop ups, self-exclusion, etc.) that may work even better online than offline.
PGON also felt they increased the money and time they spent last year, as they also gambled more during all periods of the day except for the night time (1 am to 9 am). This “flow” or feeling of time passing very fast while gambling during the daytime combined with the fact that they gamble mainly from their home computer, laptop in several places, and mobile phone, may indicate again a very strong, systematic, omnipresent, and continuous relationship with gambling. This is reinforced by the results, which showed that only 36.8% of PGON gamble online with other players, meaning that the majority prefer to gamble alone. In general, situational factors were more important for PGON than PGOF and individual factors were more important to PGOF than PGON. Significant differences exist between PGOF and PGON, but also significant similarities in relation to harm-related characteristics that may enable/facilitate gambling problems. PGON were more attracted to the situational characteristics that represent the core issues of the internet’s attractiveness, while PGOF were more influenced by individual characteristics, although several of these were not statistically different to PGON.
Internet gambling problems may become a phase in the risk factor continuum for both offline and online vulnerable gamblers. Online vulnerable gamblers reach the pathological gambling phase by 30 years old and PGOF by 40 years old. PGOF may be starting to bet more in an online mode and it may be that they accelerate their problems by also gambling online with all its attractive factors. Possibly most offline and online pathological gamblers will gamble more and more in both modes, becoming mixed-mode pathological gamblers. These mixed-mode gamblers had the highest rates of gambling involvement and higher problem gambling prevalence rates (Wardle et al. 2011). Considering that many of the gamblers in the present study gambled in mixed modes, future studies should further examine the relationship between different modes of gambling within individuals (i.e., gambling both online and offline). Ease of access, potential frequency of play, potential length of play, and the immersive qualities of the Internet medium itself may pose a unique set of challenges, along with a unique set of opportunities, for crafting effective awareness and prevention programs for the problem gambling of Internet gamblers (Wood and Williams 2007).
There are a number of implications arising from the findings of the present study at different levels. There is a need to (i) intensify treatment and prevention programs for online gamblers with particular focus concerning age, online culture, communication types, and psychotherapeutic setting (including families); (ii) develop different treatment and prevention strategies according to different types of online gambling (poker, sport betting, video gaming, etc.); (iii) educate and inform regulators and gambling promoters about the impact of varying situational and structural features including marketing, responsible gambling tools, types of messaging, near misses, in-play betting, etc., (iv) incorporate adequate and truthful information dissemination to gamblers, their families, local communities, and the media; and (v) establish new teaching programs concerning online gambling issues, to healthcare and treatment professionals, those that work in the online gambling industry, regulators, policymakers, and other public services where gambling can impact.
There are of course limitations to the present study. This was a non-representative study with a selective sample and simultaneously a self-report study with all its inherent limitations and biases (e.g., recall biases, social desirability, etc.). Some qualitative response options may also have provided essential information not provided by the forced options in the survey. Future studies should also examine at-risk gamblers more closely. It would also be useful to examine more closely the different motivations to gamble and types of gambling among mixed mode gamblers (i.e., those that gamble both online and offline) compared to gamblers that only gambled via a single medium (i.e., online only or offline only). Very little national data or scientific studies on adult problem gambling exist in Portugal prior to this study, and almost nothing on online gambling. The information presented here concerning sociodemographic variables, types of gambling behavior and individual/situational risk factors concerning offline and online pathological gamblers, is of great existential value. It is hoped that the findings of present study will stimulate further investigation into gambling in Portugal.