Abstract
This study reports findings on Internet gambling and problem gambling among Icelandic youth. Participants were 1.537 13–18 year-old students, 786 boys and 747 girls. Results revealed that 56.6% had gambled at least once in the past 12 months and 24.3% on the Internet. Gender and developmental differences were found for Internet gambling, as boys and older age-groups were more likely to gamble on the Internet than girls or younger age groups. Problem gambling for the total sample was 2.2%, but Internet gamblers were more likely to be classified as problem gamblers (7.7%) than non-Internet gamblers (1.1%). A comparison of the findings of this study to earlier studies on adolescents conducted in 2003 and 2004 reveals that Icelandic adolescents are gambling less in land-based types of gambling and more on the Internet. In general, the results of this study thus suggest that the gambling habits of Icelandic youth are changing.
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Notes
Post hoc analysis using the Wilson procedure for calculating the confidence interval for the difference between two independent proportions (Newcombe 1998) showed that 56,6% was significantly lower than either 79% (2003) or 70% (2004).
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Olason, D.T., Kristjansdottir, E., Einarsdottir, H. et al. Internet Gambling and Problem Gambling Among 13 to 18 Year Old Adolescents in Iceland. Int J Ment Health Addiction 9, 257–263 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-010-9280-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-010-9280-7