Gamcare

09:03 0 Comments

Online Gambling is becoming an increasingly popular form of gambling, and there are now an estimated 1,700 gambling websites on the Internet. As well as the Internet, you can now gamble through interactive television and a mobile phone.

The convenience of gambling at home, the ease of setting up an gambling account and the variety of forms of gambling - from traditional betting, to casino gambling, bingo and lotteries - makes online gambling very appealing.

However, whilst many people gamble online without any problems GamCare has started to see an increase in the amount of people contacting our helpline and counselling services who are losing control of their gambling online.

There are some factors of online gambling that could certainly increase the risk of developing a gambling problem. These are:

>The ability to gamble 24 hours a day in your own home

>The increased risk of exposure and access by children

>The absorption of computers, leading people to lose track of time whilst gambling

>The decrease in the perception of the value of cash - i.e. players are forgetting that they are spending money