Problem gambling research critically flawed, says UK academic
Research that concluded last month that online gambling was more likely to contribute to problem gambling than offline gambling is critically flawed, a leading UK academic studying problem gambling told EGRmagazine.com today.
RESEARCH THAT concluded last month that online gambling was more likely to contribute to problem gambling than offline gambling is critically flawed, a leading academic studying problem gambling told EGRmagazine.com today.
Dr Jonathan Parke, senior lecturer in gambling studies at the Centre for the Study of Gambling at Salford Business School in the UK, said today that conclusions drawn by Dr Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Britain’s Nottingham Trent University using data from the most recent British Gambling Prevalence Survey are invalid.
As reported on EGRmagazine.com, Griffiths used the data to conclude that “the medium of the internet may be more likely to contribute to problem gambling than gambling in offline environments,” and that “it is clear that gaming companies need to acknowledge they will need to provide even better social responsibility infrastructures online than offline to minimise the harm to problem gamblers”.
However, Parke (pictured) said the research failed to factor in key data that should have prevented Griffiths from drawing that conclusion.
Parke said: “While the survey data was sound, the researchers did not take into account how often those who said that they gamble online actually do so, and doesn’t distinguish between those who gamble online once a year and those who gamble online once an hour. Also, the researchers did not take into account whether those who gamble online also participate in other forms of gambling.”
Using data from the same study, Parke highlights the fact that those who gamble online are also more likely to participate in a range of different forms of gambling than those who don’t gamble online.
Britons who play the National Lottery are the least likely to engage in other forms of gambling, the survey found, while those who place spread bets are the most likely. Those who gamble online are at the wider end of the spectrum, and are more likely to participate in a range of gambling behaviours than those who take part in forms including offline bingo, football pools, racing or offline casinos.
“To compare this to drug use, if someone were to do all sorts of drugs and happens to include marijuana in that mix, it wouldn’t then follow that marijuana causes use of more drugs, just that marijuana is easier to get access to than other drugs,” Parke said.
“Key decisions are being made commercially, politically and clinically regarding internet gambling research, and it’s important that we are basing those decisions on accurate information.”
The British Gambling Prevalence Survey used data from a survey of 9003 people aged 16 years and over that had gambled online and/or used a betting exchange in the 12 months prior. The research was done in collaboration with the National Centre for Social Research and Professor Jim Orford of the University of Birmingham, and was funded by the UK’s Gambling Commission.
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