Online gaming not more addictive, study says 22/04/2009

Jon Parker

A Bwin-sponsored study by a Harvard Medical School affiliate has concluded that online gaming is no more addictive than traditional gaming.

A study of 3,445 online poker players over two years conducted by the Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, in Massachusetts concluded that online gaming had no greater problem potential than offline gaming, and that responsible gaming measures were effective.

Associate Professor Howard Shaffer said: “In this research we provide additional evidence in support of our previous research showing that most subscribers who gamble on the internet do so moderately. In fact, correlation analyses indicated that as per cent lost increased, duration, total gambling sessions and total amount wagered all decreased, suggesting that individuals moderated their behaviour based on their wins and their losses – exhibiting ‘rational’ betting behaviour.”

Most of the sample, 95%, was male, and the average age of the group was 27.9 years old.

Highlighted results centred on a typical member defined by median averages rather than mean averages. This was an active poker player for a median duration of six and a half months that participated in a median of one poker session every three days. The median amount gambled per session was €13, and the median cost of playing poker was €1.80 per session.

The gaming behaviours of the most involved poker players showed that this group, representing 5% of all players, was active for a duration of 18.5 months and participated in 10 sessions per week.

This 5% sub-group had a smaller percentage lost than the sample majority, which the researchers argued suggested that skill was a factor in poker play and that players were able to improve their performance compared with games of chance.

Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner said: “In our intention to replace speculation with scientific evidence, this study takes us a big step closer towards understanding the behaviour of online poker players. Ultimately we are interested in developing algorithms capable of identifying behavioural patterns or identifying risk patterns associated with disordered gaming”.

Bwin began its sponsorship of Division on Addictions research in 2005.

For more on Bwin, read this month's Norbert Teufelberger interview.

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Posted: 22/04/2009