Internet gambling is one of the fastest growing forms of gambling. Global Internet gambling expenditure is predicted to reach US$33.6 billion in 2011. This is higher than worldwide movie box office revenues and represents 9% of the international gambling market. The rapid increase in expenditure of 354% since 2003 has occurred despite Internet gambling being prohibited in several key markets, including the US and China. It also suggests that current regulation may be somewhat outdated and ineffective as more and more people turn to this mode of gambling. Internet gambling is highly accessible with over 2,400 sites available 24/7 through computers, mobile phones, wireless devices and even interactive televisions. Gamblers can now play casino games, bingo, cards and poker, bet on races, sports and even celebrity weddings using over 199 means of electronic payments without leaving the house. Increasing international jurisdictions are legalizing Internet gambling and the constant accessibility of online gambling has critical social implications. Gambling operators are using aggressive advertising campaigns to move into new markets. Internet gambling appears to be particularly appealing to youth, who are gambling online at substantially higher rates than adults. Furthermore, Internet gambling appears to be related to problem gambling, with rates of problem gambling three to four times higher among Internet than non-Internet gamblers, indicating that it may have a substantial social cost. The anonymity of online sports betting poses a significant threat to the integrity of sport at all levels with increasing allegations of match-fixing and cheating. Estimates suggested that 50% of all bets on the 2010 FIFA World Cup were placed online, worth an estimated £500 million. These figures represent a 700% rise in online betting since the 2006 tournament and included many new players that opened online accounts. It is essential that appropriate responses are made by governments, industry professionals and the public in response to Internet gambling. This book will provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of Internet gambling, including the social impact and regulatory options. A global outline will include the characteristics and features of the many forms of Internet gambling, including the current market, and participation, and differences between Internet and non-Internet gambling. Specific regional considerations will be explored including regulatory responses and options. Importantly, the social consequences and costs of Internet gambling will be examined, including the impact of online gambling on sports, youth and problem gambling. Strategies for prevention and responsible gambling will be considered as well as expected trends.

Internet gambling has emerged as the most radical change to gambling in recent years. Interactive gambling opportunities using computers and wireless devices have transformed the ways in which players engage in gambling. The technological advances that have allowed gambling to expand across physical borders and beyond venues has had a profound impact on gambling policy, regulation, research, treatment and prevention strategies. This book provides a compilation of current research findings by prominent international researchers, including the incidence of Internet gambling, how online gambling is used, sub-groups of online gamblers, and the difference between Internet and non-Internet gamblers in the general population and among treatment-seekers. This book is highly relevant for researchers, students, regulators, policy makers, gambling industry operators, treatment providers and community groups interested in research findings relevant to online gambling. It was originally published as a special issue of International Gambling Studies.

Internet gambling has emerged as the most radical change to gambling in recent years. Interactive gambling opportunities using computers and wireless devices have transformed the ways in which players engage in gambling. The technological advances that have allowed gambling to expand across physical borders and beyond venues has had a profound impact on gambling policy, regulation, research, treatment and prevention strategies. This book provides a compilation of current research findings by prominent international researchers, including the incidence of Internet gambling, how online gambling is used, sub-groups of online gamblers, and the difference between Internet and non-Internet gamblers in the general population and among treatment-seekers. This book is highly relevant for researchers, students, regulators, policy makers, gambling industry operators, treatment providers and community groups interested in research findings relevant to online gambling. It was originally published as a special issue of International Gambling Studies.

Fully revised and updated this essential resource, Internet Gaming Law, for legal professionals and business executives in the field of internet gaming. The valuable book covers a multitude of new challenges to government, and regulatory agencies that deal with gambling legislation, and much more. This newly updated Edition has expanded coverage on the impact of state, federal, and international laws on traditional forms of online gambling including: ycasinos ylotteries ybingo ysports betting ysweepstakes ygames of skill yday-trading.

Youth gambling represents a potentially serious public policy and health issue. Nevertheless, the rise in youth gambling issues and problems in the global context is not matched with a parallel increase in research on adolescent gambling. As such, there is an urgent need to conduct more studies on adolescent gambling behaviour. Recently significant advances in the knowledge of the risk factors associated with adolescent problems has emerged. This book addresses issues related to prevalence, assessment, prevention and treatment of youth gambling problems as well as concerns related to technological changes associated with youth problem gambling.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. Gambling is both a multi-billion-dollar international industry and a ubiquitous social and cultural phenomenon. It is also undergoing significant change, with new products and technologies, regulatory models, changing public attitudes and the sheer scale of the gambling enterprise necessitating innovative and mixed methodologies that are flexible, responsive and ‘agile’. This book seeks to demonstrate that researchers should look beyond the existing disciplinary territory and the dominant paradigm of ‘problem gambling’ in order to follow those changes across territorial, political, technical, regulatory and conceptual boundaries. The book draws on cutting-edge qualitative work in disciplines including geography, organisational studies, sociology, East Asian studies and anthropology to explore the production and consumption of risk, risky places, risk technologies, the gambling industry and connections between gambling and other kinds of speculation such as financial derivatives. In doing so it addresses some of the most important issues in contemporary social science, including: the challenges of studying deterritorialised social phenomena; globalising technologies and local markets; regulation as it operates across local, regional and international scales; and the rise of games, virtual worlds and social media.

As states have moved from merely tolerating gambling to running their own games, as communities have increasingly turned to gambling for an economic boost, important questions arise. Has the new age of gambling increased the proportion of pathological or problem gamblers in the U.S. population? Where is the threshold between "social betting" and pathology? Is there a real threat to our families, communities, and the larger society? Pathological Gambling explores America's experience of gambling, examining: The diverse and frequently controversial issues surrounding the definition of pathological gambling. Its co-occurrence with disorders such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression. Its social characteristics and economic consequences, both good and bad, for communities. The role of video gaming, Internet gambling, and other technologies in the development of gambling problems. Treatment approaches and their effectiveness, from Gambler's Anonymous to cognitive therapy to pharmacology. This book provides the most up-to-date information available on the prevalence of pathological and problem gambling in the United States, including a look at populations that may have a particular vulnerability to gambling: women, adolescents, and minority populations. Its describes the effects of problem gambling on families, friendships, employment, finances, and propensity to crime. How do pathological gamblers perceive and misperceive randomness and chance? What are the causal pathways to pathological gambling? What do genetics, brain imaging, and other studies tell us about the biology of gambling? Is there a bit of sensation-seeking in all of us? Who needs treatment? What do we know about the effectiveness of different policies for dealing with pathological gambling? The book reviews the available facts and frames the intriguing questions yet to be answered. Pathological Gambling will be the odds-on favorite for anyone interested in gambling in America: policymakers, public officials, economics and social researchers, treatment professionals, and concerned gamblers and their families.

Offering the first empirically driven assessment of the development, marketisation, regulation and use of online gambling organisations and their products, this book explores the relationship between online gambling and crime. It draws upon quantitative and qualitative data, including textual and visual analyses of e-gambling advertising and the records of player-protection and standards organisations, together with a virtual ethnography of online gambling subcultures, to examine the ways in which gambling and crime have been approached in practice by gamers, regulatory agencies and online gambling organisations. Building upon contemporary criminological theory, it develops an understanding of online gambling as an arena in which risks and rewards are carefully constructed and through which players navigate, employing their own agency to engage with the very real possibility of victimisation. With attention to the manner in which online gambling can be a source of criminal activity, not only on the part of players, but also criminal entrepreneurs and legitimate gambling businesses, Online Gambling and Crime discusses developments in criminal law and regulatory frameworks, evaluating past and present policy on online gambling. A rich examination of the prevalence, incidence and experience of a range of criminal activities linked to gambling on the Internet, this book will appeal to scholars and policy makers in the fields of sociology and criminology, law, the study of culture and subculture, risk, health studies and social policy.

Victimization through the Internet is becoming more prevalent as cyber criminals have developed more effective ways to remain anonymous. And as more personal information than ever is stored on networked computers, even the occasional or non-user is at risk. A collection of contributions from worldwide experts and emerging researchers, Cyber Crimino

machines stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two. --