College Woes at Online Casinos
Researchers across the globe have latched onto the reports about the increased prevalence of internet poker and online casino gambling at college and University campuses and have used that information to prompt their own research. The theory goes that the internet is such a handy and pervasive medium that it is causing a large-scale issue at colleges because young gamblers are turning to the internet for more than just a little bit of or relaxation. College students traditionally spend a lot of time online – be it for researching school projects or connecting on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the demographic is very active on the internet. And according to researchers college aged adults are facing a lot of exposure to different forms of internet gambling – from stumbling upon online casinos to “casually” playing poker through Facebook, researchers are concerned about the long-term effects this exposure to gambling will have on the young adults.
Although some online casino gambling supporters are prone to dismissing some of these research studies as biased, there is simply too much information coalescing to the same conclusion to ignore that the global youth are facing more possibly harmful exposure to gambling through the internet than any previous generation. Research already indicates that many individuals all over the world may experience variations on internet addictions even without the lure of the internet gambling sites.
Basically, the research is far from conclusive – there is no clear indication that the college students of the world are facing rampant online casino gambling addiction, but there is also no data that disproves this assumption either. Researchers are still actively investigating this issue and it is certainly worth keeping in mind at the parental and college administration level.