July 3rd, 2008
excerpt:
IN SA, as elsewhere, whenever there is public debate about the regulation of commercial gambling, whether gambling at casinos or online, one of the topics that receives central attention is problem gambling.
It is generally supposed that the more gambling opportunities are around, the more problem gamblers there will be. This is often said to be the main reason why most people in democracies think that although some gambling should be allowed, it should be carefully restricted.
Until very recently, social and behavioural scientists didn’t know very much at all about problem gambling. They had no idea what caused it. They didn’t know if all problem gamblers responded to similar kinds of interventions. They didn’t know whether some kinds of gambling were more dangerous to people with gambling problems than other kinds of gambling. They didn’t even have reliable estimates, in any country, as to what proportion of the general population, and what proportion of active gamblers, have gambling problems.
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