Online gambling is a game of chance that can be played online via your computer, mobile phone or other internet-enabled device such as tablets.
More and more people are spending more and more time on the Internet. According to the ARD-ZDF online study 2020, 94 percent of the population in Germany now use the Internet. This proportion has risen by as much as five percent in the (first) year of the Corona pandemic.
Staying in touch with other people, doing banking, shopping: the Internet has become the central everyday medium for many people. Games are also increasingly being played on the Internet, including gambling. So are online gambling just another example of an activity that is shifting more and more to the Internet? Just as more and more people shop online or book a trip on the Internet? Visit ‘royal378’ if you are interested in playing online casino.
Online gambling is not just a gamble played through another medium. There are particular risks associated with gambling on the Internet.
(Online) gambling is games:
- where there is something to gain (usually money)
- for whose participation a stake must be paid
- where the outcome of the game depends entirely or at least mainly on chance.
HIGH RISK OF ADDICTION
Any gambling can be addictive. In the case of gambling on the Internet, this risk is particularly high. These are the risks of online gambling:
- Gambling is always present on the Internet. The advertising budget for online gambling was 335 million euros per year. With lure offers, such as free games or welcome bonuses, new players are regularly recruited. It is often difficult for those who get involved in it.
- The Internet is almost everywhere. Online gambling can be played on your smartphone, on your PC at home and at work, in the internet café, etc. It happens quickly that someone gambles day and night on the internet.
- People who want to stop playing on the net or want to limit their gambling activities more, have a hard time bypassing the medium and the gambling offers found there. After all, working on computers and the Internet is an integral part of most areas of life and work. Simply not to turn on the computer in the office or at home is no solution. And once you are on the net, you don’t even have to go to the corresponding pages to be confronted with gambling: “Plug-in advertising” ensures that users now encounter previously used offers as advertising.
- Arrangements, for example, between online poker players reduce the chances of winning and make the game unfair.
- The stakes are not paid in cash, but are played with “electronic” money (money points, credit card). This can tempt you to make bigger bets. These, in turn, increase the risk of losing money chasing lost money and getting them out of control.
- Often the relatives, for example the parents or the partner, / the partner (too) late notice that online gambling is played: The son / girlfriend is just “a lot on the internet”, like many others. If he or she were to say goodbye to the arcade every night, this would be more noticeable in most cases.
If someone is just sitting in front of the PC or is “constantly” busy with their mobile phone and, for example, they are suffering from friendships or the work is too short, experts speak of “excessive media use”. Online games are also often played excessively.