Online poker addiction risk only moderate

Bloggers / Matthew Pitt / 10 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

If you talk to any "real world" person who does not play online poker then you will probably have had them ask you if you are addicted to playing or if poker is really full of degenerate gamblers looking to make a quick buck.

No matter what you tell them they won't believe you but now you can let them know that a top American University has shown that online poker, and online gambling are not the highly addictive places some would lead you to belive.

A recent study has shown that despite the widespread availability of online gambling there has not been a dramatic increase in the number of people becoming addicted to gambling.

Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions conducted a study of 3,445 poker players playing in February 2005 and carefully followed them until recently. The study was designed to investigate whether or not online gambling was a potential object of addictive behaviour.

The study found that there is no direct link between the availability of online gambling and the number of people becoming addicted to gambling. In fact the study discovered that gamblers who visited online gaming websites were more likely to self-regulate their betting behaviour based on their patterns of wins and losses.

The executive director of Harvard Law School's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, Mr Andrew M. Woods was largely unsurprised by the findings of the study and stated he believes poker is less like gambling and more similar to risk assessment.

He went on to say, "There is no house in poker, so no one is guaranteed to win," adding, "Poker exercises your ability to make good decisions."