Online Gambling is gambling done over the Internet, including casino games, sports betting and lottery-style games. It’s a $9.5 billion business and growing, but for many people what starts as harmless fun can turn into devastating gambling-related problems. The American Psychiatric Association includes gambling disorder in its definition of substance-related and addictive disorders, along with alcohol and drug addictions.

Most studies that have measured gambling behaviour in adolescents have compared online and offline gamblers, either between nonproblematic online and offline gamblers or between online and problematic online gamblers. However, a substantial number of studies have examined whether some risk and protective factors are differentially associated with online versus offline gambling. These differences are important to understand because they might help identify specific targets for prevention and intervention in this area of gambling.

In general, the majority of studies have used a variety of measurement instruments. In some cases, this has led to considerable variability in the interpretation of results and limited psychometric analysis. For example, some studies have not specified the type of gambling being referred to, and others have used diagnostic tools that are not currently recommended in DSM-5 (Gonzalez-Cabrera et al., 2020).

Some countries have laws that regulate the operation of online casinos and prohibit their advertising. However, these laws have largely been ineffective. In addition, the Internet enables players to circumvent these restrictions by using tools that enable them to play at unregulated sites. Fraud in online gambling typically involves obtaining unauthorized credit card information to make fraudulent transfers or exploiting vulnerabilities within the gaming platform.