How online gamblers perceive themselves

WASHINGTON - An online gambler doesn’t realize that he is betting on the Internet - instead he thinks he is an internaut who gambles - says a new study.

Another conclusion of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) research study is that the amount of money played is underestimated: on average, a gambler who thinks he has bet 22 euros a month, in reality has bet 40 euros.

“They think that they are browsing the net, going into pages of this type and gambling, believing that they are still browsing,” said Jose Ignacio Cases.

“On the other hand, in the case of conventional gambling, if you are going to make a bet on football scores, playing instant lottery, buying a lottery ticket, or taking part in a bingo game, you are more aware that you are gambling”, he added.

The data gathered is based on a survey with a sample of 1,000 interviews. They demonstrate that gambling is a very widespread practice in Spain given that 92.4 percent of Spaniards aged 18 to75 have done so on at least one occasion, and almost half (49.4 percent) state that they habitually gamble.

And gamblers are more often men than women, especially those between the ages of 22 and 55, with medium high social status.

The goal of this research is “initiating reflection from the academic point of view on a little known reality in Spain: that of the gaming industry, which involves a large number of workers, many millions of euros, with winnings going to a large number of citizens, practically all of them adults,” Cases said. (ANI)