Joint academia forces between the University of Western Ontario and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, revealed the telling habits of online gamblers in a recent study.

According to the information, Internet gambling has the highest rate of participation with 25% of players logging in weekly and over 50% on a daily basis with poker being the game of choice. Players polled were 20 regular casino gamblers and 10 regular online gamblers.

Betting online is shown to have a higher risk potential to becoming addictive than land based casino gambling, where online players can hide their habits more clandestinely, as well as offers a certain level on anonymity not found in casinos off-line. The study shows that gambling online quickly becomes a daily part of their lives, sometimes for more than 8 hours a day, and brings out their more competitive and aggressive sides.

Legal ramifications
Excluding the USA and Canada, there are over 90 jurisdictions globally that license or tolerate online gambling. Following the 2006 UIGEA, an act that prohibits the transfer of funds from any private financial institutions to any Internet gambling sites, many major players such as PartyGaming have taken a significant hit.

Globally, online gambling is worth more than $15 billion dollars annually.

Michael Lipton, a Toronto gaming law specialist stresses that regulating the gambling industry would provide a tax revenue for governments and other social welfare programs.

One has to wonder why governments are so dead set against private citizens spending their own money on personal pursuits - instead they want that money to go towards programs of their own choice without or without the gamblers consent.