How do online sports gambling disorder patients compare with land-based patients?
Author(s): Ana Estévez,Raquel Rodríguez,NOELIA DÍAZ,Roser Granero,Gemma Mestre-Bach,Trevor Steward,Fernando Fernández-Aranda,Neus Aymami,Mónica Gómez-Pena,Amparo Del Pino-Gutiérrez,Marta Bano,Laura Moragas,Núria Mallorqui-Bagué,Hibai López-González,Paula Jauregui,JAIONE ONAINDIA,Virginia MARTÍN-ROMERA,José M. Menchón,Susana Jiménez-Murcia / Language(s): English
/ Issue: 4/2017
Keywords: gambling disorder; Internet; online gambling; personality; betting;
Recent technological developments have brought about notable changes in the way people gamble. The widespread use of mobile Internet devices and gambling websites has led to a significant leap in the number of people who recreationally gamble. However, for some, gambling can turn into a psychiatric disorder resembling substance addiction. At present, there is a shortage of studies examining differences between adults with gambling disorder (GD) who exclusively make sports bets online, GD patients that are non-sports Internet gamblers, and offline gamblers. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the differences between these three groups, considering sociodemographic, personality, and clinical characteristics. Methods: The sample consisted of 2,743 treatment-seeking male patients from the Pathological Gambling Unit at a university hospital. All patients met DSM-5 criteria for GD. Results: We found that gamblers who exclusively engaged in non-sports Internet gambling activities were younger than offline gamblers and online sports gamblers. Non-sports Internet gamblers were also more likely to have greater levels of debt compared with offline gamblers. In terms of personality characteristics, our sample displayed low levels of self-directedness and cooperativeness and high levels of novelty seeking. In addition, online sports gamblers obtained higher scores in persistence than non-sports Internet gamblers and offline gamblers.
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