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New study seeks to evaluate problem gambling implications of growing gambling activity
Norway's top research group will try to determine what percentage of the population have a gambling problem as the amount of money spent in general on games of chance spirals upward in the Nordic nation, and Norwegian authorities try to increase their regulatory control over gambling.
The Lottery Board finances studies of gambling addiction and now SINTEF (The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology) Health will do a follow-up investigation of Norwegian betting habits, science web site Forskning.no reports.
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A former study conducted in 2002 showed that 49 000 people aged 15-74 were having, or had had, serious gambling problems.
"Since then the gross turnover in the (registered) Norwegian gambling market has increased by over 25 percent," said Atle Hamar, director of the Lottery Board in a press release from SINTEF. "In addition, we have gotten uncontrolled Internet gambling. The authorities want to see how this affects gambling addiction in the populace," Hamar said.
The gross turnover in regulated Norwegian gambling activities in 2002 was NOK 30 billion (USD 4.78 billion). The 2006 figures are not yet ready but in 2005 this sum had risen to NOK 42.3 billion (USD 6.74 billion). On top of this Norwegians have spent at least another NOK 4 billion on unregulated Internet games in 2005, a figure that has approximately doubled since 2003.
Now SINTEF Health will update the 2002 study and investigate new aspects, such as the effects of gambling addiction on near relatives and the possible links between Internet and computer gaming addiction and Norwegian gambling habits.
SINTEF has sent out 10 000 questionnaires to a random sampling of persons aged 16-74. The study focuses on all sorts of gambling, from lotto and lottery tickets to slot machines and Internet poker.
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