WORRYING POKER PROBLEM IN SWEDISH GAMBLING?

12 October 2007

Higher propensity for addiction in online poker players, study reports


According to Gambling News Review this week, the National Institute of Public Health in Sweden has been conducting a study of internet poker in the country over the past year, and the results are a cause for concern, with indications that poker players may have a greater propensity to become problem gamblers than online casino players.

Carried out in 2006 among a good-sized sample of 16 500 Swedish adults, the study looked at three areas: the first was to determine the size of the online poker community; the second was to profile the subjects, their skill level at poker and if they were problem gamblers and finally how the launch of Svenska Spel’s poker site affected online poker players.

Svenske Spel holds the Swedish state's monopoly in online gambling.

GNR reports that the study found between 126 000 and 157 000 Swedish adults are playing internet poker at least once a month and male poker players outnumber women by ten to one in online poker.

The most common age of these poker players was twenty-five to forty.

The study showed that players who bet on other types of online gambling wagered more money when playing Internet poker, and that approximately 27 percent could become problem gamblers, compared with 21 percent of those who indulge in other forms of Internet gambling.

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