Smartphones: Feeding Gambling Addiction?

The easy access to gaming sites provided by Smartphones has contributed to a rise in gambling addiction, according to a new study.

Of the 100,000 Irish young people (under 25) estimated to be suffering from gambling addiction in the study, an estimated 90 percent start gambling on a handheld device.

Online Gaming Addiction

Beyond the gambling compulsion, online gaming has been proven to be clinically addictive as well as on the rise among young people.

According to the study, young people play up to eight hours of internet games per night, compounding the addictiveness and availability of online gambling in and of itself.

Games as Escape

The allure of escape is identified as the primary psychological motivation for addicts, a method of avoidance that fails to address the day to day problems in their lives.

Destroying Lives

Ireland's largest addiction treatment centres,  Aiseiri and Cuan Mhuire, have confirmed a steep rise in the number of people seeking help for gaming addictions overall.

Earlier Prevention Needed

The primary source of concern is that these cases are being discovered after the fact:

New addicts are increasing by 20% per year, and are already facing "financial destruction, marital breakdown or even prison for crimes like fraud to feed their habit," according to Paul Mullins of Aiseiri.

The Self-Exclusion Intervention

So what is to be done to implement more preventative intervention?

The Gaming and Leisure Association of Ireland (GLAI) offers a self-exclusion facility where people can indicate a problem and invoke an exclusion mechanism that cuts the user off from gaming immediately.

This is a small step, but nonetheless apparently a step in the right direction, where acknowledgment of the increased convenience of Smartphones also brings with it increased susceptibility to the addictive dangers of gambling and online gaming.