Online Gambling is an activity where individuals play gambling games for real money over the internet. It is legal in the United States, but is regulated on a state-by-state basis. It is also available in many countries, but some have strict laws that prohibit it. The first online casino website opened 10 years ago, and now there are hundreds of them. In addition, there are also a number of sites where people can wager on sports events or horse races.
While most online gambling occurs at home, one in five gamblers have done so outside of the house. Regardless of where online gambling takes place, it is important to understand the risks involved. Gambling harms include relationship breakdown, family violence, financial stress, social stigma, and income-generating crimes such as theft and fraud. In addition, it can result in the diversion of funds from essential household spending to gambling.
Various factors influence uptake of gambling products, including accessibility and the availability of high-intensity products such as EGMs and betting platforms. In addition, the normalization of gambling is driven by commercialization and the aggressive promotion of products through sponsorships and colocation with popular sporting leagues. Individual and relational factors play a significant role as well. However, variables acting at the contextual level have received little attention within selected articles. This may be due to the fact that these are difficult to identify in cross-sectional studies and the lack of specificity regarding what types of contexts are studied.