Pokerfuse is running a story about some Australian research that alleges that Internet gambling has twice the problem gambling rate.
http://pokerfuse.com/news/industry/a...er-risk-15-10/
This headline grabbing finding is very likely to be abused by poker opponents in Australia so I thought I would try and explain here why this finding is misleading.
A powerpoint of the research is available here:
http://epubs.scu.edu.au/cgi/viewcont...t=tourism_pubs
The finding is erroneous because of their definition of an Internet gambler - they have this as "anyone who has gambled using interactive methods in the past 12 months".
Now that may sound fair enough but it completely skews their problem gambling figures. Problem gamblers are heavily engaged gamblers, they use lots of different types of gambling. If you want to predict who is a problem gambler then measuring their "engagement" or number of ways they gamble is pretty good.
This means that problem gamblers are very likely to show up as "internet gamblers" but they would also show up as any other type of gambler - pokies in past 12 months tick, betting office, tick, lottery tick, casino tick.
The group "Internet gamblers" are being defined against - gamblers who never bet interactively is certain to give you a higher proportion as the control group is less engaged. To be honest I am surprised they found (m)any problem gamblers who have not bet interactively in the past year at all. This might be as the prevalence data is from 2011, it might be the restrictive laws you have in Aus or it might be that some of the problem gamblers included in the figures are those who have not made any bets at all in the past 12 months thanks to support from GA or the like who would show up as non internet gamblers.
Anyway, if and when this research gets abused down under by your media and politicians at least you have been briefed.