College students have grown up with video games where they've learned that the more you play something the better you get at it. But while skill plays a role in the outcome, poker is still a game of chance.
Generally the deeper problems people have, the less they're influenced by game design.
Gambling has become much more normative in our culture, in our society, and in the media. If there were taboos about women only playing bingo, they've been erased.
This will exacerbate the severity, and relapse is going to be more of a problem.
We would estimate that three to four percent of your adult population will meet criteria for a gambling problem.
It's a new form of access to gambling, not a new form of gambling. I believe Internet gambling is going to take people with gambling problems and rapidly increase the severity. They are going to rack up more debt more quickly.
Such a big prize leads to a lot of magical thinking. People forget about the odds.
The percentage of women who gamble has dramatically increased. Twenty years ago, it would have been 80 percent men, 20 percent women, and now it's 50-50.
This is not a silver bullet. It would need to be done in combination with a number of therapies.
Crime has always been a problem in illegal gambling, and people prey on those gamblers because they know most of them won't go to the police if they get robbed. Gambling involves cash, and that tends to attract criminals.
