Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
According to a recent Harvard Medical School study, online gaming does not promote an addiction to gambling. Following a barrage of claims that online poker can cause addictive behaviour, a group of scientists has found evidence to the contrary. Working alongside bwin.party and studying millions of players over a two-year period, the researchers found that most people enjoy online gambling as a pastime and self-regulate their play. In addition to its own research, Harvard's Division of Addiction worked with the University of Hamburg and its study on the addictive nature of online poker. After collating the results, Harvard's report concluded that 95%+ of those studied gambled in moderation and only 1%-5% exhibited "intense gambling behaviour". Moreover, players would go online an average of once every two weeks and lose 5.5% of their bankroll each time. For poker specifically, the median player only went online "4.88 hours per week" and paid "less than a dollar per hour per table in rake".
Joined: Feb '14
Location: Tunisia
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 2135
not everyone who drinks alcohol , have an addiction .. same with poker , i do think that most players can quit playing at anytime , but there are some people , no matter how much they lose , they will always come back , hoping and dreaming of a big win that will change their life forever
Joined: Oct '10
Location: Ukraine
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 19
On-line poker for many players it is actual simply a hobby, possibility to be weakened and enjoy a game with the presence of ardour. Certainly, there are people which zavisymy from a game and it for them already addiction. Similarly there are people which upon ordinary onlay games are dependency.
Joined: Jan '14
Location: Portugal
Age: 56 (M)
Posts: 271
once everytwo weeks? Wow , didn't expect that. I though the recreational player logged more like once for an hour every two days. Interesting to know though. Thanks for the post friend. I always handled poker as a business so I agree with the study.
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Depends on what type of recreational players you talking about, there are some who plays everyday for like 1 hour and don't use software and don't mind losing the money they brought to the table! And the other is the one who plays only freerolls like me, who does not login much and only when there are promotions i deposit and try to make some money but most likely i lose money all the time lol. Anyway guys be you are recreational or pro or regulars, just have fun, if not then quit poker, not worth the time and money if you don;t love the game!
Joined: Sep '11
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 3048
Games of chance are risky if you play for any reason other than to have fun. According to the experts at Centre Dollard-Cormier, there are three types of gamblers: Recreational gamblers: Gambling does not pose a problem to these gamblers. They gamble only for fun. Gambling is a social pastime for them.
“At risk” gamblers: Gambling causes them problems. They feel guilty about their gambling habits. Gambling may get them into quarrels. They sometimes feel depressed. Gambling often takes a big bite out of their budget. They have to pay back their losses.
Problem gamblers: They have many serious problems related to their gambling addiction. They are subject to depression. They may have suicidal thoughts. Their gambling obsession may lead to divorce. They have debts, and sometimes live in poverty. Their desperation may lead them to commit criminal acts.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Well all these researches and results are a part from the truth. They cant really tell what is going on, in the whole planet with so many players online. And there are indeed players getting addicted.
Another great example of scientists wasting their time for a useless research.
