Gamble Aware will provide advice on gambling and operators will have to include its website www.gambleaware.co.uk in any advertising, as part of their commitment to responsible gambling.

Older teenage boys are particularly at risk of becoming gambling addicts. But it’s also popular among schoolchildren who use their parents’ credit cards to gain access to online gambling sites.

A spokesman for Gamble Aware said: “There’s a danger of a rise in problem gambling. Young males between 18 and 21 are most at risk because they can get a credit card and join online poker games.

“The site will help with advice and give them the facts about gambling. For example, people make back between 70% and 80% of the money they gamble.”

Guardian (09/03/07)

The research, by the University of Western Sydney, reveals persistent high hope clouds the judgment of problem gamblers and leads to the impairment of self-control.

School of Psychology PhD graduate Dr Morten Boyer said an inherent characteristic of gambling was that despite the vary small chance of winning, there was always a chance.

“For problem gamblers, the perpetual, albeit small chance of winning translates into a high level of hope which makes it seem irrational to stop feeding money into the machine,” Dr Boyer said.”

NEWS.com.au (08/15/07)

“In achieving GamCare Certification, PokerStars have attained the highest standards in player protection and have demonstrated that they genuinely recognise the need to assist their customers in playing responsibly. We look forward to working with PokerStars in the future and in continuing to share their commitment to responsible gambling.”

PokerStars obtained verification after implementing a number of new initiatives which you may have seen for the first time last week on the online poker room. These include:

Age Verification – assuring that all UK players who play on PokerStars are of legal age.

Self-exclusion Program – this allows players to prevent themselves from
playing should they wish. Players can choose to suspend their play for anything from a 24-hour cool down period to 180+ days.

Deposit Limits – PokerStars, which has well established deposit limits for new players, also allows players to set their own, smaller deposit limits should they prefer. For example, a player can set their weekly deposit limit to $10.”

PokerNews (07/31/07)

Good enough that last year the Melbourne, Fla., resident took the $14,700 second-place money in a tournament—an online tournament, that is.

Koeller, a retired paint contractor, is among the growing number of people age 50-plus visiting the Internet to play poker, slots, roulette and bingo. National statistics on their prevalence aren’t available. But as the percentage of people ages 50 to 64 using computers has grown—from less than 40 percent in 2000 to 69 percent in 2006—so has the share of older people’s calls to gambling hotlines regarding addiction issues with Internet play. In the last three years, for example, that share has risen from 8 percent to 13 percent for the Florida Compulsive Gambling Hotline…”

AARP Bulletin (June 2007)

“There are people in places like Portree, Arran and parts of southern Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway who can’t travel the long distances to their nearest meeting in Inverness or Carlisle,” a Gamblers Anonymous spokesman said in the Sunday Herald.

The organization’s solution is to roll out Skype, which will allow people to make free phone calls over the Internet to take part in counseling sessions.”

Poker Listings (07/17/07)

As endless hours in front of a screen go by, more and more people may be getting sucked into the personality and life of the character they are playing in a video game, or of the faceless gambler in an online casino, betting from the comforts of their own home.

In order to assess how big of a problem these forms of addictive behavior are becoming, the UCLA Gambling Studies Program designed a study that would pinpoint the prevalence of problematic video gaming and Internet gambling among UCLA students in the form of a massive online survey.

“The genesis of this study came about after we started to see more students and younger patients with Internet gambling and video game addictions,” said Timothy Fong, codirector of the program. “It led us to wonder how big of a problem this was…”

Daily Bruin (07/09/07)

And since many tend to start at about nine or ten years old, experts say it is important to educate them about the dangers of excessive gambling, before it is too late.

This is one key focus at a two-day Problem Gambling Conference which started on Thursday.

Besides teaching them about the pitfalls, youths must also know where to seek help.”

Channel NewsAsia (07/04/07)

“We need to do more research on treatment outcomes,” added Ms. Reilly — something which hasn’t necessarily kept pace with the explosion of commercial gambling over the past decade.

In truth, some gamblers may benefit from certain types of medication, she said, others from conventional “talk,” or cognitive behavioral therapy; still others may profit from a combination of the two — a “cocktail” of treatment options, she explained.

The exact mix will depend on the individual’s needs, which makes a thorough initial assessment essential.

“It’s all based on the person’s behavior, and how they report that behavior,” she said.”

Times Shamrock (07/03/07)

The most compelling testimony in favor of legalizing online gambling didn’t come from the mouths of members of the online gambling industry, but from those who deal with problem gamblers everyday.

Both Andrew Poole, of Online Services for GamCare, a charitable organization that addresses the social impact of gambling, and Keith Whyte, Executive Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, pointed out how the proposed legislation would provide protection for both minors and problem gamblers.”

CardPlayer (06/08/07)

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (05/21/07)

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s new Self-Exclusion Program