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13 August 2005
Online Gamblers To Face
Quiz
The
booming online gaming industry is hoping to weed out addicts
by offering a "scientifically developed questionnaire" on
poker
and casino sites.
The survey, which is
designed to show whether users have a gambling problem, is
part of a first attempt to self-regulate the army of
websites offering poker and casino games that have sprung up
in recent years.
Andrew Beveridge, chief
executive of industry body eCOGRA,
which has set up the regulations, said that filling in the
questions would be voluntary and that no-one would be banned
from the sites.
His organisation, whose
name stands for eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and
Assurance, claims to represent over half of the online
gaming industry.
"You can't just go out and
tell someone they have a gambling problem," he said. "The
person has to recognise that themselves."
In addition, to encourage
users to answer questions, participating websites are
training their staff to recognise patterns of gambling that
may indicate that users have a problem.
The questionnaire - which
has been developed by the University of Chicago - asks
gamblers questions such as "on one or more of the times when
you tried to stop, cut down or control your gambling, were
you restless or irritable?"
A score of five or higher
on the seventeen questions is consistent with "pathological
gambling", according to the university.
Teresa Tunstall, head of
development at addiction helpline Gamcare,
said that although she would "rather the questionnaire was
there than not", she couldn't see it having the desired
effect.
"Once people have got to
that stage they are in denial," she said. "We need to raise
awareness from a younger age."
Gamcare carries out annual
research into gambling addiction, and Ms Tunstall said that
the average gambling debt admitted to by callers using the
service was £25,000.
Nearly half of the callers
to the Gamcare helpline were betting online and 29pc were
gaming online, last year.
Ms Tunstall said that this
was a number that was increasing, and that online gaming and
betting was particularly worrying because it was carried out
in isolation.
"At least if you're going
out you have to get dressed and go to the betting shop, but
with this you don't even have to get out of bed," she said.
"In a casino someone can tap you on the shoulder and say
'let's go home' but this is just so isolated."
The eCogra regulations
also aim to cut out underage gambling by checking names and
birthdates against Government records, but Ms Tunstall said
that the safeguards that were currently in place were
inadequate, and pointed to a recent study that the
organisation had undertaken with the National Children's
Homes charity (NCH).
"One of the directors
brought in his 16-year old daughter in and she typed in all
of her correct information, just changing her age to 18.
Only five picked up on it," she said.
Last year the annual
turnover of the gambling industry rose 25pc to £78
billion.
Official statistics on
online gambling are sparse, but experts assume that a large
amount of this growth is coming from internet
sites.
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eCOGRA
Launches Major Responsible Gaming Initiative
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