There is always someone saying something about the dangers of gambling online. Many "abstainers&quot from these games believe that gambling is a social problem, whilst the majority of gamblers know the truth – this is a form of entertainment. So, studies have been conducted on whether gambling habits have changed since the introduction of this industry, and if problem gambling is on the increase. Not many changes have been extrapolated from most of these problem gambling studies. However in a first in its kind research from Nottingham Trent University, leisure gamblers have now been studied, and in this case are referred to as positive players.

Fundamentally positive players have been found to take personal responsibility for their gambling experiences. They make use of protective strategies and stick to these. For example they may go out to gamble with a certain amount of money, and leave all bank cards at home, in the case of live casinos players. Online gamblers might use similar strategies such as setting strict limits, or self-exclusion for periods of time. Leisure gamblers who are positive players only gamble away what they can afford to spend. They budget for this form of entertainment in the same way as they might for going to movies, or out for dinner.

The premise of this study is that it counters a negative focus. In other words – the study of positive player looks into practices and/or motivations which neutralises a negative focus. Negative emphasis of any activity often encourages a "forbidden-fruit-effect". However by focussing on the positive, this may resonate with players who might pooh-pooh messages regarding the risk of gambling.

Results were extrapolated from an online survey where 1,484 leisure gamblers participated, and 209 problem gamblers did too. Most positive players were found to enjoy other leisure activities too, and that their motivation for playing was quite simply to have some fun. In fact the desire of catching a really big win is part of the fun for these players.

They predetermined their own risk limits in both time and money terms, as well as preferred playing on the internet. In fact 93% of the study group preferred to gamble online. The knock-on effect of this knowledge has led to a re-think that online gambling can be more dangerous than playing in a land casino. While leisure gamblers were happy to go it alone, problem gamblers were often found to need a more social environment, which indicated that gambling in isolation was not necessarily as unhealthy as previous studies had supposed. Food for thought we believe!

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