Remote Gambling

Gambling at your Fingertips - Everywhere 

Remote gambling is any form of gambling in which a person does not to be physically present. It can be conducted from the safety of a gambler’s own home, car, airplane, street corner, café, school room, board room, or any place a remote device is operable.

What makes Remote Gambling a growing concern?

• It is immediate – accessed from anywhere, anytime

• It is a solitary endeavor

• Limits are obvious after the debt, time spent and isolation have created a life changing crisis

• It is more hidden than other forms of gambling

• Others know that it is a problem after their lives have been painfully affected

Remote gambling includes:

ü      Internet sites which includes any form of betting imaginable

ü      mobile, blackberry, palm and others for text messaging and internet/web access

ü      cell  phone, telephone

ü      interactive TV

ü      PDA, or electronic.  

Facts on Remote Gambling

ü      Internet has over 2500 gambling sites and the number is growing daily

ü      Online poker has over 400 websites and is growing daily

ü      Presently there are over 5 million transactions conducted per day, or an average of about 300 bets per second.

ü      There is no regulation on how the sites control payouts and percentages of payoffs. The sites manipulate the gambler to think they are skilled and can outplay the others on the site. Once winning and playing with greater amounts of money the site will decrease the gamblers odds and take the winnings back with interest.

Attractive to persons who:

ü      Are socially shy and lack confidence

ü      Prefer privacy

ü      Are uncomfortable with physical nearness to others

ü      Disabled and do not want to be seen as different

ü      Want to decrease social barriers based on sex, race, age, disability

ü      Want to be someone they are not.

Remote Gambling makes the gambler feel:

ü      Disinhibited – people do and say things in cyberspace and in Remote Gambling that they wouldn’t ordinarily say in the real world.

ü      Sane and in control of the betting

ü      Interactive with others without face to face contact

ü      As if they can escape and get away from the real world

ü      Intelligent, skilled, and all powerful until they start losing

 Thoughts of the Remote Gambler

ü      You don’t know me – anonymity

ü      You can’t see me – invisibility

ü      See you later – don’t relate in real time, wait for messages

ü      It’s just a game – real money does not change hands – it’s all credits

ü      We’re equals – authority really does not exist

What Remote Gambling Provides

•         Gratification: No waiting, instant

•         Anticipation: Removed, instant action, adrenalin rush

•         Companion: There when needed.

•         Shadow: Always with you, cell phone mobility

•         Fantasy: Takes you to it, change persona, gender bender.

•         Expression: In a private world, more satisfying than real life

•         Ego: Boosts fragile/bruised ego.

•         Constraints: Lacking boundaries. Limit only by extent cash/credit

•         Chasing: Several times a day. PC is a beckoning finger. (Bellringer, 2006)

•         A Chance: to lose financial resources, friends, jobs, family, freedom, etc.

Remote gambling does not include face-to-face encounters. It is solitary and unmonitored

 Awareness of this problem needs to be a family matter – the most likely people to discover the gambling problem are family and friends those closest to the gambler.

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