A recent survey conducted among US students has revealed that an increasing number of students – high school and college – are logging on to online gambling websites. The survey was conducted over the phone by the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute of the University of Pennsylvania. Figures arrived at denote an upward trend among US students with regards to frequenting online gambling websites. The research has revealed many interesting facts.
Facts Of The Matter
Students in the age group of fourteen to twenty-two years were involved in the study conducted by the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute. An important finding of the study was that as many as sixteen percent of the college-going male population in the US participates in online gambling. This sixteen percent is a twelve percent leap from the percentage in 2008, which then stood at 4.4 percent. In addition to the significant increase in the number of college-going males logging on to online gambling websites, an increase was also registered in the number of high school children who visit such sites. The percentage of high school children frequenting online gambling websites has risen from 2.7 percent to as much as 6.2 percent.
As per the study, the percentage of high school or college going females taking part in online gambling has too seen an upward trend. Both online as well as offline gambling by high school females belonging to the age group of fourteen to seventeen years has risen by over nine percent since 2008. Nevertheless, popularity of gambling websites among females is comparatively lesser as compared to males in the same age group.
Virtual Gambling
The survey conducted by the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute of the University of Pennsylvania included as many as 835 respondents interviewed in 2008, followed by 596 respondents in 2010. All the respondents were between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two. The researchers estimated that on an average more than 400,000 college men belonging to the age group of eighteen to twenty-two gamble online at least once a week and more than 1.7 million tend to gamble over the Internet once in a month. Another finding by the researchers was that around 530,000 males belonging to high school going age gambled online at least once a month.
According to Dan Romer, the Director of the Annesberg Adolescent Communication Institute, the increase in the number of college males frequenting online gambling websites reveals that payment restrictions are no longer any hindrance for the young population. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, in effect since 2006, has hardly discouraged people from participating in online gambling. Rather, there has been a further increase in the number of people gambling online ever since the Act has been passed. Currently, approximately 400,000 college-going males participate in online gambling each week, as per the survey.
Recently, there has been much lobbying by online poker players to convince lawmakers to change the laws currently in place. Despite the incessant lobbying, there has not been much progress on the subject. Many states in the US have also been attempting to open up more casinos in a bid to add to the tax revenue for balancing the budget of the state.