Social gaming is one of the biggest trends to hit the casino gambling market in years. Unfortunately, many concerns have been raised that social casino games encourage young people to engage in real-money gambling activities. Now, a recent study by researchers at Harvest Strategy has found that there is no need to worry.
Titled A Snapshot of Youth in the Digital Playground, the study was led by Dr. Rohan Miller of the University of Sydney. It opens by acknowledging that many gambling researchers have expressed concerns about social casinos (referred to in the report as ‘digsinos’) causing an increasing of real-money gambling and problem gambling – and states that there is no evidence of this.
The research team took a close look at problem gambling statistics in various countries, including the UK and Australia. From the year 1999 to 2012, there has been a downward trend in problem gambling rates. Even as digsino games starting to increase in popularity towards 2010, problem gambling rates continued to decline.
“These data reinforce the point that there is no theoretical or empirical link between gambling addiction and Digsogames and Digsinos,” the report reads. “Based on the best data available, the enormous increase in Digsogame and Digsino play does not seem in anyway related to problem gambling trends”.
The study has even found that these type of social games have the potential to cause a positive impact on players and young people. There are many benefits, including encouraging pro-social activity, building social connections and building attention skills. It is also believed that social casino games also foster creativity and serve some educational purposes.
The study is a very interesting read. You can download it and learn more here.
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