Online Gambling is the practice of placing wagers and betting using a computer connected to the Internet. This activity is regulated by the laws of various countries. Many states in the United States and some provinces in Canada regulate online gambling, as do most countries of the European Union and several nations in the Caribbean.
Unlike traditional casinos, most online gambling sites do not develop their own software but utilize third-party providers to offer different types of games and services. In addition, these websites are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This makes them susceptible to phishing attacks that result in the theft of players’ personal and financial information. As a result, a high rate of chargebacks is often experienced by gambling operators which can impact their ability to accept credit card payments and can cause them to be blacklisted by major card issuers.
Psychological causes of online gambling include daily life stresses and underlying mental health issues that can trigger a person to gamble compulsively. In a study published in Current Addiction Reports, researchers found that people who engage in online gambling experience higher rates of coexisting mental health problems such as depression and anxiety than those who do not. This may explain why online gamblers are more likely to become addicted to gambling than people who do not.
Legislation to curb online gambling was first introduced in the United States in the late 1990s. Bob Goodlatte and Jon Kyl both proposed bills that would allow individual states to legalize forms of online gambling already approved by the state, but prohibit those that were not (primarily sports betting). Both bills failed to pass.