When I say “dangerous,” I’m not talking about security/fairness. If you stick with major online casino brands, you will be safe. Big online casinos make a lot of money because they treat their players well and pay out withdrawals quickly. When I talk about “dangerous,” I’m talking about the potential for problem gambling and underage gambling.
Risks of Problem Gambling
One of the biggest arguments against online gambling is that the internet makes it too easy to partake in problem gambling. The argument is that if you have a gambling problem, online gambling is always there and ready to take your money. If there was no such thing as online gambling, problem gamblers would have a harder time finding a place to gamble.
Although the argument does make sense in a logic sort of way, there is surprisingly no correlation between increased problem gambling and the widespread availability of online gambling. The UK Gambling Commission released a study in 2010 that showed problem gambling affected about 0.10% of adults.
To be honest, I have no idea why problem gambling hasn’t increased at all despite there being such widespread availability of gambling on the internet. The one thing I can tell you for sure is that stat helps me sleep at night being so involved in this industry. Here’s a great post that explores this issue a little more:
Online Gaming Increases Addiction… Except if you Listen to Experts
Online gambling sites have the ability to monitor gambling habits and place limits on deposits. If the United States would hurry up and legalize online gambling, more casinos would be willing to go the extra mile to make sure their players are practicing safe habits.
Online casinos such as Lucky Red Casino already have voluntary exclusion limits and daily/weekly/monthly deposit limits. If you need a little help keeping your gambling under control, all you have to do is e-mail your favorite casino site and tell them to ban your account or limit how much you can deposit.
Risks of Underage Gambling
Underage gambling online doesn’t concern me at all. Depositing money to an online casino requires access to a credit card or some other payment method that requires age verification. This is one of those things that is in the hands of parents. Don’t let your kids have free reign to your credit card and you’ll be fine.
And again, if online gambling would be legalized in the US, there would be even more control over who can gamble and who can’t. It’s not difficult for online gambling sites to require some sort of age verification for anyone who wants to make a real money deposit. Overall, I think this risk is minimal and places most of the burden on the parents.