Scholarly Article Critique 2

Jennifer Fairbanks
Comm. 3320
Ishida
Second Scholarly Article Critique
Oct. 20, 2007
Critique of Wood and Williams Article

Research topic and researcher(s)
Wood, R., & Williams, R. (2007, June). Problem gambling on the internet: implications for internet gambling policy in North America. New Media & Society, 9(3), 520-542. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Rationale of the study
The goal of the study is stated in wanting to further investigate the possible association of internet gambling to problem gambling. The researchers included four research questions that guided their study. The three questions were, “RQ1: To what extent do internet gamblers manifest a propensity for problem gambling? RQ2: What, if any, are the correlates and predictors of problem gambling among internet gamblers? RQ3: In the event of an observed relationship between problem and internet gambling, how might governments best craft internet gambling policies that minimize the relationship (Woods and Williams, 2007, p. 525)?”

Literature review· Increasing gambling popularity rates suggest that gambling is becoming a socially tolerable activity in other part of the population.
·Gambling among U.S. adults increased from 68% in 1975 to 86% in 1999.
·The continued expansion of the internet in U.S. and Canadian homes enables greater access to new forms of gambling opportunities.
·Public demand for internet gambling will lead to legalized and regulated internet gambling by the Government.
·There have been predictions that internet gambling will become a $10 billion per year industry before the end of the decade.
·In 1998 there were 90 online casinos and within a year they increased to 250.
·Even though gambling on the internet is becoming increasingly accessible, the popularity of it seems to remain low.
·The small portions of the population with a gambling problem show prevalence to gambling on the internet.
·Compared to non-internet gamblers, internet gamblers were more likely to have significantly higher scores on the South Oaks Gambling Screen.
·Using the computer may accelerate passing time and being in the comforts of home may lead to a higher frequency of playing.
·There is a psychological perception that electronic cash has lesser value than ‘real cash’.
·Gamblers seem to think they have a better chance of winning online because online demos will give a ‘big win’ but the rate of that happening in actual play is less.
·Very few internet gambling sites provide safeguards to promote responsible gaming.
·There is a ‘potentially problematic link between internet gambling and problem gambling’.

Research method
The researchers felt that other studies using ‘digital dial methods’ haven’t used a sufficient sample size of internet gamblers. The researchers used an alternative method of recruiting internet gamblers at gaming sites by paying for a banner advertisement on a web page leading to various gaming sites. The banner linked directly to an online survey the researchers had constructed. Everyone who completely the survey was given a free coin collector gift as incentive. The survey included 46 open-ended and closed-ended questions, which took ten minutes to complete. The questions asked demographic information, the ‘nature of their internet gaming activity’, and completed a shortened version of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI). The last part was to determine their level of problem-gambling behavior (Woods and Williams, 2007, pp. 526-527).

Subject of the study
The subjects of the study were 1920 anonymous participants who completed an online survey created by the researchers. These were people who were visiting gaming portal websites and clicked on the researchers’ paid advertisement banner. Since it was online the researchers could not make any discriminations of who was able to take the survey. After a participant took the survey though, the researchers applied computer cookies to disable them from taking the survey again. However, a small percent of the completed surveys were found to be repeat responses. The researchers did not exclude those participant’s answers though because they felt the percent wasn’t large enough to influence the results.

Research findings·
The researchers found that of the people who took the online survey, 56% of them were men and 44% were women with an average age of 34. The age range was 18 to 84.
·87% of the samples came from the U.S.A., 10 % from Canada, and 3% from all other countries.
·For ethnic backgrounds, about 40% claimed European ancestry, about 11% East-Asian, and 1.7% African.
·79.5% said they had been employed during the past year but only 41.7% claimed to have been currently employed.
·12.3% of the sample described themselves as ‘disabled’. The researchers felt this implied issues of access and the physical environment to land-based gambling venues, which may trigger them to play online.
·52.8% described themselves as religious people with 31.6% saying they were Catholic Christians.
·High percents of the survey participants felt they were computer-savvy and said they had been active in several internet-based activities over the pervious month when it was conducted. The activities included online communication, banking, and shopping.
·The average weekly amount of time spent gambling was five hours, two hours being the median. About 4% said they gambled online more than 20 hours per week.
·73.8% of the participants said they preferred gambling on the internet.
·Most of them primarily used their home computers to gamble online with a small percent saying they used their workplace computer primarily.
·Blackjack was the most widely tried game. Blackjack, video poker and bingo were said to be played most often.
·People who scored a 3 on the CPGI showed some levels of problem gambling behavior, with ‘higher numbers indicating more severe problem levels’.
·42.7% the researchers say can be classified as either moderate or severe problem gamblers.
·23.9% were said to be at risk for developing gambling problems.
·Individual variables that reportedly reliably predicted ‘problem gambling status’ included the time spent gambling, gamers having East-Asian ancestry, South-Asian ancestry, or African ancestry, preferred non-internet gambling, and males.
·The researchers claim that the problem gamblers in their study preferred land-based gambling to internet gambling. They say this finding could support the theory of internet gambling doesn’t necessarily lead to problem gambling, but is just another way for them to gamble.

My position on this scholarly essay
The work that the researchers did was well done and explained thoroughly within the article. They went into depth when talking about their research method and explaining the process they used. They used an easy to follow format and had clear labels for each section so I knew exactly where everything was that I needed to know. They also explained clearly the purpose of the research experiment and the literature review they did themselves.

I really liked the fact that they had a large sample number and the participants were people who clicked on the survey ad when visiting a gambling website portal. They were having people right from the source of their issue participate in the survey. I also agreed with the fact that people who already have a gambling problem may find internet gaming websites as just another opportunity to gamble.

I expected the researchers to come up with a significant finding, but I don’t feel like they did. I also do not think that people who gamble on the internet are necessarily more at risk to develop a gambling problem because I think that most people use the internet to pass time away, rather than feed a problem. There are plenty of websites out there that let you play Blackjack or programs with solitaire that let you play without having to use money. I also don’t agree with them in saying that there is a high demand for more legalized gaming sites because the percents they showed of people who actually play online was so low. I personally do not know anyone who gambles on the internet. I think that the research may have had good intentions to show a potential problem, but it did not convince me to consider the problem to be any bigger.

References:
Wood, R., & Williams, R. (2007, June). Problem gambling on the internet: implications for internet gambling policy in North America. New Media & Society, 9(3), 520-542. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.