Online Gambling Advertising and the Third-Person Effect: A Pilot Study

Introduction

Online gambling has rapidly expanded over the last two decades (Canale, Griffiths, Veino et al., 2016; Gainsbury, Wood, Russell, Hing, & Blaszczynski, 2012), and has become one of the fastest growing online businesses in the world (Gainsbury, 2015), with revenues surpassing those of movies, theme parks or music (Mizerski, 2013). At the same time, online gambling has become more socially accepted in contemporary societies and it has been integrated into many individual’s everyday lives (Cotte and Latour, 2009; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012). However, technological advances and the growth of remote gambling (via the internet, mobile phones, and interactive television) can be negatively detrimental to some individuals (Wardle, Moody, Griffiths et al., 2011). Individuals experiencing gambling disorder represent a very small proportion of gamblers (Mizerski, 2013). However, it is known that gambling disorder can have a seriously damaging impact on affected gamblers’ mental and physical health, their interpersonal relationships, and their finances (Griffiths, 2004). As the integration of gambling into everyday lives has shown individuals losing track of their spending (Auer and Griffiths, 2016; Siemens and Kopp, 2011), the concern about individual and social harm has grown (Canale, Veino & Griffiths, 2016; Yani-de-Soriano et al., 2012). In this sense, online gambling has been considered to be more harmful and less regulated than traditional gambling (Cotte and Latour, 2009; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012).

Empirical studies have shown that disordered gambling is related to an increase in the availability of gambling activities (Jacques et al., 2000), and that online gamblers are more likely to be problem gamblers than those who only gamble offline (e.g., Yani-de-Soriano et al., 2012; Griffiths and Barnes 2008; Ladd and Petry 2002) although almost all online gamblers also gamble offline (Wardle et al., 2011), and vulnerable individuals (e.g., problem gamblers) appear to be more susceptible to online gambling problems (Griffiths, Wardle, Orford et al., 2009). The new technological environment has forced governments worldwide to adapt their legislation. In particular, in Spain, where the present study was conducted, the legislation was changed in 2011. The 2011 Act (13/2011) that regulates gaming activities was the first legal framework for gambling since 1977 (Jiménez-Murcia et al., 2013). This legal change led to a large increase in the number of online gamblers and a rise of individuals with gambling problems (Castilla et al., 2013). The increase in disordered gambling observed in Spain after liberalising legislation has been also reported in other countries such as Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom (Castilla et al., 2013).