When a new form of gambling enters a marketplace, it’s common that more people believe they need to seek help for problem gambling. Calls to hotlines in numerous markets are increasing. In Pennsylvania, the number of help-seekers has grown since 2019, when online gaming went into effect.
A new survey found that a third of Pennsylvanians who gamble online feel their habits are a problem. Also, more people in their 20s and 30s seek help.
Another survey designed to measure the effect of online gambling in the state found about 11 percent of Pennsylvanians had tried it, with sports betting the most popular form.
The number of people looking for help has grown since online gambling arrived in 2019, said Josh Ercole, the executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. The council operates the state hotline, 1-800-GAMBLER.
In 2019, the council handled 1,134 hotline calls. By 2022, the numbers more than doubled to 2,621 calls. The demographics changed from 35 to 55 to 25 to 34.
“We suspect there are more problems because there’s more types of games, and more people playing them,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The typical online gambler, according to the survey, is mid-to-late 30s, white, making more than $50,000, married and prefers sports betting.
No wonder online gambling generates $1.2 billion in yearly profits between the 14 websites approved to run operations, said Ellen DiDomenico, the deputy secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
Some of the revenue collected by the state helps fund gambling addiction treatment and prevention programs. Grants pay for counselors to treat under- or uninsured gambling addicts.
A separate state study looking at the 2021-2022 fiscal year showed that 23 percent of callers identified slots as their biggest concern, and 20 percent had the most trouble with online gambling.
“We also feel that there’s probably more awareness of the helpline services now,” Ercole told the Inquirer.
About a quarter of people who gambled online said they had tried to cut down, control or stop their gambling in the last year.
Another 10 percent fell into a cluster of categories—those who gambled longer, or with more money, or more frequently than they wanted to, or with more money to feel the same excitement they had when they began gambling.
Just over 5 percent said they had been “preoccupied” with gaming or gambling.
But none of the respondents reported borrowing money or selling possessions to gamble.
The hotline can direct people to outpatient treatment or to a recovery support group like Gamblers Anonymous, which neither supports nor opposes gambling expansion in Pennsylvania, given how widespread the options already are.
