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Many opponents of online casinos are convinced that the availability of a gambling in the home will create more cases of problem gambling.  A study published in the Archives of Neurology offers a contradicting point of view.  The study has found evidence that problem gambling is a symptom of a physiological problem within the brain.  It is a disorder related to a dysfunctional reward related neuron system.  The findings in the study corroborate the results of scientific studies all across the globe. 

Studies in several different countries have concluded that compulsive gambling is generated by underlying pathological differences in the physical construct of the human brain, not by increasingly convenient access to gambling like new slots parlors or legalized online casinos.

Careful attention was paid during the study so as not to include people who have had one bad gambling binge and learned their lesson.  The study focused on true compulsive gamblers who repeat their behavior despite disastrous results.  Modern medicine is dedicated to fixing the problem not the symptom.  Banning online casinos would be the equivalent to attacking the symptom when the real problem is a deep physiological disorder.

Interestingly there was a link discovered in the study between people suffering from Parkinson’s disease taking dopaminergic medication and problem gambling.  Apparently the part of the brain that stimulates the urge to gamble is affected by the Parkinson’s disease and that particular type of medication.

This study can hopefully put to rest the idea the problem gambling is caused by temptations like online casinos and that it is a disorder that needs treatment and therapy.  After all, if it were based on temptation alone, all occasional gamblers would eventually mature into problem gamblers.

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