Regulation of online gambling

Abstract

Most of the existing research on gambling regulation refers to offline gambling. Yet online gambling is quickly becoming the predominant form and, moreover, is markedly different from offline gambling in many respects, which implies that the policy implications cannot readily be transferred from one sector of the gambling industry to the other. This paper argues that there is a significant research gap with respect to the optimal regulation specifically of online gambling. It appears likely that the vast differences in regulatory approaches to online gambling between countries and even within nation states are mostly attributable to a lack of knowledge regarding the idiosyncrasies of online gambling, rather than to differences in social attitudes towards gambling.