West Virginia Gambling Addicts on the Rise
The number of online gambling addicts in West Virginia has reached an alarming state and has drastically increased and more than tripled in the past three years. Online gamblers are now asking for help to control their gambling addiction.
In the year 2000, the counselors of Problems Gamblers Help Network had not met any people with problems of addiction to an online casino game like roulette and poker. But this year is a different story as they see at least sixty online casino players who can be consider as gambling addicts. They have serious addicting problems with online wagering and playing online casino games.
Mia Moran-Cooper, director of the gamblers' helpline explained that people can not go to the race track and play at three in the morning clad in pajamas but anyone can play and hook himself to the computer at anywhere and anytime.
The number of patients being treated by the local psychologists is dramatically increasing. According to the state psychologists, these patients are treated for online casino addiction.
Huntington psychologist describe online casino as the next problem of addiction. David Frederick, psychologist describe it as it came from nowhere but point its roots to the adolescents who are internet savvy. Internet is can easily be accessed by anyone and with the anonymity and very easy to use, the adolescents are attracted to play online casino games.
Another reason for the popularity of online casino gaming is the rising in demand television shows that showcase gambling like the Texas Hold' Em and poker tournaments celebrity edition. These attracts the teenagers and children to try and play the casino games. Naturally, the gambling industry now has a larger exposure thus larger audience and bigger market.
Right now, three thousand online sites are available on the net. These online sites allow people to log on, give their credit card numbers or debit credit card and play dozens of card games anonymously and have chat with other players.
The popular addicting online games are roulette, poker and blackjack. But that is not all, there are other games that other people especially kids would consider it as gambling. Some of these games are online football, sports betting and day trading. Everyone has the access to this but most people especially the youngsters does not consider it as gambling.
Across the US, the number of college students who have problems in online ambling are reaching a growing and alarming rates.
National Council on Problem Gambling said that between fourteen to twenty two years old said that they gambled at least once a week. And eight percent of the thirty thousand calls were from casino players who said that they are addicted to online gambling.