Yesterday we dropped a bombshell that, despite a great increase in gambling opportunities, problem gambling is on the decline. A Harvard University study found that over the last 35 years, the gambling industry has seen tremendous growth, but problem gambling decrease from 0.7% of the population to 0.6% during that time. It was also found that 75% of problem gamblers had been addicted to other substances or behaviors prior to developing a gambling addiction.

That news was surprising to most people. Even most gambling supporters figured that there would have been a small increase in gambling addiction because casino games are more accessible. So the question is why has the problem decreased?

At this point we don’t know for sure, though that is certainly bound to be the topic of numerous studies. For now, all we can do is guess, so guess we shall. One possible reason for a decrease in problem gambling is that people are more aware of the issue now. In the past, addictions were the type of things people whispered about, but didn’t openly discuss. Now there is less of a stigma and we hear about addictions in the media all the time, including from otherwise healthy and productive members of society. Because of that, it’s reasonable to conclude that more people have been getting help and that those who think they could be predisposed to problem gambling will stay away.

There are also more means of getting help now than ever before. There are treatment centers, phone hotlines, websites and more. People can get help with their addiction without sacrificing their confidentiality, which makes them more likely to seek treatment.

Self-exclusion lists are another big change that we have seen lately. Online casinos and the brick and mortar variety use self-exclusion lists to allow problem gamblers to voluntarily ban themselves from playing. That helps them avoid the temptation, which they can’t do on their own.

With more openness about the problem, more access to treatment and greater technology, it shouldn’t be surprising that problem gambling has gone down. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that we were so surprised.

For those who oppose online gambling, the number one reason is that they are worried about problem gambling. It is a valid concern and it is good to be concerned about the ills of society, but is it a realistic concern? As a knee-jerk reaction, many repeat the line that allowing online gambling increases problem gambling. It seems to be common sense. If you increase the availability of gambling, surely you will increase the number of people who have gambling addictions, right? Wrong, says Harvard University.

Recently two Harvard professors, Howard J. Shaffer and Ryan Martin published a paper called “Disordered Gambling: Etiology, Trajectory and Clinical Considerations.” In that paper, the professors shot down many of the beliefs people have about gambling and problem gambling. The researchers found that although gambling in the United States has experienced huge growth during the last 35 years, problem gambling has decreased from 0.7% of the population to 0.6%. The number of problem gamblers declined despite not only having more access to land casinos but also despite the advent of Internet gambling.

Research also found something that gambling advocates had suspected for some time: those who become addicted to gambling have pathological disorders that cause them to be more susceptible to addictions. The research found that 75% of those people who suffer from problem gambling have some other addiction outside of gambling, such as drugs or alcohol, and those other addictions were present before any gambling addiction. Of those with other addictions, 75% them are related to alcohol, 38% are related to drug abuse and 60% are dependent on smoking.

This seems to suggest that it is not the game that is the problem. Instead, it is people who are prone to addictions finding another source to feed their compulsion. Another interesting fact uncovered in the report is that online gamblers spend less money over time. Shaffer said that “people gambling on the Internet change from gambling more to less in weeks. We never would have predicted that. The extent of Internet gambling for most is astoundingly moderate.” With most gamblers behaving responsibly and most of them getting more frugal over time, the activity seems less dangerous than ever.

If you have had trouble conducting transactions with online casinos lately, Wikileaks may be to blame. Operation Payback has been causing a lot of problems with e-commerce lately and online gambling is not immune to the difficulties.

A group calling themselves “Anonymous” (wow, are those people clever with names or what?) launched Operation Payback to get back at companies that cut off Wikileaks. Credit card companies Visa and MasterCard stopped taking part in transactions that provided funds for the controversial website. Online payment processor PayPal did the same. Without those payment methods, Wikileaks lost a major source of revenue: donations from anonymous sources online.

As retaliation for those companies pulling the plug, as well as a show of solidarity with Julian Assange, the recently arrested delusional cyber-terrorist behind the company, Anonymous launched Operation Payback. The operation is a series of cyber attacks on those companies that has resulted in effectively shutting them down for periods of time.

With major online payment methods under attack from hackers, many online gamblers have had trouble making deposits and withdrawals with the online casino. Online merchants of all kinds have had trouble processing transactions since Operation Payback began and there is no reason to think it will get better any time soon.

Assange’s cyber-terrorist sheep are intent on proving their hacking power. Oh, and I guess they’re also making a political statement. I guess it’s something along the lines of “we feel that Assange is a hero for publishing Top Secret diplomatic and intelligence communications, hindering counterterrorism efforts, putting troops and agents in danger and severely damaging international diplomacy.”

Wow, that’s sure a great cause, Anonymous. Maybe if they were standing up for something righteous, they wouldn’t be afraid to reveal themselves. For now, they are revealing their true nature: They are nothing but cyber punks with delusions of self-importance. And now the punks are affecting my online gambling, too!

One of the most frequent things I hear in defense of the game of poker is that “it isn’t gambling.” That is even the legal defense in many cases where someone was arrested due to an illegal poker game. They contend that only gambling is illegal, and since poker is a game of skill, it’s okay.

Before I go any farther, I will say something that should go without saying: I like poker. I support poker. I support online gambling of all sorts being legalized everywhere that it is currently banned. I wouldn’t write for Gambling Review if I was anti-poker. However, just because I support poker doesn’t mean I’m willing to perpetuate the myth that it is not gambling. It is.

Gamble (verb):

1 a: to play a game for money or property

b: to bet on an uncertain outcome

2  : to stake something on a contingency: take a chance

The above definition was provided by Merriam-Webster. The game of poker is a game of skill, unlike slots. Players can use bluffing and strategy to increase their chances of winning, but it’s still a chance. Just because you have skill doesn’t mean you will win. After all, your opponents probably have skill as well. Also, though you decide what to do with your hands, you have no control over what cards you draw. Your cards are determined by random chance. You can still win with bad cards by bluffing, but you are more likely to win with good cards, which means that chance affects your odds.

You don’t even need to take it that far to prove that poker is gambling, though. Just look at the above definition. Poker is a game that you play for money. When you place your wagers, you are betting on an uncertain outcome, because anyone at that table could win. You are also staking your money on a contingency, which is a future event that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty.

Princeton University’s dictionary, WordNet, defines gamble as to “take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome.” Any time you play poker for real money you are taking a risk – because your opponents may be more skilled or may be dealt better cards – in the hopes of a positive outcome: winning money.

I can go on and get definitions from a hundred other sources and the result will still be the same: poker is gambling. Nowhere in those definitions does it say “unless the game requires skill.” You could certainly argue that the skill element makes poker less of a gamble than slots, and I would agree, but that’s not the point.

Playing poker for money is gambling. There’s nothing wrong with that. When poker players try to legitimize their game by distancing themselves from “gambling games,” they are in effect calling other gambling games illegitimate. By trying to remove the stigma from poker, they are placing more of a stigma on craps, roulette and blackjack. All casino games involve gambling and that includes poker. The sooner we all admit to that, the sooner we can all agree that it’s okay to gamble.

The Institute for Policy and Governance in Spain recently spent a lot of money to conduct a study I could have told them for free: Online gamblers underestimate the amount of money they spend on games. According to the study, the average gambler who believes that he has bet €22 per month has actually spent €40 – almost double.

I think that has less to do with gambling perceptions as it does with spending in general. In general, people underestimate the amount of money they spend, which is why it’s often a shock when the cashier tells you the total. Or when the credit card bill comes, how often are you shocked by the amount of money you spent during the month?

Still, whether the study reflects gambling habits or spending habits in general, it is still important. The fact is that the average gambler spends almost twice as much money online as he thinks. That doesn’t mean he spends almost twice as much as he intended (an important distinction to make), but it is still relevant.

If the amount of money you find you have spent at gambling websites worries you, then you need to do something about it. I suggest you listen to this Chinese proverb. It says “If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.”

That is great advice for online gambling, but I want to make one clarification. Quitting time shouldn’t actually be a time of day or a number of hours or minutes played. Instead, it should be an amount of money. It is quitting time after you have spent X amount of money at the casino.

Before you ever enter a casino, online or on land, you should set aside a specific amount of money to wager. If you don’t wager all of it, that’s fine, but whatever happens, do not wager more than that amount. If at the end of the month you decide that you have spent too much money, decrease the amount of money you allow yourself to spend on each casino session. As long as you follow those rules and practice smart money management, you should find yourself spending a much more comfortable amount on casino games.

Atlantic City casinos are struggling. That’s not exactly a newsflash. However, new numbers have been released for October and they paint a pretty dismal picture.

In October, total revenue from all Atlantic City casinos equaled $284 million. That is a 12% drop from this time last year. It’s easy to blame declining revenue on the Great Recession, especially for an industry that relies on tourism and disposable income. The recession isn’t the only problem, though, because we’re not talking about a 12% drop from 2006 or 2007. This is a drop from October of 2009, when the U.S. was still in the middle of the recession. Now the government tells us that the recession is over, but anyone with a bank account, a grocery list or an updated resume knows that’s not true.

If it’s more than the recession then it becomes more necessary to find the problem and fix it. While slot revenue took a 10% drop from 2009, which is still bad, revenue from table games fell by 17%. That sharp drop is likely due to the new table games in nearby Pennsylvania casinos. People who want to play blackjack and roulette no longer have to go to Atlantic City. When you’re no longer the only game in town, you have to do something to get customers.

That is why some Atlantic City casinos are now looking at online gambling as a partner rather than a threat. People are already gambling online, whether those casinos like it or not. Instead of fighting against regulation, if the Atlantic City casinos can get involved and open their own online casinos (like Harrah’s has done overseas), they can reap the benefits of online gambling’s increasing popularity.

It’s time to face the facts and admit something that has been staring us in the face for quite some time: Las Vegas may never return to prosperity. The days of the entertainment-based city being a symbol of vacation, fun and relaxation in the casino hotspot of America may be over. While some parts of the country are recovering from the Great Recession, Las Vegas is not. Worse yet, I doubt it will recover anytime soon. Still worse, it may not recover at all.

The U.S. federal government tells us that the Great Recession ended in June 2009. If that seems a little odd to you, you’re not alone. Unemployment has gotten worse since that time period and it has been hovering at approximately 10%, with underemployment over 17%, for several months. Still, many states have reached a baseline, where although there has been no recovery, no adding of jobs, things haven’t gotten worse in a while. You also have to remember that in several points of time during the Great Depression, experts proclaimed the depression to be over.

Of the 50 states that make up America, Nevada ranks dead last in most economic numbers. The biggest one, of course, is unemployment. Nevada has an unemployment rate of 14.4%, which is worst in the country and is almost 5% higher than the national average. The city of Las Vegas is even worse, with a 14.7% unemployment rate.

It’s not difficult to figure out why Nevada is struggling. Its top two industries are related to casinos and related tourism and home construction. With all of the foreclosures going on combined with economic problems, there isn’t really demand for new homes. By the way, Nevada also leads the nation in foreclosures. But what about gambling in Las Vegas? No one can take that away from them, can they?

Yes. The casino industry requires people with enough disposable income to be able to go on vacation and blow money in casinos. With 10% of the nation out of work, more than 17% with insufficient employment, and the rest of the country worrying that they can lose their job at any time, this isn’t a time when many people would choose to visit Vegas and hit the craps table.

With all of that working against Las Vegas, they face another threat: online gambling. With online casinos, players don’t need to take a trip to Vegas, pay for a room, buy drinks and pay for some shows. With online casinos, they can play their favorite casino games from the comfort of their own homes.

It is for that reason that many Las Vegas casinos are opposed to online gambling being regulated in the U.S. However, I think that instead, the land-based casinos need to embrace online gambling. They can’t beat online casinos. Even if the industry is never regulated in the U.S., that won’t stop Americans from playing at overseas casinos. If you can’t beat them, join them. Las Vegas casinos need to follow Harrah’s lead and create their own online casinos. If the U.S. decides to regulate the industry, they can offer their services in America. If not, they can focus on the rest of the world.

Opposing online gambling is a worse idea now than ever. Las Vegas casinos need every bit of income that they can get, because the economy in America shows no sign of getting any better in the near future. There is too much debt to pay off, too much spending to end, too many government agencies to do away with, and too many jobs that are being lost. Though they may seem like enemies, online casinos are the best chance Las Vegas has to stay relevant and profitable.

If you are a regular to online gambling then you are probably familiar with eCOGRA, the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance. eCOGRA is a nonprofit organization that regulates online gambling operators throughout the globe. Their goal is to ensure the safety of every player who plays at online casinos, poker rooms and bookmakers by inspecting software, looking at payout records, investigating disputes, and certifying sites that pass their inspection as safe and fair.

Throughout the online gambling community, eCOGRA is one of the most trusted names in the business. For most, if an online gambling website has the eCOGRA Safe & Fair seal of approval, no further questioning is needed. If eCOGRA says a website is safe, it must be.

Now the regulator is being honored by an organization that deals with all internet business, rather than just online gambling. The Internet Business Law Services (IBLS) recently published an article detailing the ways eCOGRA is brining credibility and respectability to the business of online gambling.

The IBLS is an organization that aims to educate the world about global laws and regulations as they relate to online businesses. In the article, the IBLS pointed out that eCOGRA tests websites to make sure the software provides fair games, the software is encrypted in a way that makes personal information safe, the website quickly pays customers and resolves problems or questions in a timely manner. Most of all, though, they focused on eCOGRA’s position as an arbitrator for disputes between customers and casinos that cannot be resolved directly. Because of their influence, eCOGRA-approved online casinos receive 1/6 the complaints of online casinos in general. When disputes do arise, eCOGRA resolves them in an impartial manner and the casino is bound to their decision.

Another area of praise was eCOGRA’s Total Gaming Transaction Review (TGTR), which is a policy in which the regulator constantly analyzes and tests their member casinos, rather than only performing scheduled inspections.

Thanks to eCOGRA and other regulators like them, the IBLS states, online gambling is considered safer than ever. The added legitimacy brought by the regulator could also be playing a role in the recent trend of governments removing bans on online gambling or overseas online casinos.

Since last year, Spain has been moving toward legalizing and regulating online gambling. As is often the case with government, the process has been very slow. Still, this week there has been some progress, with a draft of gambling legislation being approved by the Council of Ministers.

This week, the Council of Ministers approved a draft of the Gambling Act, which would regulate all forms on gambling, with a special emphasis on online gambling, mobile gambling and gambling via interactive television. The main concern of the new bill is safety, primarily making sure underage people cannot gamble, protecting problem gamblers from themselves, and protecting everyone from unscrupulous gambling operators.

Included in the legislation is a plan to license operators, including online casinos. The operators would have to be inspected and certified as safe and fair in order to receive and retain their licenses and the licenses would last for five years at a time. And of course, since we’re talking about government regulation, taxation is a big part of the new bill.

There are questions as to who should do the regulating, though. Spain has a number of autonomous communities and has a government that is not very centralized and over time, unlike other countries, has become even more decentralized. Those autonomous communities govern themselves, with little influence from the central federal government. The Gambling Act, however, calls for a federal regulation of gambling, including in the autonomous communities. Elena Salgado, the Second Vice President and Minster of Economy and Finance supports a federal regulatory structure. In return for agreeing to be subject to the federal law and regulations, much of the tax revenue would be put back into the autonomous communities.

That could be a sticking point, but it’s possible that the autonomous communities would accept that compromise. Only time will tell and, as slowly as this process has been so far in Spain, it will probably take a lot of time to tell.

The last phase of the Slottery tournament is now underway at Super Slots Casino. For those not in the know, the Slottery tournament is a month-long tournament that began on August 29 and ends on October 3. Okay, so that’s actually a little longer than one month. In any case, the slot tournament occurs in five parts, each one week long. The fifth and final part started yesterday.

The final phase of the Slottery tournament began on Sunday, September 26 and ends on Sunday, October 3. Like the other four parts, this phase has an entry fee of $5 and players compete for a share of the pot. Since the tournament is always popular, that pot tends to get pretty large.

The first four parts of the Slottery tournament were played on Rocking Robin, Solomon’s Mines, Lucky Lady and Naughty Ninjas. The final part is played on the Cash Caboose slot, an online slot with an old western theme, specifically about train robbers.

If you don’t want to pay the $5 entry fee, there is also a free slot tournament starting today. The freeroll tournament is played on the SuperMarket Slots game and it runs from Monday, September 27 to Monday, October 4. There is no entry fee for the tournament and players compete for a share of a $3,000 prize pool.

To take part in any of these tournaments, you only need to be a member of Super Slots Casino and log into them via the tournaments page. Be sure to read the terms and conditions of the tournaments and all promotions. That goes for any online casino.