A study out of Canada says that online gambling should be legalized and regulated so the money can be used to help problem gamers. The studies, conducted jointly by academics of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, found that online gamblers wager more often than regular casino gamblers. Because they’re able to hide their activity easier, gambling can easily become part of their daily lives.

“When not seen as reserved solely as behavior for an outing or a special occasion, gambling is more likely to become a pernicious, insidiously integrated component of a consumer’s life.”

They also found that the industry is too big to attempt to stop it, so regulating it and using revenues to help problem gamers is the best choice at this point in time. And warning levels should be used after players lose a certain amount of money.

A new study at Harvard University has shown that around 5% of online casino bettors show signs of problem gambling. That’s five times the amount as compared to a study that shows that only 1% of sports bettors become problematic gamblers. This information is being used to help launch an automatic warning system for online players.

The name of the study is “Stability and Progression of Disordered Gambling: Lessons from Longitudinal Studies”, and was published in the January 2008 issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. It was primarily funded by the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG). The NCRG is an American non-profit organization.

The study also showed that addicted players will move back and forth between healthy and disordered states. Debi LaPlante, Ph.D., and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School said, “As researchers learn more about the course of the disorder, health care providers can develop better tailored treatment plans.”