An online activity that can lead to Problematic Internet Use is gambling. A few examples of different games one can play online are: card games, bingo, and horse racing. If someone wants to participate in one of these online games, assuming they are of twenty-one years of age, they create an account directly connected to one of their credit cards. If one wins playing one of these online games, their winnings typically come in the mail in the form of a check. My father and my grandmother once a week participate in gambling online. They opened an account on a horse racing website, where they place their bets online and watch the race live on the television. The account is directly connected to my father’s credit card and once in awhile a check comes in the mail.
Although my dad and my grandmother bet the horses online, their form of online gambling is different from most other forms of online gambling. Since my father and grandmother bet on live races, there is no 24/7 access. One can play card games or bingo any time of any day they want to. This feature of online gambling can lead to Problematic Internet Use. Another characteristic of the online gambling psychological space that leads to PUI is that physical money is not changing hands. Since, money is being withdrawn from your credit card connected to your account, losing money is happening invisibly.
Caplan’s model states that individuals with psychosocial problems hold negative perceptions about their social competence. Caplan states that this leads to these individuals preferring online interaction because it is less threatening and they feel more efficacious. Preference for online interaction leads to excessive and compulsive online interaction, which worsens their problems. The cycle continues and becomes more and more detrimental. This could apply to online gambling but applies much more intensely to other online activities, specifically areas where there is direct interaction with other individuals. Online gambling does not center upon interacting with others online, therefore Caplan’s model applies but not so intensely.
There is one very unique property about online gambling. Although all the online gambling spaces require that people are twenty-one years of age, many people lie and gamble illegally underage. Twenty-one is the legal age for gambling for a reason, people under twenty-one are more likely to not know when to stop gambling. Younger people cannot control themselves with the temptation of winning millions of dollars even though that is very, very improbable. People under twenty-one who gamble online are more likely to have Problematic Internet Use because they get “addicted” to the thought of possibly winning a large amount of money.
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You make a good point about the low social interaction in gambling that lessens the intensity of Caplan’s model. I think with gambling, it deals more with the dimensions in individual differences described by Davis et al because I have friends that gamble online, but they are able to maintain control of the time/money they spend on it and not allow it to become a distraction. People who do have PIU with online gambling are probably doing it as a distraction/procrastination or they have diminished impulse control to gambling.
Also, with online games, many people experience the Newbie Disease. As described by Wallace, when they first start playing, they play it non-stop intensely (and hopefully they don’t become addicted to it) until the novelty of it wears off. In the case where users gamble with others, another characteristic of internet gambling is reputation. Some users develop PIU because they feel the need to maintain their virtual presence of winning.
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