The UK gambling group Stanleybet International has initiated a much-needed service to the online gambling industry which will see the company regularly publish content and data at www.fairplayforsportsbetting.com which disproves common misconceptions often used to attack gambling.
Betfair’s Right2Bet campaign to open up European gambling markets is supporting the Stanleybet initiative by re-publishing its material at http://www.right2bet.net/community/blog/2009/12/stanleybet-release-their-new-mythbuster-series.php.
Stanleybet’s first myth under the microscope is Problem Gambling in Europe, a topic often misused by state-owned gambling monopolies to exclude other nations from their markets on grounds that state regulated monopolies can better protect gamblers.
The Stanleybet examination goes so far as to suggest that a majority of European governments base gambling policy on myths and not facts in this area, and that there has been a serious lack of professional and credible research into problem gambling prevalence and where it can most be found.
The result is that decisions about gambling policy are informed by little or no quality data, and new research highlights the need for a more evidence-based approach to gambling policy formulation.
Stanleybet points to recent news stories regarding research by a British university that has included a country-by-country analysis of all existing evidence about the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling in 31 countries across Europe… and only one third have carried out rigorous research into gambling and problem gambling.
The report discusses the countries involved and rates of gambling, and makes informative and interesting reading on an important industry subject.