Friday, February 16, 2007

These days, 10,000 Norwegian citizens are finding a questionnaire by SINTEF
Health Research in their post-boxes. The form has been sent to a random
sample of the population aged between16 and 74. The main focus of the survey
is cash gambling, ranging from scratchcards and Lotto to one-armed bandits
and Internet poker. "For the survey to offer a true picture of Norwegian
gambling habits, it is important that as many as possible should complete
the questionnaire, no matter whether they play often, seldom or never at
all, says project manager Anita Øren of SINTEF Health Research. Is the
problem on the increase? The Norwegian Gaming Board is financing the
population study of gambling addiction, which is a follow-up of a similar
study that was carried out in 2002. An important aim of the study is to find
out whether people's gambling problems have increased in scope since then.
In 2002, the study came to the conclusion that 49,000 persons aged between
15 and 74 either had, or had previously had, a serious gambling problem.
"Since then, the gross turnover of the Norwegian gambling market has risen
by 25 percent. There is also Internet gambling, which is not subject to
controls. The authorities wish to see how this affects gambling addiction at
population level", says Norwegian Gaming Board director Atle Hamar. When the
previous study was performed in 2002, the gross turnover of Norway's
regulated gaming industry was more than NOK 20 billion. The Board does not
have all the figure for 2006 ready yet, but in 2005, gross turnover was NOK
42.5 billion, which means that everyone in Norway from the age of 15 staked
an average of NOK 11,402 in that year.