Online Gambling involves the use of a computer to place bets on sporting events, casino games and other forms of gambling. This form of gambling is legal in some states in the US, some provinces in Canada, most countries in the European Union and several nations in the Caribbean. There are a number of ways to gamble online, but the most common way is to place bets on sports events. Other forms of gambling include bingo, poker and betting.

Many of the same risk factors that influence gambling are present in online gambling as they are in offline gambling. However, the context in which gambling occurs is also important. It seems that the university context is a particularly attractive environment for gambling, and this fact needs to be considered in prevention interventions.

It is also crucial to identify and understand early indicators of gambling problems. However, it is difficult to determine whether specific game features or the user’s own characteristics cause these indicators. It is therefore necessary to conduct longitudinal studies to achieve a more complete understanding of the relationships between variables. In the meantime, it is also necessary to recognize that Internet gambling is a new mode of gambling and to take into account its unique aspects when designing prevention interventions. It is also worth noting that a large proportion of the studies analysed in this review used nonrepresentative samples, and it would be desirable to conduct longitudinal research with representative samples.