Online Gambling refers to the playing of casino games for money via Internet. Although gambling is legal in some countries, it can be difficult to control. Many people become addicted to gambling, and this can lead to severe problems in their life. Some of these problems include emotional stress, depression, relationship conflict, financial strain, and work and academic performance decline. It can also have a negative impact on health, and it can cause legal issues and suicide.

The scope of this review is to investigate risk and protective factors for online gambling, and to identify interventions that could be effective in reducing harms. The literature search was limited to peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2020.

While there are similarities between the risks and protective factors for online gambling and offline gambling, some of these may be unique to this particular context. For example, studies have shown that women may be at greater risk for online gambling than men, perhaps because of higher expenditures and a tendency to chase losses (see Gainsbury et al., 2014c).

Another risk factor for online gambling is the disproportionate availability of gambling products in areas of greater disadvantage. This is driven by sponsorship or other association with popular sports leagues and aggressive promotion in social media. This also increases the likelihood of product uptake among children and young people, especially when they are exposed to gambling through their family. These factors, and others that appear to be specific to the context of online gambling, suggest that it might be useful to develop a suite of prevention interventions that are specifically designed for this population.