Boston – A new study by Spectrum Gaming Group study provides an in-depth analysis of possible economic and social impacts of the proposed expansion of gambling in Massachusetts. “I believe that this analysis will prove valuable for future policy deliberations if and when the issue of expanded gaming in Massachusetts re-emerges,” Daniel O’Connell, the state’s secretary of housing and economic development, said in a statement accompanying the report’s release.

In United States, a bill sponsored by Nevada Representative Shelly Berkeley that would commission a full and independent study into online gambling and its implications for American citizens has been shelved until at least next month. House of Representatives Bill 2140, also known as the Internet Gambling Study Act, was set to be marked up last week before the House Judiciary Committee...

Patients with Parkinson's disease are about five times more likely to become problem or pathological gamblers than others, concludes a new Canadian study that offers some of the most dramatic evidence to date of the unusual link. Almost one in 10 of the Parkinson's patients studied by psychiatrists in Calgary was found to have a gambling addiction of some sort, with the likely culprit being a type of drug prescribed to most people suffering from the condition, the researchers said.

London/Munich, January 29, 2008: Despite many similarities, the Belgian and Dutch gambling markets differ widely in several aspects. Whereas in the Dutch market a monopolistic/oligopolistic market structure still prevails, the Belgian market has for some time already been on the way – step by step – to increasing liberalisation. The consulting firm MECN’s new study “The Belgian and Dutch Gambling Markets” analyses both markets in detail.

In what several observers state is another step forward to the legalisation of online gambling by American officials, the Nevada Gaming Control Board is soon to release a study it commissioned through the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) earlier this year into the pastime. According to reports in the Las Vegas Sun, the objective of the study is to quantify how many Nevadans gamble online and measure attitudes toward legal Internet gambling.

The Swedish National Institute of Public Health has published the details of its one-year study into the effects of online poker that classed 27 % of the country’s Internet poker players as potential problem gamblers. The study of 16,500 adults was carried out last year on the orders of the Swedish government to assess the social impact of Svenska Spel’s venture into online poker.

Britons are no more addicted to gambling than they were eight years ago, a surprising new report has found. The survey by the Gambling Commission said around 32 million people took part in some type of gambling activity in the past year - a million down on the 33 million who gambled in 1999. If the number of people playing just the National Lottery are discounted, the findings showed the number of gamblers betting in other types of games had increased by 2% from 46% to 48%.

Just weeks after the introduction of the UK Gambling Act 2005, the Gambling Commission has announced that it will publish its prevalence study examining problem gambling in the UK on September 19. "There will be a presentation to industry bodies on the Tuesday evening before it is released the next day,” one gambling industry source, who did not wish to be named, told news agency Reuters.

Students will learn about gambling addiction as part of a new A-level course. The move, by one of the country's biggest exam boards, is being billed as an attempt to train a new generation of psychologists to deal with the UK's growing addiction to betting, fruit machines and gaming tables. The course will focus on the origins and influence of the gambling industry, why people sink into addiction and possible cures.