Smart phones spread gambling, increasing business and addiction

Smart Phone

Leanne Jenkins---Gambling addiction is like any other, difficult to break and motivated by availability, with the new media facilitating access and increased addiction, as new smart phones and other devices allow users to download casino games and play anytime and anywhere.

Global mobile gambling is predicted to be worth billions by 2018. Part of this growth is because of the live routlette games available to download directly to iPhone, iPad and other devices. Super Casino is a growing trend.

The casino experts tell us, “As well as the obvious increase in smartphone penetration, this growth can also be attributed to device capability. The appearance and functionality of mobile games is improving. For example, our Super Casino mobile games can connect seamlessly to an existing online account. People can easily use their funds to place bets on the go, with just one password and username to remember. It’s also worth considering that consumers are becoming more comfortable making purchases on mobile devices, thanks to improvements in usability but also more efficient security.”  

Moderate gambling is acceptable to most people, however compulsive gambling can create problems for individuals and families. Addictive behavior itself can sometimes be transferable, ie the alcoholic abstaining from drink, for example, and using gambling as a way to gain relief from the desire for alcohol. It is the tendency towards addiction that remains the major problem in any type of compulsive use of drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping and gambling. The digital age allows for increased use and availability of gambling and shopping at the click of a mouse serves to fuel what is already a growing problem.

Europeans ho-hum about Apple products

Carol Forsloff - Apple is releasing a new product this week, and Americans are lining up already; but what do our neighbors, the British, across the pond think of Apple?

Actually the Britons are hardly at all like Americans when it comes to Apple and really think the company and its products get too much hype.

A survey of those Brits by mingletrend.comfound 60% of them believe Apple is overrated.  Only a third agree with the level of excitement generated in the United States.

But is that across the board, over every generational group?  The survey found just a tendency of difference among adults, with young adults more apt to consider Apple's prominence at 40% ; however they too, by a majority of more than half of the respondents, believe the hype for Apple is over the top.

This figure reaches over 70% for those in their fifties. 6% of twenty-somethings think the hype could be even bigger whereas this figure is no more than 2% for any other age group.

Apple is releasing its iPhone 4 which has already sold out so that pre-orders have had to be blocked in the United States.  It continues to play a prominent role in the country's dealings, so it was important to see if this was a worldwide or country-wide phenomenon.

60% of the total of Brits surveyed were of the opinion that Apple is overrated with only a third agreeing with the level of excitement. Only 3% felt the brand could be publicised more. In other countries, the difference is even more astonishing, with those in countries outside the United States looking at the Apple interest as overrated.Across the channel from the Brits, respectively 77% and 81% in France and Germany, according to similar surveys conducted, consider the publicity about Apple and its prominence is exaggerated..

So Thursday will probably see many people excitedly upgrading their iPhone or even entering the smart phone market for the first time but on the other hand there will be many Brits and others around the world who wish the Apple hype would calm down.