When you sign up for an online gambling site, you’ll be greeted with a number of choices. The first and most obvious choice is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that was first released in 2009 and has seen huge growth in virtually every market. Its popularity began in the “dark web” and in the gambling industry when online casinos realized how valuable this new digital currency was. Its privacy and anonymity make it an excellent option for both gamblers and online casinos.
The first attempts at regulating online gambling began in the late 1990s. In 1996, there were fifteen gambling websites. By 1998, there were 200. A Frost & Sullivan report revealed that online gambling revenues exceeded $830 million. By 1999, online poker rooms were introduced, and the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was proposed in the US Senate, which would have banned online gambling. Online gambling also made its debut in multiplayer online games, which allow players to interact with each other.
The Internet also brings the possibility of huge wagers and continuous gambling. The availability of vast betting options allows for instant feedback and rapid gambling. However, this has also been associated with excessive gambling. The DSM-5 has added a new category of Internet gambling disorder in order to more adequately assess its impact on society. While a new category was introduced to classify Internet gambling disorder, it remains an extremely difficult task to define whether it is a symptom of another condition.