Women who gamble online: a scoping review

Online gambling is becoming ever-more prevalent. With research beginning to document that women are increasing their online gambling presence, there is a need to consolidate the evidence base to date with a view to better understand women's specific experiences when gambling online. A scoping review was conducted to map and identify the existing literature surrounding women and their online gambling experiences and practices. Of 1235 articles found within eight databases, 13 were included based on their interest in women's online gambling behavior. The review demonstrated the scarcity and uniqueness surrounding women's experiences with online gambling, which is continuously increasing, and women are showing a preference for online casino games. Women live unique online gambling experiences, such that internal motivators (i.e. safety and anonymity) and external motivators (i.e. play for free) were identified among the variety of reasons that bring women to online gambling, in addition to the feelings of shame and guilt that women feel when gambling online. The results of this review highlight the many areas of gambling studies related to women that need more research investment, such as reducing the homogeneity of samples and online gambling activities, and prevention programming. Specifically, the current work suggests that treating women online gamblers as a homogeneous group does not allow us to understand the diversity of experiences when it comes to different women as well as different online gambling activities.