Current Business Research Project Paper

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a scholarly research article in a professional journal and to provide a brief synopsis of the article. This paper will focus on defining the business research and its purpose, explaining the problems under investigation, identifying the parties involved in conducting the research, and describing methods used to conduct the research project. The research article I chose deals with internet sports gambling. I felt it would be interesting to see some statistics related to internet gamblers. Furthermore, I felt it would be easier to research a subject that interests me - sports.

The research paper was published in the Springer Science and Business Media Journal in June 2007. The purpose of the paper is to report on the results of a study on internet sports gambling behavior over an eight-month period. Data captured includes fixed-odd bets on the outcome of sporting contests and live-action bets on the outcome of events within contests. Nearly 43,000 sports gambling service subscribers were studied. The information tracked in the study consists of daily totals of the number of bets made, amount of money bet, and amount of money won. During the research, it was determined that bettors placed 2.5 bets of approximately $5.50 on an average of twice per week during he study. Typically, bettors lost 18-29% of the amount wagered over this period. (LaBrie et al, 2007)

Internet sports gambling is under investigation in this article because the author associates gambling with a number of poor physiological and psychosocial outcomes. Gambling has been related to poor mental health, poor social relationships, and poor financial situations. (LaBrie et al, 2007) Since internet gambling is a relatively new form of gambling, researchers and advocates around the world are concerned with its impact on public health. (LaBrie et al, 2007) The author also associates internet gambling with an increase in excessive gambling because of increased exposure to the gambling world. LaBrie claims that people who would not normally gamble (because they have no exposure to gambling) will be more likely to do so. Furthermore, the author goes on to say that since internet surfing is a solitary activity, the ability to increase existing problems - such as drinking alone - is heightened.

Parties involved in conducting this research were students at the Harvard Medical School at the time the research was conducted. Led by Richard A. LeBrie, this group of students worked for the division of addictions in the Cambridge Health Alliance. In order to gather this information, the group used several methods. First, the group researched many different articles in various publications relating to internet gambling. In addition to the articles, the group of students conducted a longitudinal study of gambling behavior of a large number of participants.

For the study, a research cohort was established and the subsequent recorded gambling transactions were accumulated at a sports gambling website. (LaBrie et al, 2007) Specifically, the research cohort included 42,647 people who opened an account with a betting service provider from February 1-27, 2005. The information gathered tracked each player's transactions at that site. The group felt that using actual behaviors would allow them to avoid the difficulties of compressing information that would have been gathered by using survey