(AgapePress) - While the exact amount is still hard to predict, experts estimate that Internet gambling will siphon more than $3 billion in losses from the bank accounts of Americans this year.

Arnie Wexler, who uses his national hotline to help those with a gambling problem, said, "Internet gambling is probably the most dangerous thing we've got going at this time. It's available 24 hours a day. You can do it in your pajamas or your birthday suit."

According to a front page article in USA Today, everything about Internet gambling is growing. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of people who gamble online is expected to increase from 4 million to 6.2 million. Those risk-takers have more places to visit, too. From a paltry 25 gambling sites in 1997, the number of such Internet websites has grown to roughly 1,800 today.

The revenue generated is also skyrocketing: between 2000 and 2003, the amount of money produced by online gambling nearly tripled from an estimated $2.2 billion to $6.1 billion. Revenues are expected to more than double over the next three years as well, to $12.6 billion.

Perhaps most sadly of all, the number of problem gamblers is also going up. One treatment facility based in Florida said it had seen a 25% increase in those addicted to Internet gambling in just two years.

Young people are particularly at risk, according to USA Today, as a survey of 100 gambling sites found that underage gamblers could access the websites fairly easily.

Jason Collum, a frequent contributor to AgapePress, is a staff writer for AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article appeared originally in the October 2003 issue.

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