Gambling

Compulsive Gambling

According to the National Council on Problem Gambling (n.d.), “approximately 85% of U.S. adults have gambled at lest once in their lives; 60% in the past year.” Compulsive or problem gambling is similar to other addictions in that it is progressive and devastating to the individual. However, unlike other addictions, compulsive gambling can go completely unnoticed by family, friends, and co-workers. It takes on many different forms including casinos, racing, sports games, and video/internet card games. Unfortunately, gambling affects anyone from teenagers to seniors, individuals or families, and can lead to other serious problems.

Problem gambling is a serious condition, which like any other disease, slowly destroys a person’s life one wager at a time. Many people enjoy gambling as entertainment or innocent fun, but others have more at stake than gambling a few dollars here and there. Some people put their life savings into this addiction and face devastating consequences as a result. “Problem gambling includes all gambling behavior patterns that compromise, disrupt, or damage personal, family or vocational pursuits. In extreme cases, problem gambling can result in financial ruin, legal problems, loss of career and family, or even suicide” National Council on Problem Gambling, n.d.). As with other addictions, when a person finds they devote a significant amount of time gambling, looking for ways to gamble, or thinking about the money they need to gamble, they have developed a disease that will never go away, but can be treated.

Compulsive gamblers are not gender specific, age specific, or ethnically biased. Due to the numerous casinos, video poker bars, and Internet gambling websites, millions of Americans gamble each year. “Researchers at Harvard University have found that for most individuals, gambling starts during the teen years…between 76 and 91 percent of all teen-agers will have gambled by the time they reach their final year of high school”(Ciampa, 1998). For many gamblers the thought of hitting the big jackpot and having a life of riches and ease keeps them gambling. Ironically, for those that gamble pathologically, their future usually includes divorce, child or spousal abuse, bankruptcy, and homelessness.

Some researchers believe that the same gene that causes other addictions such as drugs, alcohol and sex, also causes the addiction to gambling. “Environmental factors are important, psychological factors are important. It’s a complex disorder. But genes also play a role and this is one of the genes” (Price, 1996). Many times, lack of finances is the reason a person starts to gamble. Low income individuals are usually the ones who play the lottery religiously with the hopes that they will “win big” and cure their financial woes. “Their thought processes are all: 'I can win, I can win, I can win. They don't think about losses," (Meisenbach). Besides the obvious monetary rewards, there are other reasons that people gamble: Excitement, Escapism, Glamour, and Society. Gambling is very alluring to adventurous risk takers, as well as those that want to escape from the reality of their life. Still others associate gambling with glamour and wealth and join the crowd to appear part of a certain lifestyle.

Gambling is just like any other addiction. In all cases of addiction the person sees something tries it and begins to like it. After they like it they keep on doing it over and over again and that’s when they become addicted. For example, a teenager who sees all of his peers smoking and drinking decides to give it a try thinking that it won’t cause any harm if he only tries it once. The teenager tries it and realizes that it’s not so bad and that he likes it, so he begins to do it more often and eventually he gets addicted. How could he have resisted when it is all around him. It is the same situation with gambling. There are so many casinos everywhere. Casinos are all around us. So when we just decide to go gamble once just for fun. We decide that we like it and realize that there are so many places that we can do it and they are actually pretty close to us. That is when we want to go more and more and that is when the addiction starts to kick in. The addiction is not something that the individual chooses, but something that the individual can not escape from. “The peculiarity of addictive thinking, he says, is the inability to reason with oneself. This can apply to various emotional and behavioral problems, but is invariably found in addiction: alcoholism, other drug addiction, compulsive gambling, sexual addiction, eating disorders, and nicotine addiction.” (Twerski 16). The person can not even reason with themselves, which is the worst part of it all.

The most important solution to a gambling problem is being able to admit you have a problem and knowing that you need to get help. If a person is not admitting to their gambling problem then they will have a much more difficult time getting rid of the addiction. Some characteristics that a compulsive gambler might have are, thinking about gambling everyday, feeling depressed about gambling, trying to hide the fact that they gamble from their family members, fighting with family members over gambling or money, and more. There are many steps that an individual can take to assure that they are gambling in a responsible fashion. For