Through proper education,
society can develop programs to stop compulsive gambling
addiction before it gets out of control. It’s unfortunate that
people are willing to educate themselves only after they have
been negatively affected by gambling. In most situations the
damage has been done.
Understanding what you are going
through helps in the recovery. It dose not matter if you are
the compulsive gambler, friend of the compulsive gambler or
related to the compulsive gambler. Your lives have all been
affected. It’s now time to focus. Educating yourself on
compulsive gambling addiction will help you to plan for your
future.
It’s first important to
understand the definitions of compulsive, gambling and
addiction. Through knowledge you will gain a better
understanding of compulsive gambling addiction and find new
alternative ways to treat it.
Compulsive is an uncontrollable
desire to do something.
Gambling is the wagering of
money where the end result is uncertain and the individual is
willing to take a chance.
Addiction is a craving that
develops into a dependency to repeat a certain behavior over and
over with out regard for the outcome.
Combine these three words and
you have an uncontrollable desire to gamble where the outcome is
uncertain that develops into a dependency.
It’s unfortunate but most people
can not tell that they have an addiction until they have
developed a self destructive behavior that has negatively
affected their life.
What causes a person to have a
compulsive gambling addiction? No one knows for sure, but there
are many similarities in the type of individual that have
becomes addicted. If we can understand the type personality
that is more susceptible to addiction, then we can at least safe
guard ourselves. For example it’s an established fact that
children of alcoholics have greater chance of becoming an
alcoholic. Since there has been significant growth in the
gambling industry more and more people have developed a
compulsive gambling addiction.
Gambling is a common practice
all over the world. It’s believed that gambling dates back to
the ancient civilizations where people would gather to take a
chance even though the odds were against them.
People who are close to you, who
have developed a compulsive gambling addiction will not show
signs until a majority of their resources have been depleted.
However these people exhibited negative social behavior inside
the gambling establishments.
The gambling establishments are
not regulated by law to stop people from recklessly throwing
away their money. Even though these places know what they are
doing to people, they recklessly destroy people’s lives for
profits.
The gambling establishments have
seen gamblers stay up for two days straight gambling and have
not turned them off. They have allowed these individuals and
other to max out their credit cards. No one did anything to
help them. A bar is required by law to turn someone off if they
appear to be drunk. Gambling establishment’s can also identify
people who are in trouble. I have taken the opportunity to
interview employees at gambling establishments. The employees
all stated that they could tell who had a compulsive gambling
addiction based on their repetitive behavior patterns. For
example they would continuously go back and forth to the cash
machine, they are there at all hours of the day and night when
rational people would be sleeping, been seen in the same clothes
for more then two days and there are many more signs. Why
doesn’t somebody do something about it?
When compulsive gamblers go out
to the gambling establishments with friends or family they
appear very conservative when they gamble at first. By the end
of the night all the signs are there, but no one is paying any
attention. A few signs are seeing them frequently go to the
cash machine, not ready to leave when you are they know their
luck is going to change with just one more bet.
Education is the key and
increasing your knowledge will enable you to deal with your
particular situation.
