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.
