Gamblers Anonymous

People who can not resist the urge to gamble are referred to as compulsive gamblers. This compulsiveness leads to social as well as personal consequences. The gambling desire goes to such an extent that the stress can not be bought down by any other way but by gambling more.

Walking, talking and breathing gambling

A compulsive gambler preoccupies him with gambling. Previous experiences are told by him to others. He also often discuses of his new plans and strategies to those who are willing to lend a ear.

More and more

A gambler who is caught by this compulsive addiction gambles for more money. Many a times the gambling is not done for the money but for the thrill of the game. More time is spent on this activity than any other.

Can not stop and will not stop

This gambling can not be curbed. In attempting to stop this, the person becomes very irritated and also restless. Gambling helps him in reliving his problem.

Lying and more lying

To keep this habit away from the family, the gambler tends to lie. He at the same time brags about the winning moments. When confronted, he does not agree with having trouble. If it continues he gets angry. The lies hence become a part of his daily life.

Show the money

Depending on many other people in dire situations of financial trouble are quite common with these people who are addicted to gambling. To help the problem become better more money is taken from friends as well as family members. Loans and mortgages are refinanced. Life insurance is also cashed in. this is when the gambler may start committing frauds and thefts.

Self destruction

Career of the person is jeopardized and relationships with people who are dear and near erode. After gambling, there will be a tremendous amount of remorse and shame felt by the gambler. If the situation becomes quite helpless then they may attempt to commit suicide.

Losing control

Shift of personality generally happens to a compulsive gambler. Being irritable, manipulative, argumentative, controlling and critical are a few of the qualities that will be seen. Losing interest in regular hobbies and activities are quite common to these compulsive gamblers. Questions regarding his whereabouts are evaded and he also begins to make poor excuses. He often will also be withdrawing from friends and loved ones. Gambling will be considered as a way to deal with his problems and also to cope up with them.

Loss of time sense

The gambler begins gambling in the mood of celebration but ends up in crisis. Special events and holidays are used for gambling.

Prevention of this is not easy. Counseling may help a few people who are pretty susceptible to gambling which is compulsive. Those who have relatives who gamble have to be cautious.

At one point in time our society believed that gambling addiction only affected the gambler. However new information now available and those directly affected realized that gambling detrimental to the economic, political, social and physical well being of individuals, the community and the nation.

Gambling addiction negatively affects everyone. The following situations are from real situations that have occurred.

A compulsive gambler borrows money from friends and family not having the ability to pay back these loans. In one case I remember the family who loaned the money had to cut back their spending once they realized the loan was not going to be repaid.

A compulsive gambler uses their credit cards to get cash in order to gamble not having the ability to pay back these loans. The credit card company receives notice that one of their card holders is now filing bankruptcy.

A compulsive gambler no longer has the ability to spend money on local businesses and or charitable organizations. In turn the local businesses revenues decrease.

A compulsive gambler no longer spends the quality time with their family members.

A compulsive gambler’s work production decreases while co-workers pick up the slack.

A compulsive gambler resorts to embezzlement as a means to continue feeding their habit.

A compulsive gambler was sentenced to jail time for illegal acts. This situation is a no win for everyone involved. The gambler can not pay back their debt while in jail.

A compulsive gambler commits suicide.

A compulsive gambler spouse files for divorce.

All of the above examples demonstrate that gambling addiction is detrimental to the economic, political, social and physical well being of individuals, the community and the nation.

Now that there is a problem, it’s time to find a solution and at the same time help those with a gambling addiction to move forward. There are websites that can help the compulsive gambler but there are no websites that can put the cash back into our society so we can move forward.

A compulsive gambler woke up one morning and realized they have a gambling problem. The signs of their gambling addiction have been there all along. As their mind begins to race they look at all the signs that were apparent, but few people around them ever gave it a second thought.

The gambler looks back and realizes the following signs were there for them and their family and friend:

They spent a significant amount of time gambling. At first it was one day a week then it became five days week. Family and friends noticed they weren’t around as much anymore.

Their money was dwindling fast and available cash flow was almost nonexistent. Family and friends notice they weren’t going out to eat as much, was becoming very frugal (only bought one box of girl scout cookies even though they bought at least twenty boxes a year for the past five years), didn’t take a vacation in over two years when they normally would go away at the minimum two times a year and cut spending more then in half when it came time for birthday and holiday gifts.

Coming into work late, not completing assignments and getting written up for not following procedures.

They became very neglectful of their family. The told them they would be home by dinner time only to show up three hours later with no real excuse but would tell them they won big at the online casinos in New Zealand.

They lost money and felt bad about it, but didn’t do anything to stop this self destructive behavior.

As their problems increased, going to the casino was away of reducing my stress when in reality it only increased it. The short time there they remember feeling good.

They borrowed money from friends and family to keep up with their habit. The family and friends knew basically the amount of money they earned. They now also realize that they should have looked a little deeper into what was really going on and why did they really needed this money?

The signs were there but nobody was willing to step up and help them face this addiction before it was too late and they lost everything.

Now that this gambler has woken up they have taken the first step on their road to recovery. The next move is to seek help and go forward with their life.

Gambling has been around since the dawn of humanity. Archaeologists have found artifacts that suggest games of skill or luck all over the world, some of these dated in pre-historic times. Dices carved in Ivory older than 3000 years were found in Egypt.

The saying “voluntary taxes” was common wisdom as far back as the 14th and 15th century when religious communities organized lotteries to fund their organizations when in lack of regular income or during lean times. Paintings that were made in the 16th century depict people playing card games.

It is very possible that individuals, ever keen to compete and measure skills to establish hierarchical relations have always been attracted to games involving skill and luck. While during childhood competition is seen as a natural element in the process of maturing, in adulthood it is regarded as a way to socialize and pass time.

There are many types of games and all of them revolve around skills, rules, luck, memory, intuition, stamina and intelligence. It was only natural for science to delve into this phenomenon to try and define what it was that made people enjoy this type of activity so much.

According to the NHI, the National Institutes of Health, results of tests conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and two other institutions suggest that the same mental circuitry is involved in the highs and lows of winning money, abusing drugs, or anticipating a tasty meal.

This establishes a formal scientific link between the activity of engaging in games of chance and pleasure. It would seem that the incentive of money produced blood flow changes in the brain similar to those seen in response to other forms of rewards, such as euphoria-producing drugs; moreover, the right side of the brain responded predominantly to winning or the prospect of winning, while the left side of the brain responded to losing.

This is helping the scientific community in their research to finding remedies that will cure afflictions like drug or gambling addiction. As ever, its all about individual perception and this happens in the brain, where gambler’s fallacy easily leads people into thinking or believing they can beat the odds.

Gambler’s fallacy has its roots in every individuals’ capacity to measure probability by intuition. If you flip a coin ten times and the result is five consecutive “heads”, chances are many people will be inclined to bet that throw number six will result in a “tails”. This is contradicted by mathematics and logic.

Unfortunately for the people placing a wager on throw number six, the odds of this individual event remain at 50%, or one in two. Over time, that is, if the coin were to be tossed, say, ten thousand times, the number of “heads” results would roughly match the number of “tails” results. This doesn’t exclude ten consecutive same outcomes, but nothing guarantees this, let alone allow anyone to accurately predict the result of any event.