Effects of Problem Gambling on the Gambler. Problem Gambling can have a serious impact on the physical, emotional, and financial health of individuals who gamble, as well as their families. Why Can't I Just Stop? How did this happen? I can't believe all the trouble I'm in. If I stop gambling now, I'll have to admit I'm a total loser.
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Approximately 10 million people in the United States live with a gambling addiction problem. A gambling addiction occurs when a person continues to gamble despite negative effects that may impact their finances, relationships, or well-being. Gambling addiction involves compulsions to seek out gambling, betting, and wagering, and the end result can be devastating for the gambler as well as his or her family.Effects Of Gambling On Society
1People who struggle with a gambling or shopping problem often hide their issues out of shame and a desire for secrecy.
This often delays recovery and treatment and allows a gambling addiction to lead to other serious effects, including loss of jobs, failed relationships, and severe debt. Problem gambling is often associated with mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and mood disorders. Gambling problems don’t just affect mental health. People who have struggled with gambling benefit greatly from treatment and often also need family counseling and financial coaching to fully recover.
Christine’s Story
Positive Effects Of Gambling
“You have to do the work in all areas of your recovery, including your finances. I chose to not do all the work necessary for a well-rounded recovery. Even though I was no longer actively gambling, my financial and legal troubles told me I still needed to work with a gambling addiction specialist. After my troubles occurred, I worked with a specialist for a year while I went through the legal mess I created.
“Now that I have reached eight and a half years in recovery from gambling addiction and alcohol abuse, I know it is my job, my duty, to be of recovery service to others. Life today is good!”
— Read Christine C.’s story and more at www.HeroesInRecovery.com
Why Is Gambling Bad
The Cost of Problem Gambling in Your Community
Studies have shown that more than $6 billion has been lost each year to gambling addictions. This problem is far-reaching and can cause both individuals and companies to panic and act in ways they would not normally act.1
Gambling addictions also place a severe hardship on prison systems, public assistance programs, and legal systems. There are many consequences of gambling addictions that result in community economic costs.
Some community gambling addiction dangers include:
- Increased rates of unemployment
- Bankruptcy
- Fraud and check forgery
- Forced home sales
- Increased alcohol and drug abuse
- Poor mental and physical health of individuals and families
How Gambling Impacts the Individual and Family
While the addicted person will definitely suffer during a gambling addiction, that person’s family will also face challenges. The stress that the problem gambler experiences may cause irritable behavior, secrecy, and arguments. Calls from creditors and bill collectors erode relationships. Financial strains impact all family members, and strained relationships make the experience difficult for even extended family members, friends, and colleagues.
The children of gambling addicts also suffer in many ways, including:
- Emotional neglect and abandonment (and even physical abandonment) when one parent is consumed in an addiction.
- Stressed and irritable parents may lash out at children angrily, and even if they do not, these children can sense their parents’ tension.
- Children of people with gambling addiction are at higher risk of experiencing their own addictions later in life.
If You Can’t Stop Gambling, Your Life Will Be Forever Changed
The effects of a gambling addiction are often quite clear. A large number of people who engage in compulsive gambling will use credit cards and debit cards to pay casinos or internet gambling organizations. If you engage in problem gambling, you will most likely incur debt, damage your relationships, and lose sight of your goals in life.
There are many ways that an untreated gambling addiction can change your life.
- Family problems are very common. Almost all compulsive gamblers around the world have issues at home with their family because of their addiction.
- Financial devastation is unavoidable. People with a gambling addiction will go to extreme measures to get money to gamble. Many people eventually resort to stealing, taking out large loans, or other desperate means that are out-of-character.
- Job loss is very high among gambling addicts. Gambling addiction may lead you to miss work, or come to work distracted. Gambling addictions will interfere with work relations, promotions, and employment.
No matter how bad a gambling addiction has become, it is possible to turn things around. Call us for help today at 901-350-4575.
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Why Gambling Is Good
Side Effects Of Gambling
The wagering of money, known as gambling has been around for thousands of years and is common all over the world. Each year two thirds of the adult population will make a bet. Also thirty billion dollars are made in casinos and another seventeen billion comes from state lotteries. Gambling is a good thing for today’s society for several reasons.
First, gambling improves the economy. Only two decades ago two states had legal gambling; now forty-eight states have some form of legal gambling so it is obviously bringing in money for these states or it would not have been legalized that quickly. In 2006 over five billion dollars was made from state and local taxes. This means that the taxes from gambling contributed a lot to the economy. In areas where a casino has been put in there has been an improvement in the local schools due to the increase in funds caused by gambling taxes. Also roadways and other programs have benefitted from gambling in their area.
Next, having casinos in an area produces tons of jobs. In the United States alone over 350,000 jobs have been created by casinos. This helps families as well as the government because they don’t have to take care of those people who work at casinos. There are over 1,500 casinos across America giving the opportunity to many people for employment. This will also help a city by increasing the population and therefore improving the economy.
People may say that gambling is a bad thing, because some people get addicted to gambling and lose their money, but it is better to be addicted to a game than something like drugs or alcohol. In the United States there are 15 million Americans addicted to gambling and 23 million addicted to drugs or alcohol so the problem of people being addicted to gambling is not as bad as it may look. Also there is a simple cure to gambling and that is to just stop going to casinos in most cases. Drugs have harmful effects and are much harder to break that addiction.
Last, gambling is a way for people to enjoy themselves and is becoming a popular form of tourism. In 1996 twenty-nine million people visited Las Vegas and 38 percent of Americans will go to Las Vegas in their lifetime. People go on vacations to places like Las Vegas or Reno Nevada, which are two major cities for gambling, to go have fun in casinos and gamble for fun. This is also very good for cities like these to make money. In 2006 in the U.S. 450 casinos made about 34 billion dollars. Gambling is a good thing for tourism and lots of people enjoy it.
Gambling is a positive thing because it improves the economy by bringing in lots of tax dollars that can be used to help communities. It is a fun way for people to spend their time if they do it in a responsible manner. Gambling has been legal in Nevada since 1931 and has grown tenfold from 1975 until now, which means it is a growing form of income that helps the economy and tons of communities.
Bibliography
Stewart, Gail B. Gambling. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2001. Print.
PBS. PBS. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gamble/etc/facts.html>.
'Gambling Facts and Statistics.' Overcoming Gambling Website for Gambling Addicitons. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.overcominggambling.com/facts.html>.
'History of Gambling in the United States.' California State Library. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/97/03/Chapt2.html>.