How Serious is Gambling Addiction?
By: Omar Amin
When discussing the topic of addiction, most of us will immediately think of topics related to drugs or alcohol. It is easy to identify someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, due to their numerous physical harms. Gambling is another serious form of addiction, which is not easily seen, but have consequences which are just as severe.
But how serious is a gambling addiction? How does one even develop a gambling addiction? Gambling addictions are developed similar to any other addicion. The user first has a taste of gambling, whether it was a night out with friends in a casino or even sometimes online gambling games. One aspect that causes addiction in gambling is the anticipation and thrill of winning, despite the low odds. Due to the low odds, once the user wins, they continue playing until they win again. The loop continues and the user keeps gambling no matter how may times they win or lose. gambling addiction can lead to other bad habits.
It is becoming progressively easier to get addicted into gambling. Not only is gambling done at casinos, but also online. Instead of bringing cash to a casino, users are now able to use their credit/debit cards online to gamble. This will lead to an increase of the number of people addicted to gambling. Popular games are designed to make the user lose. For example, on average, users lose 20% of their stake everytime at blackjack. For roulette(American), the user has a 47.37% chance of winning if betting even or odd or red or black. Some machines are even manipulated by casinos in order to give the user lower odds, such as slot machines. For example, if a slot machine has 3 reels, and each reel has 64 stops, the odds of hitting the jackpot would be 1 in 643 or 262144.