J Lee Cunningham, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by J Lee Cunningham
Interesting and Sad Facts About Gambling 8/22/2019 3:33:42 PM
Some interesting yet sad facts as it relates to gambling addiction. Interesting and Sad Facts About Gambling
This is intended to give some facts about gambling that will hopefully be interesting and helpful to anyone that reads this post. I even found out some things that I hadn’t previously known.
MEN VS WOMEN
Men are more likely to develop a gambling problem more than women. Women tend to start gambling later in life than men. The National Council on Problem Gambling states that in the age category between 45 and 64, there are more women gambling addicts than men.
FINANCIAL VS EMOTIONAL
Gambling is not a financial issue as much as it is an emotional issue. Gambling starts with a person trying to deal with daily life’s stressors and pressures. Gambling doesn’t mean that you are weak. People who are known to be intelligent and successful have become compulsive gamblers. Gambling is an impulse control disorder that triggers a chemical brain reaction.
I read an article, How Gambling Can Kill You Faster Than Drug Abuse or Alcoholism (https://www.alternet.org/how-gambling-can-kill-you-faster-drug-abuse-or-alcoholism), that stated one out of five gamblers try to commit suicide. It may be higher than that because most of the time, the gambler doesn’t leave a suicide note. The amount of debt they were in is discovered and that’s how the hidden secret comes to light. I like the quote from National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) that “Gambling kills you because it doesn’t kill you.” I never thought about it, but how true is that?! Your body can only take so much alcohol or drugs before you decide to get clean or you end up dead but with gambling that’s not true and I have been telling friends. There is nothing to wean your body from – your mind has to be in sync and want to stop and until you reach that point nothing changes.
STATISTICS ABOUT GAMBLING
It is estimated that three to four percent Americans have a gambling problem – that is approximately six to eight million people. Statistics show that people who gamble tend to have some other mental disorder. Fifty percent of gamblers have experienced a mood disorder; 75% had an alcohol disorder; 60% were nicotine dependent; 60.8% experienced a personality disorder and 38% had a drug disorder. I now you say that doesn’t add up to 100% and you’re right – it’s because gamblers often experience multiple disorders at once or at varying times.
According to the North American Foundation for Gambling Addiction Help, America leads the world in gambling addiction while Canada and Australia follow behind. One-fourth of Canadian citizens have suffered some type of loss due to gambling, but half of those surveyed said they do not believe that gambling is dangerous.
New Zealand had the fewest number of gamblers according to the Business and Economic Research.
GAMBLE DAILY - ARE YOU AN ADDICT?
Not necessarily. Gambling addiction is not always a result of daily gambling. There are those who gambling daily but they allow for it. Gambling doesn’t become a problem until you start to impact your family financially and it impacts your family relationships. If you take the rent for the month to gamble with, you just might be an addict even if it’s just once a month.
It is estimated that three to four percent Americans have a gambling problem – that is approximately six to eight million people. Statistics show that people who gamble tend to have some other mental disorder. Fifty percent of gamblers have experienced a mood disorder; 75% had an alcohol disorder; 60% were nicotine dependent; 60.8% experienced a personality disorder and 38% had a drug disorder. I now you say that doesn’t add up to 100% and you’re right – it’s because gamblers often experience multiple disorders at once or at varying times.
According to the North American Foundation for Gambling Addiction Help America leads the world in gambling addiction while Canada and Australia follow behind. One-fourth of Canadian citizens have suffered some type of loss due to gambling, but half of those surveyed said they do not believe that gambling is dangerous.
New Zealand had the fewest number of gamblers according to the Business and Economic Research.
Treatment
Most addicts don’t get treated or if they are even aware. They continue to believe that they can quit or control it on their own. They don’t want to go to treatment because of the shame. They are afraid to go to meetings because they might see someone they know. I had a friend that very thing happened. He decided to go to a meeting and ended up seeing someone he knew and then he never went back. The shame that goes with gambling makes people not want to get treated. I believe they think they should be strong enough “to beat this thing”. That it makes them weak because they can’t control the urges. This same friend that was seeing a therapist, would leave the therapist’s office and go gambling. There’s not a lot you can do with that. It is truly a mindset. The gambler believes in their mind what they say but they just can’t seem to carry it out. If they say they are going to the store and they will be right back, they typically don’t come back. You get to the point that you can’t and don’t believe anything they say. So they lose trust with their friends and family, but they still think they have it all together.
I saw somewhere gambling addiction was called the hidden addiction. I refer to it as the silent addiction because you don’t hear people talk about it anywhere. When I hear about gambling addiction is when they are televising poker tournaments. Hardly the right forum to me.
CONCLUSION
There are a lot of facets to gambling that we all need to think about. If you think about it, you may know someone that is close to actually falls in this category. Please be mindful of their behavior and your own. Don’t become an enabler or a co-dependent. Try to encourage them to seek help, but they have to want it.
