Executive summary
Addiction has always been attributed to drugs and alcohol, but it has emerged that gambling is claiming more lives and breaking more families each and every day. The APA has categorized gambling addiction as a psychological impulse-control disorder. The long-term effect of gambling can be associated with loss of money, work absenteeism and breaking up of families, and mismanagement of finances (PsychGuides, 2019).
Addiction work on the notion that the player spends lots of money and loses, then they spend even more to try and win back what they have lost; continuation leads to addiction and losing control of the amount one is willing to spend.
Medical practitioners have the idea that gambling is not a financial problem but an emotional problem that holds substantial financial consequences. This problem has been tied to loneliness and missing work, which sums up the productivity of the nation going down. The study has also shown that people with the tendency to a single addiction are more vulnerable to developing another. Addiction is also linked to neurological factors and genetics (Murch & Clark, 2016).
In the united states alone, 5.77 million people have been diagnosed with a gambling problem. A number of countries have put hotlines for addicts to call for help and have also come up with websites to provide a community for those who feel guilty for what gambling has reduced their lives to (Statista, 2022).
This report, on the other hand, offers a different approach to the problem. However, many countries have mentioned that the self-exclusion program has not been fully implemented, especially in Australia. The self-exclusion program allows the gambling addict or their family members to backlist them from the gambling site. Casinos, this exercise, accompanied by therapeutic consults, will ensure that the affected persons are given the control to change their behaviours and are not forced into doing anything; research has shown that addicts forced out of the addiction have higher chances of relapse. The report provides a self-executable plan for ensuring that gambling addicts are kept away from gambling places and then are offered emotional helps in order to keep families together, maintain the county’s productivity and reduce the impulsive behaviour of gambling and gearing.
The problem
Despite the current advancement in technology, gambling still maintains its core principles, which involve risking your money to make even more money. Gambling is one of the games of human activities that present the player with illusions of money they do not have yet. The promise of quick money makes the process very interesting, and for impulsive and mental or emotionally disturbed persons, this could lead to severe addiction (Europe PMC, 2019).
Gambling addiction is categorized as an impulse-control disorder and a progressive addiction with the chance of inducing many psychological, physical or social consequences. The adverse stage of gambling addiction, popularly known in the medical world as problem gambling, is associated with health problems such as migraine, depression, stress, intestinal disorder and other stress-related disorders. In the united states of America, 5.77 million people were diagnosed with gambling problems and needed treatment (Newman, 2018).
Doctors say gambling is not a financial problem but an emotional problem that holds substantial financial consequences. This problem has been tied to loneliness and missing work, which sums up the productivity of the nation going down. The study has also shown that people with the tendency to a single addiction are more vulnerable to developing another. Addiction is also linked to neurological factors and genetics (PsychGuides, 2019).
As opposed to what most people believe, gambling has been advanced and has not only slot machine activities but involved and not limited to lottery tickets, making bets and many more sporting sites that give enticing odds for the customer to wager against. Gambling addiction is not always an apparent disorder, and even the addict themselves mostly have no idea they have lost their compulsive control towards gambling. Most addictions are associated with the thought of being in financial difficulties, and the only way to save oneself is to access easy money. This idea always results in a recurrence of the same act where the gambler has lost. Instead of winning more cash, they are struggling to win back what they have lost in the gambling process. at this point, the gambler is always emotional and has impaired judgement leading to more losses (PsychGuides, 2019).
Gambling addiction can be attributed to a number of factors, including but not limited to; the desire to get the thrill of winning, the social advantages of being a successful gambler and the most rampant being the desperation to have easy money. The gambling companies and casinos trade on the idea that when one loses money, they keep betting to win back their money and keep losing. Even if they finally win, they shall have lost more than they are winning (Murch & Clark, 2016).
Studies show that gambling addiction may be underreported b betting agencies worldwide, with an estimated nine times more numbers. A survey done on gambling addiction in 2021 revealed that men have a higher gambling addiction risk as compared to women; the survey reported that 3.7 % were found to have a gambling problem, with 7.5 % being at risk of the same. This amounts to more than 10 % of men adversely affected by gambling addiction and activities. A Landmark study claimed that 1.4 million people are addicted to gambling, with 1.5 being at risk of addiction in the united states. The gambling problem is accurate, and though not much as financial as it is psychological, it has a number of facial and social risks to the addicted as they are prone to making bad financial decisions associated with divorce and family separations.
In Australia, the yearly spending on gambling by international visitors is estimated to be 151 Million Australian dollars, with 1,850 gambling businesses and casinos all over the country. The data by STAISTSA shows that 40.1 % of adults are active participants in the lottery and scratch card gaming industries in Australia. The gambling industry is very profitable, and the effect it has o the people has been overlooked by the business operators, sports betting alone is reported to bring in as high as 11.6 billion AUD (Statista, 2022).
One is said to have a game ling problem when they are not in a position to limit the amount they are spending or the time they are spending when gambling. Some psychiatrists categorize gambling problems as that point when the activity holds a place of importance and increases to be even more important in your life, just like a drug. Not being able to limit the amount of ore one spends is also considered to be a sign of a gambling problem. This can have adverse disadvantages in one’s family relationships and carrier. Gambling problem has also been linked to stress, depression, health issues and control loss (Murch & Clark, 2016).
Data show that around 1 % of Australian adults are problem gamblers, and 2.1 % of the adult have experienced moderate risk n gambling. According to the Australian gambling council, the Australian people lost USD 24.89 billion between 2017 and 2018. This was a 5 % increase from 2016-2017. The council also reported that between 2017 and 2018, an estimated $ 1,292 was spent by each gambling individual on gambling activities. This was a 3.3 % increase from the previous $ 1,251 (Finder, 2020).
Like any other nation in the world, the Australian people have been experiencing an increased number of gamblers, be it in casinos, sports betting, online betting or race to bet. The vice, which was supposed to be a fun activity, has been turned into a drug. It is important to note that not all people gambling have gambling problems, but most are, and the rest are at risk of being part of the problem. Gambling harm can be seen either monetarily or emotionally. The APA has categorized gambling addiction as a psychological pope and with which it has been claiming a number of lives all over. Research has also shown that people do not have to be addicted to experience the harm of the vice. The majority of people experiencing gambling harm are not even categorized as problem gamblers (Finder, 2020).
The accumulation of household debt and misappropriation of household and personal funds will result in the low purchasing power of the household. With low purchasing power, the current inflation rate led to more debts. Despite being overlooked, gambling is a severe addictive activity, and problem gambling is at rock bottom. It is claiming the lives and livelihoods of the majority of adults in Australia and around the world. The psychological impact of the problem brings with it a toll on the productivity of the entire nation. Therefore, the economy and the well-being of the citizens need to find ways to better control and improve betting exercise into a healthy one. The earliest sign of the problem gambling will be guilt, stress and regret of their actions.
Gambling, like drugs and substance abuse, is very addictive, and the addict requires intention and treatment measures to ensure they regain control of their lives. Taking control of their lives will improve their productivity and, therefore, national production. Secondly, finding early interventions will ensure that the money spent on medication and support programs can be used to improve the economy in other sectors.
The intervention
As an addiction, gambling should either be controlled or avoided altogether. The first measure toward intervening in any addiction would probably be accepted. Studies have shown that those who have accepted that they have the problem are easy to save compared to those who are in denial. In gambling, the impact on the behavioural habits of the affected individual needs a behavioural intervention.
Exclusion from gambling sites and casinos can be the best mitigation strategy to curb the effects of gambling. Exclusion can be in two different ways, self-exclusion and third-party exclusion. Studies have shown that when one is willing to self-exclude themselves from something or an activity they deem harmful to their health, they have already taken the steps towards the healing process. For those who are not in the right mindset and those who are still clinging to the notion that they dint have a problem. Gambling has taken a toll on them. Their loved ones have the ability and the authority to exclude them from gambling sites and casinos (Motka et al., 2018).
Casinos have realized that even though they need the customer to keep coming and keep losing for their business to run, they still have the blocklist, which has the list of people who should not be allowed in the casino to gamble. When a player in an online market or gambling site requests for self-exclusion, the gambling company has the mandate to remove their accounts and block their details from creating any other account with them. Since gambling is not only a problem on land, self-expression works both on land and online (Zielke & Wolfer, 2008).
Though self-exclusion and third-party exclusion are effective and thoughtful ways of keeping one-off gambling sites, just like drug addiction, taking away the drug without proper behavioural correction might prove catastrophic. Therefore, it is crucial to seek professional intervention to help coach the addict through their behavioural correction process. A number of behavioural techniques can be employed to help the gambling addict through their exclusion process; first is keeping track of one’s spending to the last cent and getting professional gambling advice from state agencies to support gambling addicts. In addition, the addict could avoid carrying any excess cash when going to a sporting event with gambling machines. Lastly, they could instruct their banks to limit their spending or credit limits in order to control what they use since y can use what they cannot access (Motka et al., 2018).
The bet-stop is a significant initiative taking shape in Australia, the main aim being to have a single register of people who have decided to exclude themselves from the betting and money-wagering platforms. The self-exclusion program will ensure that the excluded individual can open new accounts and access any wagering sites. The betting companies will also ensure not to market directly to the self-excluded individuals (ACMA, 2022).
Addiction has been a claimer of lives all over the world. With millions of people addicted to drugs and substance abuse, gambling is another problem of the same calibre. Therefore, since the problem is based on behaviour, the best means of solving or reducing the addiction to its impact on people’s livelihood is to devise a behaviour-taming condition. Alternatively, a rule will ensure gambling is controlled and has no extrema control over people. The intervention proposed has been tested in Australia, and coming up with the best stop platform is just but part of the solution. As mentioned earlier, the intervention needs to work both in online and offline platforms like casinos and live betting on racing or sports activities.
In conjunction with the exclusion program, personal touch by a professional and avoiding the gambling areas will effectively ensure the gambling problem is reduced in Australia and, by extension, all through other countries.
RCT
The respondents were randomly selected from the people who sort health through the national hotline for gambling addicts. As has been mentioned, gambling addiction has been linked to a number of health issues, just like alcohol and drug abuse. Therefore, the core idea of conducting the survey is to assess the impact of the addiction and to understand which part of their lives is affected the most so that any other form of intervention taken towards helping the problems is focused on the most affected section of their lives. Like cancer treatment, targeted therapy has always been found to work better than guesswork or general treatment.
The interventions mentioned previously could only be termed effective if they target the aspect of one’s life that is most affected by the impacts caused by the
The Australian institute of health and welfare undertook a survey to estimate the area and the aspect of the citizens’ lives that were most affected by harmful gambling habits. As is seen in the above section, gambling addiction has been categorized as a psychological disorder. Therefore, it is essential to understand the aspects of the lives it most affects before it ruins one’s life. Like any other addiction, there are two most important things to understand to come up with a better solution; alternatively, in order to assess if the proposed solution will be of help, the cause of the problem/addiction and the area of one’s life that the addiction affected the most.
The survey was done on several people affected by addictive gambling behaviour. The survey asked the respondents to choose from the options which part of their lives was most affected by their addiction to gambling. The options were limited to; emotional, financial, health, relationship, other harm and finally, a school for students and work for non-students. The graph below shows the trend and proportion of the population and the part of their lives most affected by their gambling addiction.
Based on the graphical analysis presented in the figure above, the relationship aspect of one’s life is more affected than any other aspect, followed by health and emotion, also called the psychological aspect. The interventions suggested above were self-exclusion followed by professional support.
The self-exclusion can now be confirmed as a promising intervention since it will take the gambler’s behaviour into not being able to get into a gambling spot and thereby develop another behavioural mechanism to come without gambling. This intervention will save the relationship and, by extension, the family ties and reduce the device and separations linked to this kind of addition. Moreover, since the survey has revealed that the emotional aspect of the gambling victim’s life was also among the most affected, the emotional or therapeutic support through the self-exclusion period will give them a better perspective and tame their behaviours toward addictive behaviours.
References
ACMA. (2022). BetStop – the National Self-exclusion Register | ACMA. Acma.gov.au. https://www.acma.gov.au/betstop-national-self-exclusion-register
Europe PMC. (2019). Europe PMC. Europepmc.org. https://europepmc.org/article/med/11447568
Finder. (2020, July 22). Gambling Statistics Australia November 2020: Do we have a gambling problem? Finder.com.au. https://www.finder.com.au/gambling-statistics
Motka, F., Grüne, B., Sleczka, P., Braun, B., Örnberg, J. C., & Kraus, L. (2018). Who uses self-exclusion to regulate problem gambling? A systematic literature review. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(4), 903–916. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.96
Murch, W. S., & Clark, L. (2016). Games in the Brain. The Neuroscientist, 22(5), 534–545. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858415591474
Newman, T. (2018). Gambling addiction: Symptoms, triggers, and treatment. Www.medicalnewstoday.com. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/15929#symptoms
PsychGuides. (2019). PsychGuides.com. PsychGuides.com. https://www.psychguides.com/behavioral-disorders/gambling-addiction/symptoms-and-effects/
Statista. (2022). Topic: Gambling in Australia. Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/7611/gambling-in-australia/#dossierContents__outerWrapper
Zielke, T., & Wolfer, R. C. (2008). Facing up to gambling addicts. Biometric Technology Today, 16(3), 10–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0969-4765(08)70081-x
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