What may have started as fun and challenge eventually devolves to secretive behavior with relentless betting on all and sundry options, fascinated with mega bucks earned easily and quickly, cutting corners, conjuring up tricks, always imagining oneself smarter than others, excusing each loss with ‘if only’ and ‘next time’, spending most winning on paying back debt or entering new bets and skimpily on family needs, and perpetually getting a kick out of guessing. Individual becomes prone to borrowing, hiding, lying, cheating, stealing, and papering over losses while convincing oneself and others that quitting is just a choice away. Eventually running oneself bone-tired and ragged, sometimes beaten up, thrown in jail and more often than not ending up penniless and friendless while leaving family in the lurch. Gambling triggers the pleasure center of the brain that, and as tolerance increases, demands betting larger sums and taking greater risks for the same level of satisfaction, and so it is viewed by experts as more than Compulsion - a mere Impulse Control problem. It is a mental disease.
Source:
1 https://www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/faq/
2 https://www.psycom.net/drug-alcohol-addiction-treatment/gambling-addiction/ based on John Riddle’s article
3 https://www.addictions.com/gambling/5-alarming-gambling-addiction-statistics/
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