Gambling is an activity in which participants place a value on an uncertain outcome, usually with the aim of winning money. It can take many forms, including lottery tickets, scratch-offs, video poker, casino games, and sports gambling. Regardless of the form, gambling can have negative effects on the gambler’s physical and mental health, relationships with family and friends, and performance at work. This article examines the risks associated with different types of gambling and provides some tips on how to reduce them.
The odds of losing when you gamble are quite high. The best thing to do is to prepare for this and decide beforehand how much you’re willing to lose. Don’t play for more than you can afford to lose, and never use your income or other resources intended for essentials to fund gambling.
People who struggle with gambling addiction often have several factors that contribute to their problem. These include an early big win, boredom susceptibility, impulsivity, a poor understanding of random events, escape coping and stressful life experiences. A combination of these factors can create a cycle of behavior whereby the gambler constantly expects to replicate the initial big win, uses it to avoid unpleasant reality and, over time, becomes increasingly dependent on the activity.
Pathological gambling is now recognised as an addictive disorder and can be diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). It was previously considered a compulsion, but the DSM-5 now includes it among the behavioural addictions. In addition, there is now a wide range of research demonstrating that gambling can have negative psychological and social consequences.
While there is no universally accepted nomenclature for gambling disorders, a number of experts have defined different paradigms or world views from which to view the issue. This diversity of perspectives is reflected in the way that different groups, such as researchers, psychiatrists, and other treatment care clinicians, frame their inquiries into the issue.
Despite the widespread availability of legal gambling, there is still a significant amount of harm caused by this activity. This harm is often invisible to the person experiencing it, and can have a profound effect on their quality of life. This is partly because the monetary benefits of gambling are frequently masked by the social costs of the behaviour. While studies on gambling harm have tended to focus on individual and interpersonal level impacts, the use of health-related quality of life weights—known as disability weights—could be used to discover invisible social costs. In this way, it may be possible to develop a more complete picture of the cost/benefits of gambling. This would provide an important step towards identifying the benefits of gambling and ways to reduce its harmful impacts.