Gambling

You can learn a lot about gambling if you're willing to analyze 27 million hands of online poker. Don't have time for that? No worries; sociology doctoral student Kyle Siler of Cornell University has done it for you. His counterintuitive message: the more hands you win, the more money you're likely to lose — and this has implications that go well beyond a hand of cards.

Gambling therapist Dr. Suzanne Graupner Pike says, “Problem and pathological gambling occurs in only 4% of the population. Gambling, in and by itself, does not ‘cause’ problems. When betting reaches a high-wager level and a player commits a crime to maintain that level of play, gambling is no longer about the money. It’s about how the wagering itself makes the player feel. In the end, when people escape into gambling to avoid uncomfortable feelings, resolve pre-existing life problems, or get adrenaline rushes, it is the feeling that becomes addictive.”

There are different types of gamblers. Most gamblers, about 96% of the people who gamble, are social gamblers. Some gamblers are called at-risk gamblers. The term, problem gambler, is used to describe someone who scores 3-4 on the South Oaks Gambling Screen. In a less scientific way, it is also used to describe anyone who is exhibiting any problems because of gambling.

Australians love a punt - over 80 per cent will gamble at one stage or another. And yet, for a small fraction of us, gambling will cause very serious problems indeed. Why and how those problems occur, and what to do about it, are still very much matters of debate.

People seem to gravitate toward gambling primarily, at least as I would understand it, because of more sociological forces than any other. If you're someone who comes from a family where money is tight, or the community does not support gambling, well, chances are you're not gonna lean in that direction.

There is no drug out on the market specifically for gambling. There are a number of drugs, particularly Naltrexone, in the two forms of it, that seems to have a positive effect of decreasing gambling.

Some gambling occurs at the local liquor store or Seven-Eleven, like the little scratches. Have you ever seen anybody standing at the counter, scribbling off? For a few fleeting moments there's excitement, exhilaration, hope, and optimism. It's not that far from somebody who is investing high numbers on a risky investment, or someone who is in Las Vegas.

Gambling addiction takes many forms. It is a very broad addiction, if you'd like to call it that, because it manifests itself in so many ways. Gambling could be everything from the very overt: you go into Las Vegas or Reno or whatever, spending your money. But it's also the stock markets. It's also back of the schoolyard.

Presumably quoting from the Harvard Medical School report commissioned by the Vienna listed online gambling company Bwin, the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has published the results of an HMS study that found many gambling addicts recover from their addiction naturally, without treatment, and that problem gambling is a more dynamic phenomenon than was previously believed.

A recent University of Pennsylvania study showed that 75 percent of seniors interviewed had gambled within the past year. Eleven percent were defined as "at risk" for developing a problem or had gambled more than they could afford to lose.