Preventing Gambling Addiction

When talking about gambling addiction, just like when talking about any sort of addiction, it’s very easy to say to yourself “Oh, that’d never happen to me, I’m in complete control!” Well, unfortunately, it’s exactly the people who believe that they’re in the most control that are in the most danger. Confident drinkers drink one glass of scotch, then two because hey, they’ve been drinking for a long time and one isn’t really enough, then three because they know how to hold their drink, then four because they’ve got this, and then five, and six, and seven, until at some point a family member notices that they’re barely leaving the bar at all. You might think that gambling addiction isn’t at all like alcoholism or drug abuse, but you’d be wrong – as a matter of fact, gambling activates the exact same pleasure centers as alcohol and certain drugs, which is why recently doctors have begun prescribing the same drugs used to treat alcoholism to problem gamblers. So, how do you stay safe?

If you’re reading this article, then you’re already doing the effort to protect yourself from the danger of addiction, which is a fantastic first step. Unfortunately, just reading an article isn’t enough – I’m no wizard, I’m just a writer. So you’ll need to put in some work as well, and the trick here is limitation. You’ll need to limit both the time and the money you spend on gambling. First of all, create a budget for yourself (this is something that you’ll need to do even if you’re not gambling at all) – take your monthly or weekly income and subtract all of the expenses for food, gas, rent, savings and so on. What you have left (minus another fifty to a hundred, just in case) is your disposable income. Decide how much of that disposable income you want to spend on gambling. For example, maybe you have £150 of disposable income at the end of the day, but there’s a videogame coming out that you want (-£40) and a new Marvel movie (-£10) and you also want a new hoodie from a sale (-£30), so at the end you’re left with £80 of disposable income. Say you want to spend half of that (£40), and you want to gamble online once a week. That means you can afford to spend £10 on gambling, but not a penny more! Even if you’re on a winning streak, once you’ve made 10 £1 bets, you’re done for the day, and for the week. In fact, that is especially true if you’re on a winning streak.

Exercising control is the most important part of fighting gambling addiction. It can be very difficult, even frustrating having to stop right when the action seems to get good, but trust me – it’s for your own good. If you find it increasingly difficult to control yourself, or are neglecting these limitations more and more, then chances are you might be developing gambling addiction. In that case, stop gambling immediately, and if that doesn’t work contract an anti-addiction organization in your country, such as GambleAware in the UK. Remember – gambling addiction may not sound serious, but it is by far the biggest danger posed to us gamblers. It can and has ruined lives. Don’t let it ruin yours.