Do you gamble responsibly?
It seems to me that whenever I watch television every advert break seems to include advertising for gambling of one sort or another. Some of these “games” will not be considered gambling by some people but whether it is bingo, lottery, online poker or a betting company, if you pay money to play in the hope of winning more it is gambling. Also even the smallest high street these days seems to have at least one bookmakers on it makes me wander are we as a nation heading for trouble. It’s not a bad thing that certain adverts have a statement, either written or verbal, stating “gamble responsibly” but if you have a gambling problem you have an addiction and this statement isn’t going to make you stop or cut back on how much you lose. You will lose overall if you gamble, the odds are always stacked against you. Why then do people gamble? There are a number of reasons. It could be as simple of the relief of boredom, for the excitement or the competiveness of trying to beat another person such as a friend or the bookie. Problems can arise when the gambler starts to feel the buzz less and less. To counter this the gambler may start to gamble with more money in the same way a drug user will use larger quantities of their drug of choice when the buzz doesn’t seem as good. The problem gambler can behave in the same way as the drug addict. When the money has run out the only way they can get their fix is to get money from other sources, these ways may not be legal or they borrow money they have no hope of paying back. Well they will because they’ll win this time right? Probably not to be honest. The trouble is the gambler always thinks that they’ll win this time and so can be tempted to gamble with money they can’t afford to lose. In much the same way the drug addict is addicted to their drug of choice the problem gambler is addicted to the buzz of the bet and in the same way neither can be helped if they don’t admit they have the problem. Help is available for the problem gambler (or any addict) and hypnotherapy is a good way of finding the motivation that makes the gambler gamble and help the problem gambler resolve their problem and bring about positive change. Remember at £2 for each line, if you buy one line a week on the National Lottery and put your winnings in a jar, after 52 weeks you will probably have less money in that jar than if you just put £2 in every week. Of course just putting £2 a week into a jar doesn’t allow you to win millions so how do the odds compare? The odds at picking 5 numbers and the bonus ball are 1 in 7.5 million whereas the odds on having £104 pound in a jar by putting £2 in once a week and not taking any out for 52 weeks are 100% guaranteed. Do you gamble? Are you a problem gambler? How would you know? Ask yourself, are you gambling with money you can’t afford to lose? Are you gambling with higher stakes to feel a bigger buzz? If so it may be worth taking the quiz here. Remember anyone can become addicted to gambling.