“Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.” – Former English footballer Garry Linekar, after suffering multiple defeats against Germany
Had Linekar been a compulsive online punter, and not an acclaimed international player, he would have had a slightly different view of the beautiful game: Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the betting houses always win.
Read the above statement again. Do you get insanely angry? Feel that this is plain nonsense? Well, the above statement may well be nonsense; but you may have a compulsive gambling problem. One of the signs for compulsive gambling addiction is to get unreasonably angry at anything said against betting or gambling.
What are the other signs?
You really seem to have a gambling problem, if you can’t wait to learn more! Well, there are other more serious and obvious symptoms:
- Feeling overly excited and thrilled about doing gambling or betting.
- Tendency to take larger and larger wagers.
- Falling in love with gambling and betting – always thinking about it, thinking about your past winnings, imagining your future conquests …
- Escaping to gambling – from personal problems and emotional anxieties.
- Trying to recover gambling losses by … further riskier gambling.
Only you can figure out whether you experience these tendencies or not. But you can confirm your compulsive gambling addiction when somebody close to you simply asks: “what is wrong you?”
They may have noticed some or all of the following problems:
- You are skipping work and neglecting family life and enjoying gambling and betting more.
- You are trying to keep your gambling activities a secret and lying about it.
- You are borrowing (or, god forbid, stealing) money to sustain your gambling habit.
- You are broke, when you should not be.
Understanding gambling problem
Gambling addiction is just like any other addiction, drugs, alcohol or sexual perversion. It has all the negatives of other addictions – like psychological doldrums, loss of personal prestige and feelings of insecurity – plus one more: it can drain your wealth away in quick time.
There are some popular misconceptions about gambling addiction. First is that gambling is alright if you are wealthy. The fact is that no amount personal wealth in this world is large enough to support this habit in the long term.
The second misconception is that those with a gambling problem tend to indulge in gambling all the time. Wrong. Some of them can actually go several days without involving in any sort of gambling activities.
Why can’t governments ban gambling and betting if it is so bad
You have just woken up after two decades of sleep, right, Mr. Rip van Winkle? Governments can’t do it because gambling companies pay them heavy taxes. Plus, a large number of people enjoy occasional rounds of gambling and betting. Some do it on special occasions for fun. Some do it in search of easy money. Some do it for the thrill and high associated with gambling. The catharsis gambling offers when you win is incredible. There is absolutely nothing wrong with gambling activity, if it does not become an addiction.
Most of the countries have made laws that put constraints on betting and gambling and created programs to help those who are affected by gambling problem. Some countries, say the USA, China and the Arab countries, have banned online gambling and betting altogether. Here is an overview of government action against gambling problem.
What are governments doing against gambling addiction?
All the governments have a single philosophy when it comes to curbing the gambling mania: cure is better than prevention. An increasing number of countries are offering licenses to online gambling and betting companies. Earlier, gambling companies had to start operations in tax havens like Gibraltar and Malta to register an online betting company.
In Europe, Great Britain started the trend of offering licenses to the online gambling in 2005. Many countries followed suit, mainly in search of tax money from the gambling companies during the times of economic crisis in the latter half of the 2000s. Now, Italy, France, Sweden, Germany, and even Romania, among others, offer license to online gambling and betting companies.
Even in countries like the USA and China, where online betting and gambling are not legalized, a large number of people enjoy online gambling from home. The governments of Britain, Canada and Italy conduct regular awareness programs as a part of their healthcare activities. It involves training classes, motivation sessions and actual medical intervention.
Many Europeans governments suffer from a kind of gambling problem of their own. They do not want to lose the tax money from online gambling companies; they do not want their citizens to become gambling addicts either. All they can tell their subjects is this: do your gambling, but don’t get obsessed with it. In fact, it is a fair advice.
