Gambling is a popular pastime, and one that millions of people enjoy from time to time without having any problems. However, it has been estimated that over 300,000 people in the UK are considered to have a gambling problem and, rather worryingly, this figure seems to be rising every year. While gambling does not carry any physical health risks as such, a serious gambling addiction can place a great strain on your personal relationships, cause problems at home and at work, and lead to financial ruin.
Compulsive gambling is a type of impulse-control disorder, where the person cannot control the impulse to gamble even when they know that it is causing them and their loved ones great distress. Unlike other addictions, gambling problems are a lot easier to hide, partly due to the lack of physical symptoms, and partly due to the fact that it is relatively easy to keep it a secret, or at least minimise the extent of the problem.
The advent of online betting, via sports betting websites and online casinos, has exacerbated the issue in some ways. Prior to the online gambling explosion of the early 2000s, there was always a chance that you would be seen coming out of a betting shop or casino, or overheard on the telephone to a bookmaker. The internet has made it a lot easier to gamble in secret, as it can be done silently at any hour of the day or night, wherever you are. You can do it on a mobile phone, a laptop, or your computer at work, without risk of detection. Also, for many people, the internet itself can have an addictive effect, so to combine this with gambling can in many ways magnify the problem.
It remains to be seen whether the latest wave of online casinos, known as 'live' casinos, will make online gambling even more addictive. They certainly seem to have a broader appeal than the online casinos that we have become accustomed to in recent years. Instead of the faceless random number generators utilised by traditional online casinos to produce their results, live casinos use human dealers, relayed via a live video stream to online players. Players can chat with the dealer, and with each other, via instant messaging, and this partly recreates the social aspect of being in a real, brick and mortar casino.
Being able to see a real roulette wheel being spun, or real cards being dealt, is certainly more of an involving experience than its virtual equivalent, and this, combined with the element of social interaction, could make gamers more inclined to come back time and time again. However, it could be argued that these same factors might provoke more self-awareness on the part of the players, preventing them from sleepwalking into dangerous behavioural patterns. While the advent of live casinos will without doubt create its fair share of live casino addicts, it is hard to say whether those same people would have ended up having a similar problem with a different form of gambling.
If you have trouble controlling your gambling, feel the need to be secretive about it, or find yourself gambling more than you can afford to lose, then you may have a gambling problem. For confidential advice and support, call your local branch of Gamblers Anonymous (http://www.gamblersanonymous.org.uk/).
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