By Jackie, Researcher
Topic: Society (Gambling)
The objectives of this research are to find out what are the most
common adverse effects of gambling. There are mainly five effects under this
discussion: change in behavior; mental and physical health issues; disrupt school
or work activities; financial problems; and family and marital disturbance.
Each effect is analyzed clearly with practical real-life examples.
Research Essay
INTI International College Subang
Negative Effects Of Gambling
Adam, a
typical middle-aged American, works as an engineer at a construction site in
New York. He was married and has two lovely kids. His monthly income is barely
sufficient to support his family of four in a moderate way. One day, he heard
about the news that his friends had won thousands of dollars by betting in a
nearby illegal gambling center. He was so attracted and influenced by the news.
After a careful consideration, he had decided to give a try in gambling because
if he wins, he can release the financial burden as well as to improve the
standard of living of his family. So, he started to gamble. Unfortunately, he
became addicted to gambling and his attitudes have changed gradually. He starts
to smoke cigarette, drink alcohol and return home lately. His health begins to
deteriorate. He suffers from migraine and gastric pain as he did not consumes
his meals on time. Due to excess loss of money in gambling, he had borrowed a
sum of money from unlicensed loan sharks to settle his gambling debts. The
loan’s interest rate was so high until he has to sell off his cars and houses.
At work, he was unable to concentrate on his job, often do errors and sometimes
absent to work without a valid reason. As a result, he was fired. At home, he always
argues and quarrels with his wife over a small matter. Sometimes, his wife gets
beaten by him too. Few months later, his wife cannot tolerate with him anymore.
As a result, his wife together with his two kids has left him alone. Adam is
now jobless and homeless. More and more, addiction to gambling can lead to a
change in behaviour, cause serious mental and physical health problems, disrupt
school and work activities, increase financial problems, and create disharmony
in the family.
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Although genetics play an important role in the
development of problem gambling in both women and men,
but the researchers
found no evidence of gender differences in the causes of problem gambling.
|
Addiction to
gambling can lead to a change in mindset, behaviour and attitude. In The Star (‘The adverse effects of
gambling’ 2006, p. 23), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) states that
one could become a dishonest person who has to constantly worry about debts.
According to MCPF (2006), whenever a gambler becomes obsessed with gambling,
the gambler will do anything including criminal activities like robbing and
stealing as long as he or she can gamble. According to the article, gambling
addiction can cause negative changes on one attitude such as bad-tempered,
withdrawn, neglectful, irrational and irresponsible plus adverse changes in
habit like tendency to return home lately and increase in alcohol consumption.
Meanwhile, lying, making excuses and becoming more secretive are some of the
common ways for gamblers to cover up their gambling act and financial problems.
A research done by MCPF had shown that gambling can also encourage one to start
smoking and taking alcoholic drinks because it can lower down their stress
level and pressure. Besides, gamblers also might tend to isolate themselves
from their friends and family as a way to hide or carry out their act. However,
this will weaken gambler interpersonal interaction and communication with
family members and friends, thus creating more misunderstanding and arguments.
All in all, gambling is proven to have a tendency to alter one’s thinking and
personality.
It is noted that as gambling escalates, other activities become
constricted. Social activities, family interactions and leisure pursuits
diminish in frequency, quality and satisfaction as the gambler becomes
increasingly detached from interpersonal interaction, isolated and encapsulated
in her/his own preoccupation with thoughts of the next session of
betting/gaming and where to obtain funds to fuel her/his habits (Lesieur, 1979)
 |
Researchers
have found out that highly-addicted gamblers usually isolates themselves and
like to be alone.
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Secondly,
gambling can cause mental health issues and physical health problems. According
to a study conducted by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), mental
health issues include stress, anxiety and depression which will actually cause
a gambler to have more difficulty to sleep, think and solve problems. So,
gamblers will tend to smoke more as well as to increase in alcohol consumption
and possible drug usage to solve these problems. The study also shows severe
problem gamblers will have a possible risk of self-harming behaviour such as
suicide attempt. Petry (2006) states that addicted gamblers will have the
possibility to get insomnia, headaches, back or neck pain, high blood pressure,
digestive problems and gastric. She says physical health problems of a gamble
is normally disrupted by inappropriate eating time, insufficient exercises and
unbalanced sleeping hours. Pathological gamblers were
more than twice as likely as people without gambling problems to have angina
and nearly three times more likely to have liver disease. They were also almost
twice as likely to suffer from tachycardia, an excessively rapid heartbeat (US
Federal Survey on Psychiatric Disorders 2006).
 |
One of the reasons why gambler tends to smoke more and
increase in
alcohol consumption is to reduce pressure and stress.
|
Besides, for students or
workers, gambling can also disrupt both school and work activities. The Council
on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania (CCGP 2003) reported that students who
are addicted to gambling will tend to increase unexplained absences from
school, use school lunch money for gambling, drop in academic performance,
unable to pay attention in class, and interrupt their educational goals.
Meanwhile, for gambling-addicted workers, Colorado Lottery (CL 2007) warns that
they can disrupt working activities through lost in time, lost in productivity,
and in desperate situations, the gambler may resort to theft. Working hours are
wasted as gamblers use them for gambling purposes like calling bookies for
betting and searching gambling results using company’s computer while
productivity is lessen as the gambler becomes unreliable, misses project
deadlines and important meeting and produces poor working quality. In addition,
the inability and inefficiency in working caused by gambling addiction can lead
to dismissal. Meanwhile, severe gambling-addicted workers might resort to
theft.
Employees with severe problems may commit theft, fraud or
embezzlement. Money is the gambler’s key to action. Once all legitimate avenues
to obtain cash are exhausted, the gambler, in desperation, may resort to
illegal acts to acquire case. The workplace becomes a primary avenue for the
gambler to illegally finance their gambling. Gamblers do not see this activity
as stealing. They see it as “borrowing money” and plan to replace it when they
win (Oregon Department of Human Services 2007).
Another common adverse effect of addiction on gambling is
financial problems. Oak (2009) claims that if a gambling-addicted worker is
fired from his or her job, then he or she will lose his or her main source of
income due to job loss. Consequently, this will lead to an inability to pay
bills, expenses and loans. On the other hand, banks might blacklist poor payment
gamblers account but this does not stopped them to borrow money from loan
sharks or illegal moneylenders to cover losses and continue betting. For
instance, many loan shark cases have been reported in Malaysia during recent
FIFA World Cup matches where some gamblers have to sell off their assets like
houses and cars to settle off their debts. Severe loss of money in gambling can
results in bankruptcy.
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Financial
problems are the most common effect of gambling.
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Family and marital disturbances
are a common end result of a seriously addicted gambler. Lorenz and
Shuttleworth (1993) highlighted that fluctuation in mood states, lying and
failure to meet obligation lead to marital friction and family disharmony. They
found out that unchanged bad attitudes, repeated deceit and broken promises
will undermine the sense of trust of a spouse towards the gambler. Meanwhile,
they also point out that lack of funds to support children and the home,
potential loss of assets and savings, frequent absences at home and neglecting
family members can lead to frequent arguments and separation.
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Family quarrel usually will happen where the
gamblers used to be blamed for causing family and
marital disturbances, and the
most innocent party in this kind of situation is their kids.
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In conclusion, these are the five
major consequences that can happen frequently in highly-addicted gamblers. As
we can see it, the degree of severity depends on how addicted a gambler is
which could be found through a change in character as well as other adverse
effects caused by them. Many people agree that gambling will not only affect
the gambler alone but also creates a lot of trouble to his or her friends and
family as well as to the society and community. However, the consequences
caused by gambling can be avoided via personal awareness or by getting involved
in other more beneficial and meaningful activities. Among the suggestions is to
focus on spiritual development, take up sports or a hobby, or do some charity
work. Therefore, it is important for us to limit or control, but the best is to
avoid gambling activities.
References
Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) 2010, The
effects of gambling on family, viewed 24 July 2012, http://www.problemgambling.ca/EN/GettingHelp/Pages/TheEffectsOfGambling.aspx
Colorado
Lottery (CL) 2007, Problem gambling and
the workplace, viewed 24 July 2012, http://www.coloradolottery.com/documents/ProblemGambling/Workplace%20Gambling.pdf
Council on
Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania (CCGP 2003), Talking to students about gambling, viewed 24 July 2012, http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us/files/compulsive/ccgp_docs/CCGP_Talking_to_Students_About_Gambling.pdf
Lesieur, H
1979, Psychiatry: The compulsive
gambler’s spiral of option and involvement, pp.79-87.
Lorenz, V
& Shuttleworth, D 1983, The impact of pathological gambling on the spouse
of the gambler, Journal of Community
Psychology, vol.11, pp.67-76.
Malaysia
Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) 2006, The
adverse effects of gambling, viewed 7 July 2012, http://thestar.com.my/fightcrime/resources/story.asp?file=/2006/3/11/resources/20060316165242&sec=resources
Oak, M 2009, Negative effects of gambling, viewed 25
July 2012, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/negative-effects-of-gambling.html
Oregon
Department of Human Services (ODHS) 2007, Problem
gambling on the job. How you can help your work force, p.2, viewed 24 July
2012, http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/addiction/gambling/workplace-brochure.pdf?ga=t
Petry, N
2006, Problem gamblers may have poorer health, viewed 25 July 2012, http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw116507160221B243
