Is gambling a pastime or addiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Is gambling a pastime or addiction - Essay Example Prediction cannot be made for all betting risks like lotteries, some slot machines and bingo but for certain other things like sports betting and horse racing, a prediction can be attempted, depending on the predictor’s expertise and insight. In the UK, there are a number of offline commercial gambling kinds available such as lotto, bingo, card games, sports-related betting, non-sports betting, scratch cards, roulette, slot machines, and football pools and spread betting (Griffiths, 2009). In the UK, the terms â€Å"problem gambling† and â€Å"pathological gambling† have been employed in a number of studies to explain gambling that affects the person and family life of the gambler. The general term â€Å"Prevalence† is used for process addictions, which is the epidemiological term for the number of people addicted to a specific problem. In the field of process addictions, only problem gambling has so far produced prevalence estimates (Griffiths, 2009). Various societies have distinct societal concepts of social problems, as in Canada beliefs and values vary on when gambling is to be seen as a problem and the causes behind it. It is not easy to define process addictions, for instance, when gambling is a harmless pastime and when is it addictive (Firth, 2010). The American Psychiatric Association (APA) identified gambling as actually a pathological disorder in the 1980. Even Freud (1929/1950) had researched problem gambling but remained inadvertent about its prediction. According to APA, gambling is a rising psychological disorder, featured by emotional addiction, lack of control and attached negative repercussions in the gamblers’ academic, social, or vocational life. Other popular names for pathological gambling are compulsive gambling and addictive gambling (Jean, 2000). In addictive gambling, the person shows a recurrent and continued disorder of dysfunctional behaviours by remaining busy in gambling. The person wants to put at the risk greater sum of money to attain increased stimulation. Continuous striving is seen to curb, check and/or stop gambling. Feeling of restlessness or irritating behaviour is observed when striving to check or curb the habit of gambling. For an addictive gambler, gambling becomes an escape-route from mood shifts. An addictive gambler reverts back to equalise the loss. Such a person attempts not to disclose the level of engagement with gambling. Wrong means are sought to arrange funds for gambling. Gambling when it becomes an addiction causes the loss of one’s aim in life pertaining to the relationship, scholarship or career. Dependence on others for maintaining status increases with the prevalence of gambling, as a gambler needs financial support due to shortage of funds. The only criterion segregating addictive behaviour is the presence of bipolar disorder. The debate over whether gambling is an addiction or pass time, (Kusyszyn, 1980) has been hyped out of proportion. For instance, many years back, a popular suggest columnist used to publish an article by a doctor explaining that gambling â€Å"could not possibly† be addictive (Jean, 2000). Viewing the perspective of this physician, functions like gambling, stealing and outward expression of sexual behaviours do not engage substance intake and that’s why they are not addictions. Instead, the physician debated, they are generally representations of manic depressiveness although mania is an external recognition for the presence of gambling disorders. Had it been true, then most of the gambling patients would have been managed with lithium, which is not so (Jean, 2000). Those who support gambling as mere pass time and question