Introduction
Gambling involves three things including the stakes, prize and the result. The stakes include things of value that are placed by the parties involved. The prize is the valuable thing that participants opt to win after betting. The result is the outcome of the event that determines who wins and who loses. Any activity involving the three aspects is gambling. The term gambling can be described as a situation where at least two parties risk money or things of value in games, contests, or any other related event. The parties then wait for the outcome as either a loser or a winner. Some examples of gambling events betting such as horse races or sporting events; playing casino games for money; buying lottery tickets; prize draws participations and participating in newspaper competitions (Collins, 2003, p. 15).
How gambling has evolved
This study has been designed on the premise that gambling has one of the most negative and powerful impacts on youths in society. It is a downward spiral, which harms the society both psychologically and financially. Over the past century and a half, gambling has evolved from being a furtive back-street activity to a multimillion-pound gambling industry. Governments of many nations are using legalized gambling as a source of revenue, and the citizens have accepted it as a source of entertainment.
Unlike in the olden days where gambling event was organized once in a while and people had to wait for next events, today, the activity is on for 24 hours with instant results and people do not have to wait for too long (Fabiansson, 2010, p. 142).
The gambling industry has both negative and positive consequences. For instance, Casinos attract tourism and create new jobs. On the other hand, they allure crime and problem gamblers. Gambling is prominent in today’s society. It entertains, but can also have disastrous effect on a person’s life (Thompson, 2001, p. 437).
Research study
Gambling has been on the rise since the 1990s. In Britain, a research by the British Gambling Prevalence Survey was drawn in 2007 by experts at the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR). It was found that there was an increment in the number of people gambling within the UK. The number of people betting for the last report increased from 63% to 73% between 2006 and 2007 respectively. In their comments to the survey authors, the majority claimed that they were gambling for fun. Others said that they were doing it to try out their chances of winning big money (Spapens, Littler & Fijnaut, 2008, p. 37).
The analysts discovered that people in Great Britain were gambling in different ways with a small number of them gaming online. The majority, almost 60% of adults within the UK participated in the National lottery. In the contrast, the report found that the people betting by predicting scores and no scores in football dropped from 9% to 4 % between 1999 and 2010 respectively.
The reasoning behind the researchers’ decision to focus on the social and financial factors of gambling within the UK is because of the significant increase in gambling-related problems within Britain. In order to know whether gamblers had a problem, the statisticians used two different and complex measures to measure them. They surveyed for several behaviors of gamblers wanting to recover their stakes back (chasing losses). In the process of the gamblers chasing their losses, the statisticians learnt that gamblers could make more bets in trying to win their stakes back, or even find themselves in robbery when they lacked the stakes to gamble. In many cases, the gamblers found themselves being exploited (Berleur, 2010, p. 19).
The gambling commission chairman, Brian Pomeroy, announced that the British population had problems with gambling. When asked about the steps he took on realizing that there was a gambling problem, the commissioner said that the commission was determined to take control of gambling in ensuring that the risks of those individual were minimized . The commission also ensured that the majority of people could then gamble without fear of their life safety. The Salvation Army was against this idea, and it went ahead to file a case against the gambling industry. It called for the government action to intervene so that the industry could be stopped from growing.
Gambling includes playing lotteries, betting on horses, and casino betting of high stakes. The casinos fall into the leisure activities. Most casino venues are business centered. The venues provide restaurant services, great music, and classy bars. In contrast to being an entertaining game for many people, gambling has negative impacts to people especially on their finances. Some individuals suffer from a gambling addiction, which can ruin their financial and personal lives (Wardle, 2007, p. 17).
Negative impacts on today’s society (both psychological and financial)
Gambling was started long time ago, but is now everywhere. Gambling is conducted in various places such as casinos internet and electronic machines among many other places. Since the time of its innovation, gambling has never had chances of being easily accessed and ever available (Rule & Sibanyoni, 2000, p. 21).
As has been noted, gambling can lead to a serious addiction problem. It can lead to financial instability of an individual. Once the problem gambling strikes into a person’s life, it takes control over his or her life. It affects their home life, work environment, performance and their parenthood (in this case, being good parents). People affected with problem gambling find themselves under pressure that may force them into sourcing money through illegal means (Volberg, 2001, p. 121).
The literature review
Many people view gambling as a way of risking money in order to make money. However, people who have won the valuable stakes do not stop playing and those who have lost do not stop gambling. The youths in the society are also victims of gambling. According to the research done by Derevensky in 2012, it was noted that there are various reasons as to why the youths engage themselves in gambling. The majority of them did it for enjoyment. Others engaged in gambling to make money. Others indulged in gambling for excitement, relations, and hide from daily problems. Still, others engaged in gambling as a social activity and have a feeling of being mature. It was noted that there were varied reasons as to why the youths engaged in gambling (Derevensky, 2012, p. 76).
Notably, many people do not want to be associated with gambling. However, there are circumstances that force them into gambling. For example, gambling can occur on a continuum with many individuals not engaging in the act at all. In additions, there are those individuals who gamble once in a while, or those engaging in the activity many times and experiencing minimum negative financial or social consequences. Gamblers who gamble frequently with valuable stakes and cannot even stick to their pre-set limits of time and the stakes may find themselves in severe problems. The gambling related problems impact on individuals differently. Some of them may lose control once. This may spell their fate because of their episodic and short lived control loss. To others, losing control may be a progressive disorder. The gambling disorder has been given many names. For example, it is also called pathological gambling, problem gambling, compulsive gambling, or disordered gambling. When individuals get addicted to gambling, they cause many problems to themselves including emotional, familial, psychological, interpersonal, financial and legal problems (Grant &Potenza, 2004, p. 4).
Since many people are exposed to gambling, knowing that it is about taking risks and controls, they get attracted into trying their luck. The losers tend to keep on trying while appreciating that the activity is a game. In the process, both the winners and losers blindly find themselves so much into the game that it gets harder for them to quit. They become addicts of gambling (Bledsoe, 2004, p. 86).
In most cases, the youths are the most affected by the gambling activity. According to the research by Derevensky in 2012, it is evident that the adolescents get exposure to gambling early before they start experimenting with cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, drug use, or engaging in sexual activities. A research by Griffiths and Sutherland in 1998 discovered that many youths between the age of 11 years and 16 years engaged themselves in gambling at least once a week; they often smoked cigarettes; got drunk with alcohol regularly and took illegal drugs. From this research, it is clear that the youths are at high risk of being affected by problem gambling. In this scenario, it is advisable to approach the issue from the perspective of psychology and not from a financial perspective. Through the psychological perspective, one can handle matters that are related to emotions. For example, in that situation, emotional control could be more important than financial gains in understanding gamblers (Beilstein, 1979, p. 305).
According to the research by Poland and Graham in 2011, eudaimonia is chased by addicts for some reasons which include; to be alive, to find definition and accomplish in order to feel good. All these meant that there are situations that people can find themselves soo much in need of something that without it, they can never take other remedies. In our case here, gambling being an addictive activity can make one to favor it more than his or her health, money, friends and even love. Gambling can be correlated with other addictive activities like; use of tobacco, consuming drugs and taking alcohol. (Sirgy, 2012, p.38)
Understanding ones self control and how the processes that constitutes self directed or self governed behavior has been an ageless problem in the theory of human action and agency. According to the theorists, we can best understand self control by recognizing its failure or absence and then analyze and compare its presence with its absence. Many are the times people assume the addictive behaviors and take them as prototypical moments of behaviors that are not truly self controlled and that lack self governance. (Wengler, 2006, p.127).
Pathological gamblers are so much into the gambling activity that they put their all; the personal relationships, occupational status and financial stability at risk. These types of people are so hard to handle. Regardless of the increase of family and financial distress, they continue to gamble. It is like the gambling controls them since it is difficult for them to control their urge to gamble. The pathological gamblers in most cases tend to gamble with valuable steaks or high amounts of money in order to satisfy their urges for entertainment and pleasure. Their tendency or behavior of putting gambling in the fore front other than thinking of their personal, occupational and financial wellbeing is what makes them to be identified as great risk takers or sensational seekers. (Galski, 1987, p.39)
Problem gambling make people suffer because of the need to gamble and the obsessive behavior. Firstly, maintaining their personal health becomes a problem. Some of the experienced symptoms by the pathological gamblers include; depressive moods, insomnia, anxiety, headache and stomach problems. Another problem is their responsibilities in their careers. According to the research studies, many people have lost their jobs and those who are fortunate to remain in the work place perform poorly in production due to reporting to the work place late than required, failing to attend to jobs (absenteeism) and getting preoccupied with gambling. (Dickerson, 1984, p.38)
In gambling literature, the terms; problem gamblers, pathological or compulsive gamblers are used interchangeably. They are used to used to define a disorder which is characterized by a loss of control over gambling, serious disruptions of families and jobs, theft cases and losses or attempts to win back stakes (money) that has been lost while in the gamble.
Secondary research
Secondary researches are used to provide a context of framework for analysis and interpretation of findings. In this context, we will use some articles and journals which are related to behaviors and characteristics of gamblers as well as the facts and figures on how the gambling behavior have been evolving from past years to the present time.
As we have seen earlier, problem gambling impacts individuals, especially those who are addicted to it, negatively. It damages their physical and mental health, their employment, finances and personal relationships. It is correlated with depression, alcoholism and other addictive activities linked with obsessive and compulsive behaviors. A good example is a story of Eugene Farrar, a gambling addict who lost over a £100,000 in gambling. (Saroyan, 1975, p.465).
The number of people engaging themselves in the gambling activity is increasing year after year. According to the most recent British Gambling Prevalence Survey that we discussed earlier, there are an estimated 450,000 problem gamblers in the UK. The number of the problem gamblers is on the rise. For instance, they measured and confirmed that in the year 2007, 0.6 % of the population was for the problem gamblers. The number increased to 0.9 % in 2010. A further 3.5 million people were grouped as gamblers at risk. The BBC reported that an approximate of 73 % adult had gambled in the previous year. This was an increase from 63 % that was reported in 2007. (Great Britain, 2012, p.10).
The Recent statistics about young people (students) in Britain
Today in Britain, young people in societies grow up knowing that gambling is accepted for entertainment and leisure activity. They participate frequently in gambling activities more than in other addictive activities e. g smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. A research in Canada concluded that young people are more likely to engage in gambling at much earlier age than they may engage in drugs or alcohol. Unlike other nations of the world, young people in the UK are allowed to gamble legally on various categories of fruit and slot. Children aged16 years can also play lottery. In the UK, Students are risk in the activity to get money for paying college debts. (Andrews & Haythornthwaite, 2007, p.105).
In an article, GamShare issue 2, spring 2010, research on young people and problem gambling, it reported that the quite a good number of youths in UK had problem gambling. The research read that 2 % of children aged between 12 and 15 years and 0.9 % aged between 16 and 24 years had problem gambling. The above figures indicate that around 127,500 youths had problem gambling in the UK. (Reilly & Schweihs, 1999, p.265)
The statistics show that there are several gambling mediums which have emerged. The availability of gambling has been on the increase. Previously, one had to go and seek for the activity but currently the activity (gambling) is available almost everywhere.
The statistics of UK alone in 2000 show that approximately 70 % of the population gambles every year. An overall expenditure of £7.3 billion is spent annually leading to an annual expenditure of around £155. The industry of gambling alone takes a turn over of 42 billion and contributes a sum of £1530 million roughly in gambling duties and taxation on the government. From these statistics, the increasing interest in gambling is evident, as the statistics continue to rise. The question why many people turn to gambling arises as a result of this.
A research by Credit Action shows that that nearly one in 10 adults in the UK has used gambling in an attempt to manage their finances and make extra money. Recession is very instrumental to the adult’s idea which makes them to develop a sense of urgency in trying to make extra money due to the country’s economy. A good example is the case of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG). It reported a record dividend from its casinos and lotteries of more than $6billion for the 2010-11 fiscal years. Much of this money though came out of the pockets of Ontario’s estimated 300,000 problem gamblers. In Leeds, one of the Britain’s poorest streets, statistics show that 5 billion was gambled.
A report, Gambling addiction and its treatment within the National Health Service, by British Medical Association was published in 2007. It outlined that there were many types of treatment interventions for problem gambling including counselling, psychotherapy, cognitive- behavioral therapy, advisory services, residential care, pharmacotherapy, and multimodal treatment. However, the report noted that there were almost no treatment services available for problem gamblers within the NHS. The BMA recommended that more funding be provided by the gambling industry to fund research, prevention, intervention and treatment programs.
Conclusion
Other than being an activity that is a source of revenue for the government, creating jobs, improving people’s way of living, raising economies of nations and many more, gambling has so many negative impacts to societies all over the world. Once the problem gambling strikes in to a person’s life, it takes control over their lives. It affects their home life, their work environment, their performance in production and to make it worse, their parenthood (in this case, being good parents). People affected with problem gambling find themselves in pressures which may force them into sourcing money through illegal means.
People can best understand their self control by recognizing its failure or absence and then analyze and compare its presence with its absence. Many are the times people assume the addictive behaviors and take them as prototypical moments of behaviors that are not truly self controlled and that lack self governance.
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