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Considering the gambling addiction ratio in a country is increasing rapidly, what are the best possible solutions the citizens or government of that nation can implement to deal with the problem. Before you jump right into suggesting, the government should ban/tag gambling related activities as illegal in the country, you should understand that running away from a problem don't actually solve that problem. Beside proposing a ban on gambling only encourages the citizens of that nation to gamble illegally.

Banning gambling is not going to solve the problem indeed. People just go to the other countries and play there and when they do that the government is going to lose lots of tax income too.

I believe it is all about educating people. It people can grow a well established consciousness over the years since the day they were born, it is easy to deal with any kind of addiction.

Addicts usually have one thing in common, they have no idea what they are doing. It is like there is a barrier between their eyes and brains which causes a malfunction. That's my observation anyway.

That's right, but gambling will probably never be banned in countries because they also benefit with taxes and royalties.
In addition to all the gambling addiction that exists in this business, there are plenty of facilities to treat them if anyone is really stuck in the gambling addiction.
Most everything is controlled by the business industry.

I don't think my country can ban gambling as one of the sports betting company's owner is a member of legislation. Some of the people making laws also have gambling websites and businesses. In a way, I don't see anything wrong with gambling or betting as many people especially the owner treat it as business and before you became addicted to it you must have taken it too far.

Gamblers itself are the problem.

No matter how serious the government to stop all gambling activities to save people from being an unresponsible, shit, addicted gambler in the future, we have a human nature that we will do anything just to make us a fun or finds an easy way to make a big money.

In case of a total gambling ban, only the regulated gambling companies will be closed including online bettings. However, there are other gambling types that are not regulated and that will still continue.

There are gambling rehabilitation centers on some of the country that is putting so much effort to save an addicted gambler. But for a start, family and friends of those gambling addict must start the first move to help their loved ones survived the worst effect of doing gambling.

This is more of a personal problem. Aside from regulating the gambling industry, I don't know if there's anything else they can do to prevent the addiction. Maybe requiring casinos to impose limitations on how much a gambler can bet?

I don't think a country can introduce a one size fits all solution to the problem of gambling addiction. Each gambler has their own habit of playing thus rendering some of the steps not applicable to some people who have different approach in gambling. The government can ban gambling any way they like, but if the problem goes deeper than the roots of the addict is, then I don't think there's really a way to control it in a large sample in a single country. Best thing to do is to just put rehabilitation centers and treat gambling addiction as somewhat identical to mental health problems and help the gambler go from there, but that's just my opinion.

Any country that prohibits gambling would cut its own meat.
And everywhere you look at it says "gambling can be addictive, play at your own risk"!

I don't think there's a formula to handle this, because a person who are addicted to gambling is the same as a person who are addicted to alcohol or smoking, and governments and families are trying to deal with this for a long time
Some people are more easy to become addict, and the only thing that comes in my head in psychological treatment
No advertising of governments, or prohibition

Maybe that's one solution but I doubt casinos will limit how much you will spend on them. I have never heard a casino limiting a certain gambler as they want to spend you more on them. But if in case in the future, they decided to help an addicted gambler, what they can do is give certain limits to them and be firm with that decision. And all the surrounding casinos should do the same. Because if not, the gambler will just hop on in each and every casino he can play with.

Gambling is a natural activity, what leads to a problem is the over commitment of money that is not spare or able to be lost without a problem.    The correct education is in money management, many are so bad with money they only manage via their wife paying all their bills.   If they have no wife to force proper use of wages they suffer the poor use of money on drinking and many wasteful forms of spending.  
   Children can be educated on correct household economics in school and this will in turn solve many problems in a country from poor use of capital.

Increasing the tax rates for the rewards we are making from gambling can make the people to stay away from it at some extent because most of the gamblers are doing to for money so when they need to give half the rewards to the government in the form of tax if there is a win but when we lose its completely on our head.

Theres no other way rather than banning and I do agree that this would lead somehow to illegal gambling but at least it wont really rampant just like before when it isn't still banned.

So banning would be the nearest thing to be done if a country would like to protect its citizen on possible gambling addiction.

I think this will have no effect.  People will still play in gambling casinos.  Remember it is an easy money if they win, so they won't mind paying high taxes for it.  I believe it is best for the government to tightly monitor the gambling activity in their country.  The government must implement a daily allowable amount of money to gamble in a casino, and punish both the operator and the player if they don't follow this rule.  The allowable amount to gamble is dependent on the certain percentage of monthly earning of the player.  This way, they will at least limit a players overspending in gambling activities.

Banning gambling is impossible in our country because most of the shareholders or even owners of the casinos are from the government, so that is why no one has ever suggested the ban because they know it’ll just a waste of time. Also, casino cannot be blame for addiction because it is originated from the gambler, they can claim they opened just for entertainment but never forced someone to be addicted, so basically so long as casinos follow the law and don’t do anything against it then the government can ban it.

For me the best solution is don’t gamble at all fo you not to be addicted, gambling is a very dangerous game to play most especially if you don’t have self control because you’ll surely end up in addiction so if you know you can’t control yourself then don’t enter into gambling. Also, proper education of pros and cons can also be good but gamblers are humans they can still be addicted if they don’t control themselves. For me banning can be the best solution because gamblers will always find a way to gamble no matter what.

Gambling has been in existence in various forms ever since humanity is born on this Earth.
So banning will not do any good for this aspect of life of humankind.
Regulation might help but addiction to gambling is a personal choice and that individual can change his path by his own will, with the help of people surrounding him that truly care for his well-being.

I believe the best solution for gambling addiction is self-awareness and educating the young ones about the cause and effect of playing gambling. It should all starts in ourselves that we should discipline ourselves first before preaching others, especially to the young ones. Gambling is already in there before those children were born, parents and teachers should teach those children of how gambling or any kind of addiction is dangerous to them.

For me, I would not stop gambling since you will not be able to stop people from gambling, that is the nature of human. We will be ending up addicted in one thing at some point and it is ourselves that is responsible for that and not the government. Higher taxes, that is the solution of most of the countries to prevent gamblers from gambling, but still, they keep in gambling. I think the only body responsible for the gamblers here is the casinos and not the government since they can't stop people from going in and out of casinos.

Also dont forget if they ban gambling on the countrys they all will gambling on the internet if they dont doing this already .
The industrie is to big for that and they will find always a way to get at some peoples everywhere around the world !

In my country, illegal gambling is prohibited by our government but gamblers never stop their activities since too many places for them to play gambling. I don't think to ban the gambling will be effective as long as there are no directives and advises from the government related to the harms of gambling to the society.  

As what others said, a quality financial education for every people. Let them know the risks of gambling.

Speaking about the government. Here in our country, last week, they banned the major and popular lottery.
Almost 5 days banned, a lot of people got angry on the government because of banning the lottery and some are thankful because some of them are totally got rekt on the lottery reason is they are totally wasting their money because ever since they don't win even a single penny.
And another reason why the government banned it because it was suspected that the lottery was the source of CORRUPTION or within its system it has corruption happening. And now, the ban already lift.

For me, we can't really stop gambling, it's already on the nature of every people.

The government should just take over the lottery instead of banning it, the lottery might as well help contribute to the tax revenue intake and help the common people indirectly by relieving their wages of some of the burdens greater taxes would bring otherwise.

Banning gambling is not the solution, once a gambler always a gambler and it will just put the situation worst if they will gamble in an illegal way. People knew already the risks but they only want to take that risks to earn more money. We can't blame them, for most of the gamblers thought that gambling is an easy money scheme.  Taxes will not be the hindrance if a person wanted to gamble, they will not think of the tax.

I think limiting to gamble is the best thing a casino can do, but they are a casino so...

This is the only thing they can do so they can minimize the future losses of gamblers and future profits of the casino. Government can't stop gamblers, that is why the casino is the only one can and also the gamblers themselves.

No, removing the root is always the best solution for ridding of the problem. For example, if the drainage system is blocked with garbage, the best solution would be cleaning the drainage or try to expand it? Of course the first one. I hope you got what I mean :). 

Rebutting the loss of tax income? Nah, there are still many sources available. There are the tariffs on imported products, government-run lotteries and tax from private corporations. I think it's better to sacrifice the fraction of total tax income in exchange of healthy countrymen.
Indeed. That's why parental guidance is vital in this matter, parents are the one who should guide their children on doing good deed first and foremost. With this plus the seminars conducted by private and public sectors about gambling addiction awareness, for sure they can build a more well-oriented community.

In my country gambling recognized as illegal activities because my government banned gambling but it was not avoid people to being an addicted gambling because they still can gamble without the authorities know it and i think give early educations to childs about gambling advantages, long term effect, and maybe other gambling disadvantages which is lead people to being an addiction will be more effective rather than banned gambling

I guess banning gambling for temporary could be a good solution, but I see that is not what we see in reality. Because if a country ban the casino but they allow their elite people to play, that will be jealous in their people, and that can make a demo in their people.

The government can prohibited gambling for younger people, especially for people who are not ready with their minds. And maybe there is a psychology test for people before they gamble. So they can prevent from the addiction and the other problem. If the gambling rules can be tightened up, I guess it would help people from preventing the addiction.

Why not limit the gambling days and instead of total ban it should be only accessible during weekends. Cockfighting is the way most people gamble here in my municipality but the mayor banned it, the people look for other place where to gamble, totally it can't be stopped. I see to put a limitation over gambling might be a good solution.

Government can only put taxes on gambling if they allow the gambling in their country. Many countries have declared gambling illegal so they cant charge any taxes on gambling. Gambling addiction cannot be controlled because people gamble anonymously online which is hidden from the government and from the parents also.

Very nice ideas but I think governments may not do that and remember that governments also do benefit from the gambling companies through tax and reducing the time or days that people play gambling may affect this benefit to governments. In my country it is not a bad thing to play gambling and there is no law prohibited any individual not to open gambling businesses. In fact some of our politicians do open sport betting central as a constituency projects! We should only advise people to play gambling with the money they can part with and maybe report perceived addicted person to government’s agencies for rehabilitation.

All right, let us crush out declaring gambling illegal. Although this might be the most effective way to really discourage gambling addiction, this has also a huge disadvantage to the country. After all, the revenue coming from gambling is so significant that it would be a big loss to the national coffers if it is outrightly declared as such.

What are we left now? I have several ideas. But I'll just provide 5 for now.

• The issuance of gambling permits and licenses should be tightened. Gambling businesses should not be as ubiquitous as it is today.
• Gamblers should apply and register themselves as well as their financial capacity when joining a gambling establishment.
• Gambling establishments should follow strict business hours. 24 hours gambling is not allowed.
• Gamblers should have a permit coming from their spouse. Families are often left out to the sidelines due to gambling addiction.
• Gambling establishments will have to set a maximum loss to gamblers according to their category, which will be determined by their financial capacity.

@CryptopreneurBrainboss, please edit the thread title, it should be "addiction", not "addition".

That's not an easy task doing individual requirement, if a gamblers wants to gamble, he can do that online and just fine a way to gamble anonymously.
Government does not only take action if there is no alarming results of gambling, if they see that gambling is already rampant and it already affected lives especially the poor ones, the best solution to that is just to ban gambling, and I think some countries have already done that.

Not in our municipality's case as our Mayor totally bans cockfighting and even the newly constructed building for such gambling has been closed and even card games have been prohibited, though there are still doing it in a secretive way some are still punished if caught on the act. Our Mayor is a woman and totally not into gambling, and right now people in our municipality feels change really is coming.

Giving the real examples of the outcome from gambling addictions to the younger generation, by taking the real experiences from previous addicts, might be more easily accepted by children so they will feel afraid to do so if one day they are tempted to try it. And for those who have already entered into it, hopefully they will be very careful not to fall into the abyss of misery by doing self-control.

Like I earlier said, placing a ban on gambling won't and can't never solved the problem. The counties that have tried this solution (banning) what effect has it had? Sure for some time, Due to fear of punishment from the government, the gamblers might take some break off gambling but on the long term infact, it only results to illegal gambling sportbooks which takes away revenue of the nation.

I'm of the opinion of enlightening the citizens on handling gamble addiction, these can be achieved through education especially in the university since most addicts are usually teenagers and young adult.

If government will push thru, it can be done and it can prevent and control the addiction to dominate inside the country, government can sort those people who will be authorized to play and makes some good rules regarding to the time frame of each events that they will participate so it will not
be tolerated that much.

I can't think of the best solution aside from banning gambling, educating people about gambling addiction is useless IMO, they won't listen, and they are matured enough to understand what addiction is, also, I don't think the government will add a curriculum just to discuss about gambling addiction, and ways to avoid and solve it.

Banning may not solve the problem, but it could minimize it.

The best way to reduce gambling addiction is not by banning gambling since it's not possible to forbid everyone from gambling, people must still gamble illegally. There are various ways the government can educate people on the risks involved in being addicted to gambling, this approach will be more effective.

I agree! there is no solution to this problem if a person is already addicted to gambling then it is up to the relatives to push him in getting therapy because that will be the solution for a person to recuperate from his addiction, And like you said there is no solution for the problem the only thing the government do is to ban gambling and to just minimize the problem and giving them an alternative solution because we can not take that out from them, preventing anyone to gambling is the only option.

You had point educatetion and knowledge how to learn self control playing in gambling is the best way to avoid people become addictive. Preach them about the negative effect of gambling if they didn't how to control greedy as gamblers.
About the gambling banning I agree isn't the solution the problems if the government banned gambling as legit a lot gamblers they play underground illegally isn't possible to them.

But it is impossible to implement in the reality.Government cannot monitor each and every people who are going to casino and how much they were spending for it.My suggestion hold some weigh because when the gambler win they need to give most to the government but if they lose they will lose everything so this can make the people to realize why they need to hold such amount of risk.

You can ban physical gambling or betting on sports which are played locally but there is no way to ban then gambling globally. I know many people are still gambling easily online while the gambling is legally not allowed in their country.

Government cannot handle the gambling addiction. It is the responsibility of the individual to know the bad effects of gambling. Those who still not understand this, will surely understand once they will lose big portion of their money in gambling.

Yeah it is not possible for government to examine all the gamblers they only can supervise an area or a city but now a day almost everyone is gambling and day by day gambling is gaining popularity. Gambling is self chosen say of earning there are millions of casinos so it is hard to prevent someone to gamble and I don't consider gambling addiction that bad

Most of the players are rich, as you can see in the casinos, some of them are mafias. It doesn't matter for them even the taxes goes high in gambling. I think the government will not give any attention to those people who are getting addicted because it's their life. Some of them are considering gambling as entertainment only so it's very complex if the government gets into it.

The most important thing is that gambling should be age restricted in every country... some countries are already doing this effectively.

Gambling addiction should be treated like general addictions...
One of the most effective ways to treat the addiction is via gradual withdrawal from gambling till you stop completely. If you are the type that gamble 7 hours a day, reduce it to 4 hours the next week... Example:
*Week One:    7 hours
*Week Two:    4 hours
*Week Three : 2 hours
*Week Four:    1 hour
*Week Five:     30 minutes
*Week Six:       10 minutes
*Week Seven :  No gambling
This will allow time for your body to adjust to your new gambling habit.

Meanwhile as you withdraw gradually, try also to gradually replace the gambling with non-addictive Fun stuff.



Note that if your regular gambling habit is paying your bills and earning you consistent income then it definitely does not qualify as addiction in my opinion.  Continue gambling but it must be a good/ethical gambling

If you let the casinos know that you have a gambling problem they will help you stop your addiction and i've heard they'll even encourage you to join a certain program. For online casinos it's the same or sometimes they even have a feature where you could ban your account for a certain time. In the end it's up to the person that's addicted if he's willing to put a stop to his own addiction or just let it continue to ruin his life.

At least, the government can use some regulations to control people who can play gambling. And perhaps, people who want to play gambling needs to have some license from the psychology or other institutions that explain that person will be responsible for everything that might happen in the gambling games. Giving educating people about the risk of playing gambling will be a good idea since many people don't realize that so they can think that there is a risk of playing gambling.

It is highly unlikely that a country will ban gambling. That is not a sound approach to address the problems of a little minority in the gambling community. There are far fewer gambling addicts compared to responsible gamblers.

Measures should be introduced by the gambling industry to address these gambling addicts and to prevent addiction to other gamblers. Responsible gambling initiatives could be launched including, but not limited to, providing hotlines for gamblers the very moment they feel like they cannot anymore control their gambling urge, or gambling reminders dissemination through various media, or perhaps free counselling to problematic gamblers, and so on.

Gambling is not illegal in our country, we have a lottery, we have a lot of  casinos and online and everyone here can play an online casinos, but unfortunately our country do not have restrictions and do not have a program to handle addiction to gambling, this is left to private institutions and the family to take care of their loved one's addiction to gambling.

This is a good idea but the problem with this is the implementation and the people who are willing to listen to the campaign and attend seminars about gambling addiction and how it will affect a person's life negatively.  I still think it is best to impose bet limits for players and anyone not following this kind of regulation will be disciplined or have a necesasry punishment.  I also agree that banning is not the solution, it will only push their citizen to commit crimes regarding gambling games.

In regards to online gambling, there's not much the government can do to restrict it's citizens from gambling. They can blanket ban the gambling sites but VPN would easily enable users to visit the site they like. For real world casino, a government can easily implement rules to restrict the amount and time it's citizen utilizes to gamble as users are made to carry their IDs in almost all of casinos.

I really do agreed on you statement sir, in fact here in my country Lottery here is a type of gambling here which is legally operated because the government has a percentage benefits from it aside from the tax. And many of the citizens here are really addicted into this things, and majority of the community rely their lucky fortune to lottery despite of their poverty situation. 

if its a public based lottery because most of them are affliated by the governments but there are also private lotteries that are not connected to the governments  .

 you should think twice before betting on them because your money is only a single purpose  , i mean when you loose you will loose without any helping the poor but only helping those private gambling operators to become more rich  .  

also , there are countries that gambling is restricted , china is a great example  .

That will need help from every people so all people can know about the risk of the addicting in gambling. We need to join with the government to give education to people so it will reach many people in out there and they can realize the danger of playing gambling. If education success, I think that will reduce the number of gamblers because people can know and understand what will happen to them if they are addicted to gambling.

I once heard before from an elderly (Tho, even if this is kinda funny thing but somehow it can actually make sense). He said that in order for you not to get  addicted to any type of gambling or even womanizing you should not have money.

As I grow older it started to make more sense. I start understand that one not by you literally having no money but instead to focus on spending your money to the things that you need.

By that being said I would love to suggest that we should encourage everyone to start doing the changes on their selves. Is spending $100 in gambling much worth it than buying a grocery that might last in a week or even more? It's about setting someone's mindset IMO

Don't ban them for christs sake. Make money out of them. They're probably used to throwing away large amounts of money anyways. Tax them higher. As professor hulk says, its a win win situation. Casinos would now have to increase fees and gamblers would have to also adjust. You can't really control people's wants and needs to gamble, so make it a little difficult and inconvenient for them with high fees. Plus you add considerable amount to your government's funds.

That would be a win-win if this people who are wasting their money has really enough money yo waste, what if majority of these gamblers are poor people?
The thing is, if the government allow a casino to operate and it's been proven it cause much addiction to people that it could destroy a family, that cannot be called a win-win, and the government has to make some action for the benefit of the majority, casinos are good as they provide entertainment but not for everyone.

If they would tend to legalized gambling into their country then most likely they are not really focus on protecting its citizens but rather they are concern on the revenue or tax that it would get from casino businesses.Neither which way you would go,people would find a way to gamble,it might not happen physically but it can be also done thru online.
So getting rid of this thing is almost impossible.

Yes for sure all gamer will have to follow their rules and will have to work accordingly. If the casino will pay high tax so they will take high fees and charges but the gamblers will have to obey and keep paying all fees. Patience is the only way to get proper gambling time at any place better don’t mess with casino rules.

there are bans for alcohol and smoking but only on a specified area   .there are also bans that are only limited it mainly happens if there are public occasions   but i dont see that gambling is being treated this way  .

banning gambling can be the best solution to stop people from gambling but only if the gambling addiction is already an epidemic or viral because this will cause serious problem if not treated early .

Guys, I think that before banning gambling and justifying it with a real addiction for a gambler, you need to have certain medical conclusions that would give reason to make such bans if there are no legal grounds, because this is a direct violation of human rights.  If a person wants to play a game of chance, then no one can stop him.

I thought it was a gambling addition, you have misspelled the word "addiction" on your title.
Anyway, I think banning the online gambling will help for a certain country to regulate the gambling addiction of the citizen. Well, it could be a possible 100 percent zero-gambling rate. But, in a democratic country many people will probably hate if there is a statutory law against gambling addiction. Specially in my country.

A ban on gambling will never make any country gambling-free. I am quite sure of it. It will only make gambling illegal, but still present. Not a great step for me. People who would like to gamble will always find a way.

I am a little confused with your response. Banning online gambling will result to possibly 100 percent zero-gambling rate? What about the so many gambling games that are not offered online? Gambling is not only offered online, right? We have physical casinos and gambling bars everywhere. What about them? Moreover, there are so many kinds of physical gambling games outside casinos such as horse race, lotteries, and so on.

Regulations are much better than blanket ban on gambling if you truly want to curb gambling addiction.

The truth of the whole thing is that, even the government has been benefiting from the gambling been done by her citizens either direct or indirect, so, they can't just wakeup and get gambling ban. Gambling can be regulated by the government in order to put her citizens to check to avoid addiction.

Maybe that's the right way for casinos in the country. But now gambling is also modern, where they can play gambling online. And gambling sites are not only located in these countries, but gambling sites can be accessed internationally. Is it possible that foreign gambling sites will comply with regulations in that country? of course finally have to apply kyc.

But I think that method will not work for online gambling because the government has limited regulations in its territory. Maybe this will work if governments around the world have an agreement to tighten gambling, so gambling regulations will apply internationally throughout the country.

This is actually a pretty good suggestion. I also believe that enough knowledge about something can make a difference which will allow people to make better decisions and sound judgement.

Banning gambling won't do much change in reducing the addiction in one country. Gambling is also a business for those who own casinos, and the like. And they will surely disagree with it (ban). Another is that, being an addict is a choice. It's a matter of self-control. People are somehow blinded by the benefits alone without considering the risks it possess. So giving them insights may be able to change their perspectives.

Educating the mass may not change those who are already addicted but for others who are prone to become a victim, they must know better so they will not be trapped in the pitfalls of gambling and other forms of addiction, in general.

Thanks for the correction, surprisingly not many notice my mistake that's just to show what's actually going on, on this part of the forum. You hardly see a sensible conversation between two parties instead most individuals login drop a comment and leave. Glad I read through comments to observe any reasonable contributions.

Back on topic, I doubt your suggestion will go a long way in solving the problem. Citizens of the nation can always gamble on unregulated platform especially now we have crypto related spoikbooks all over the net without restriction. I'm just not a fan of running away from a problem in this case banning gamble platforms.