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There are so many gamblers in this virtual world. Some can still control themselves, and there are also who can not control themselves when they are already in the form of the long table with a full of card any bet of different gamblers, and those are considered as Compulsive gambling.

First things first, compulsive gambling is the uncontrollable eagerness on gambling, even though you keep on losing the game, you forgot to do some valuable things than gambling and forgetting to spend your spare time with your family and in a way that you don't mind how much money you spend and how much money you already to the game. 

There are times that whenever your family and your friend advise to you about stopping on gamble, you keep on ignoring them, you do not listen to them anymore even though they care so much to you and when you deny them then you may consider yourself having a compulsive gambling disorder, you don't care anymore to anyone, the only thing you want is gambling.
I suggest that if you feel that you are like that, you may visit some professionals to help you.

And how's that supposed to work in practice?

As you say yourself, "compulsive gambling is the uncontrollable eagerness on gambling" (personally, I would say urge or obsession, but it doesn't really matter). If you don't listen to your family and your friends anymore, if you don't care about anyone, what on earth is going to make you listen to some advice here (or elsewhere in the Internet, for that matter)? Just curious

I think I can pass as a compulsive gambler based on your description, After some regrets and realization, I got decided to reduce my activity and start changing myself. I've been a gambling addict for years and wasting countless money on my addictiveness. Friends and foes tried to change me before but I can't stop being the same, It's hard to get rid of being a compulsive gambler but it is possible. Try slowing down the activities and putting a limitation on yourself. It's almost a year since I start to change and it brings a significant change to my life. I also didn't seek professional help for my addiction. Just some deep realization I was able to change.

Changing is not impossible.

I guess this is the worst thing to lose in gambling, not only the money you are gambling with but the mental health of an individual. Uncontrallable gambling, gambling disorder , compulsive gambling or what any it called is the craziest thing to lose on this virtual world. Just imagine losing your mind because you desire to earn more out of playing games. The OP suggested to seek help the professionals, but how? if these people are eaten by compulsive gambling, I think they won't let themselve lose the side of them being a gambler wouldn't they?

This is the very reason why I still go out with some people. I don't want to bore myself in front of the computer, gambling and risking all I have digitally. I would recommend spending time with your family and friends to avoid being stuck on a situation like compulsive gambling. It is just a game of chance, don't forget yourseld. Health is wealth!

In my opinion, Compulsive gambling will fall under addiction, Sure gambling could be a trigger to that compulsiveness in the first place and by keeping on doing it, It surely falls to addiction.


An addicted gambler doesn't really know what he is already addicted simply by that he will always deny that he is truly addicted only the people surrounds him can sure see that he is under influence of addiction and because he is denying that he is already addicted he would not seek any medical or psychological help by himself it will always fall under to his relatives and friends to call for that but he must willingly want to take action for that change for the medication to work.

Changing is  impossible that is  "I am possible" but it requires a lot of time and dedication, just like you told your story of bringing a change in yourself took more than a year. Most gamblers , especially those who are in their 20s or 30s, may not be strong enough to control their addictions and habits. You need to be mature and strong in mind to be able to change yourself.

True that, exactly what I wanted to ask the OP. As soon as you know that you are addicted a huge (and the most important imo) milestone is achieved because you are automatically open for getting (professional) help.
As long as you deny that you are addicted no one gets close enough to help you out of the addiction. You always have to take the first step by yourself.

Not many people can do what you have done. Unfortunately most people do now know how to bring the change and how to quit the gambling. They just found themselves trapped by gambling and found no way to get out of it.

Self-control nowadays is a skill rather than a virtue that only a few people possess in today's world. While some people are good at controlling themselves in front of their computers, playing whatever it is for the money, there are also some that cannot help it and just wants to profit. Compulsive, you might call it, may also be the start of a chronic gambling addiction. Idk how would a psychiatric professional intervene in such for persuading against it (since I know a lot of people that failed to break free from such addiction even with psychiatric intervention) but it's still worth a shot.

It's mainly on the gambler and not the people around him/her who would free themselves on the burdens of gambling addiction. IMO, it's okay to get excited when gambling since that's what you came for: excitement and thrill. But when it's purely for profit and you are starting to get stressed out on doing such activities, it's best to step back, rethink or seek help if needed.

This is one of the struggles of many gamblers and in other words, this is what we call addiction.

The difficult part of this is when you are scolding the people that stops you. You don't realize and appreciate what they do because the most important for you is what you do. And when they think they're done helping you, nobody's gonna stay by your side.

And that's the hardest part and effect of this.

I feel like I'm on some MMORPG, where gambling is like a certain Quest LoL.
Also just reading the first of your feedback :P

Addiction. Addiction, Can't we just leave that alone? it's pretty common nowadays, and guess what, I just like being addicted to none.

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More likely, I think I'm on some of game here just by reading,... I certainly hard to find some gestures that may help a gambler lost his confidence when he's becoming addicted to it...

Families could indeed be god beavon of hope for these compulsive gamblers come the time that they want to quit and start a new life altogether. However, these people need professional help from a psychiatrist or psychologist. This is not to charge or to condemn the afflicted but to find out the deeper meanings behind the person's blind addiction to gambling. They can be given medications and activities to do to keep them from gambling without a care in the world.

That's how seeking professional help works. It works more often than how you think it is. They're image has just been damaged by media which is partly the reason why not everyone trusts them anymore.

I didn't get a professional help for that, but on other things. I blew my rent and almost lost my apartment. That was a wakeup call for me and i just replaced that addiction with more healthier ones. But i guess my trading style gives me similar rush as gambling too.

This confirms that an addict will eventually get dragged to the bottom and this may be the point of reversal for him or the end. You can meet many recovered alcoholics who went through this. They lost everything and when they were out there living on the street they came to their senses and turned their lives around. It's the same with all addictions.

There's a rule that if you won't change your life nobody will do it for you. You have to want it yourself.

You went to a professional, he told you to go back every time there so he can check on you. Do you think you can stop gambling if you still want to gamble? It all starts with you, and I think you should realize to yourself that you need to stop. Approach your friends, your family, someone that is close to you so he can always check on you. In terms of addiction, the first help you should get is the people around you. So the process will always start with you, with your family, friends or loved ones, lastly to the professional. Most of the time it would not end up with a professional since if people really care for you, and you care for yourself, it would just stop right there.

You don't even listen to your parents, how much more someone you do not know.

I think this is something that if we will be using an assessment of how addicted are you in gambling, it will be on the roof. If will not manage yourself to listen, you will not walk out of your addiction or compulsive gambling. This is hard, to be honest, and I can tell you that you are the only one that can start your change if you really wanted to. You can read these articles if you know someone who's addicted or a compulsive gambler you could help him out in some way.

https://www.moneytalksnews.com/8-signs-youre-addicted-to-gambling-and-5-tips-to-stop
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/addictions/gambling-addiction-and-problem-gambling.htm
therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/compulsive-gambling/related/how-to-stop-gambling

I don't think compulsive gambler will and can do that on their own, they are very much into gambling to think of that, they need their family's urging and persuasion for them to go for a professional help, for gambler after they left the gambling site all they can think of is how to recover their losses and they are hoping to be lucky the next time.

Did you know that the first sign of gambling addiction is that you refused to acknowledge it.

So how does someone will go and visit professionals and seek help immediately? It's a long process, maybe if you know someone that is turning into a addict then you need to sit down and talk to him, then some sort of intervention.

It will be really difficult, specially if that person is your family person, but you have to try it. You need to really make that person understand what he/she is going through before it's too late.

When a gambler has that kind of situation, It would be best to find themselves a professional help or try to apply to a rehabilitation program. As I said I've been an addict before and the experience I got is terrible because it changed my personal life, Strong will and the deep realization made me change, Maybe the deep understanding of the future that awaits me hits me in the head that's why I've been dedicated to change that time.

Sometimes even if you are changing it might not show some significant changes to your habit, Maybe the way of changing is wrong/unsuitable for you. I've tried instant stopping on playing gambling but it doesn't suit me, I kept coming back. If you experience some kind of anxiety because you are trying to change but you can't, It would be advisable to get professional help.

I understand what you want to convey here

But it could be misinterpreted in the following way. If you are a gambler, though not necessarily a compulsive, or disoriented (as the American Association of Psychos puts it), gambler, and you refuse to acknowledge your gambling addiction, you are a gambling addict then

Kidding aside, it is only at the first stage that addicts refuse to accept their mental "disorder". At more advanced stages, say, junkies or alcoholics are already fully aware of their destructive behavior, that they are hurting themselves as well as their friends and family. But by then it may already be too late as the disorder has progressed too far

Not sure if every country has some professionals to help you get out from addiction, in some countries this is a rare problem so when a person is getting addicted, all he can do is ask some help from the family, and they should be honest with their situation so they'll be help.

The trend now is online gambling so this also make it harder for people around us to notice since we can do gambling even at our room.

Gambling addiction is a disorder just like any other addiction that have a negative effect on every person experiencing it.  It's true that it's better to go to professionals and take consultations for further study but the very first people who can help those who are in that situation is their family and closest friends. They should know what that person is experiencing and spare time to have fun and enjoy with that person so he won't have time to think about gambling. Because a person will find it more fun to be with the person they love than gambling. I think that's the first thing to forget about gambling, make that person busy with the things he love to do.

Professionals are in the end, just theorists and the like who don't know what they could possibly be feeling right now. They could only assume various treatments would possibly work, and only at that. The brain is quite a complex thing and even if you say "compulsive", it could be a completely different meaning from one person to another, which makes treatment really hard. Even if it did start from the self, just starting it is difficult enough, what more continuing to do so to remove it permanently.

I don't know the best solution, and even going to the professionals may or may not be the best, but IMO, they should just really start walking around. See the world. It's sad to say that most of the wonders of the world that could have been seen everyday are now lost because of sky high buildings being built as well as poverty, but some are still being retained out there. Contemplating and thinking while under the influence of scenery is actually quite a good thing imo. Advise from others is definitely a must, but thinking from the bottom of your heart is the solution, is what I think.

It is a good thing that you realized your problem. I know it takes time and often a sacrifice to realize the reality which is often forgotten by the addicted gambler. Lets hope you dont waste too much money in whatever you are doing right now and manage your money in a more responsible manner. You are an adult and you are expected to manage the money to suit your spending and saving.

I would not say that it is impossible to save an addict from the worst corners of life but it is tough to recover from big losses. The one person who can make a difference there is the player realizing their mistake and not committing to that same habit again.

Lets keep gambling to a state where you can manage your bankroll and time spent and not put it before friends and family.

Gambling addiction and compulsive gambling are serious problems in our days indeed. People literally lose their lives by giving themselves away to the vice of gambling.
Now don't get me wrong, gambling is not a vice for the regular people, but a form of entertainment. If you get it to extremes it will grow a vicious cycle that is most of the times paired with drinking and becoming aggressive.
Even if you get to a professional it won't help you much if you don't have the will to fight the addiction and become a better man.

In this case, the family itself or any friend or relative concerned enough of the person should try to initiate the move, contact professional help, and guide and help the gambler into the way of recovery. Once the gambler is already inside this kind of world, I am afraid he/she is not anymore in his/her right mind to make the first step to heal himself/herself.

In addition, countries should allow family members to request for a gambling ban to a compulsive or addicted gambler. This would help gamblers avoid reaching much worse addiction stages.

No professional would help you out even you would tend to approach to them.The real cure is that you should really be serious on quitting gambling on the first place.

Its less expense and totally effective because if your mindset is still fixed towards gambling then you would end up on playing in the end of the day.No matter how many

you do seek out for advise or being sermonized by lots of people around you then it would be still useless.

What if you are in a position that you can't choose to decide which is right or wrong?
Some people who are addicted are just focus solely in gambling without realizing the risk that they'll ruin their life in the future.
That's why we need to surround ourselves with friends and family so they will notice us easily and they can help us as early as possible.

Haha, that's something sensational I'd guess.

Being a compulsive gambling replaced by a compulsive way of trading? yeah that's sort of similar to what you've been before and it's still the same risk that you do. If you can handle yourself and understands what you need, there's no need for professional help but if you think that you can't handle it anymore, don't hesitate to call for help.

Addiction really is a common problem in gambling but despite that, this gambling industry is still growing so that means more people are still enjoying and there's only few people who are addicted in gambling.. Those who are actually easily addicted are those who are not matured since they'll be easily controlled by their emotion, IMO, this is not the responsibility of the government but the family to take care of their minors or immature members of the family to avoid gambling, otherwise it could possibly ruin their lives.

Despite I was addicted in the past but I still remain positive, there was never a time I blame gambling for my mistake, instead I remain realistic and blame myself so I was able to move on well.

People don't see the forest for the trees

For those who are not familiar with the phrase, it means, according to some Internet dictionary, being "too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole” (no offense, no pun, no plagiarism intended). More specifically, the problem is not with the addiction as such (compulsive gambling, compulsive trading, or compulsive whatever). Put shortly, it is the consequences that matter

It is in human nature to be addicted to, or be passionate about, or be obsessed with, something or somebody. The truth is, without being truly addicted to something in a positive sense (as far as consequences are concerned), it is impossible to reach any meaningful level of success in virtually anything. So if you are addicted to gambling or trading, and it pays off handsomely, go for it and enjoy the ride. If it doesn't, get addicted to something that does

He wrote that he lost his apartment and almost blew up his rent, I don't think that you can decide if something is good for you or not at this state of mind.
 Its like smoking ... everyone knows that it is not good for you at all and chances are high that you get lung cancer but the vast majority keeps on smoking. The human mind needs a long lasting and massive impression (a smoker you know dies, ...) to change habbits.

In short, getting addicted into gambling. You don't think anything but gambling only. Your mind and body is saying that "You must gamble whatever happens. Either you win or lose as long as you gamble it is ok." Compulsive gambling is regretful in the end because you may lose your money in the end and then you may lose time too to spend with your family which is a bad thing to do for me.

If you are addicted into gambling, chances are you really are ignoring the advises of anybody who wants you to stop what you are doing especially if your family is the one who is advising you. You will only listen to them if you don't have money anymore left to use for gambling. This is a deadly gambling disorder for me. How? I said deadly because if you lose money, chances are you will find a way to have money to be use in gambling to the extend that you will do bad things and worse they can risk their lives too just to have money.

In general, gambling addicts who experience obsessive compulsive problems and disturbances in reality the person in words classified as stress in excessive anxiety, doing repetitive actions etc.

Many methods and ways that can be done to make healing for compulsive sufferers.
Obsessive compulsive sufferers have two types of [1] mild [2] severe. if gamblers (individuals) have experienced compulsive disorder there are some effective cases to treat it without having to use drugs or a doctor, you are enoughdo it in a way.
1. Therapy: by doing therapy can reduce stress, negative feelings and excessive anxiety.
2. meditation.
3. aromatherapy breathing, and
4. Yoga.
Some of these methods are very helpful for soul-calming techniques for people with obsessive compulsive gambling, on the condition of doing routines so that the individual can find the best way to calm himself down.

This compulsive gambling may occur on those who are gamblers that are really addicted on gambling because they cannot control it even though their family and friends ask them to stop it. Why? Simply because as like what I have been said they are already addicted on it. The time would come that you will be having a problem on it, in which you will not be able to manage your time and your money as well on how you will divide it on your personal needs.
If you are having a hard time to face about it then you must consider to ask professionals or psychology experts on how you will be able to stop it.

Yeah it is going to work. If you are reading this post and looking for help, then it means that you have realized that gambling is badly affecting your life. This "realization" is your first step to recovery. Because you are willing to quit, you will be looking for help. This means that you will try your best to follow the advises given by the professional. Just because you think you won't listen to them, does not mean that you won't seek help from them. You never know, those professionals might end up helping you getting rid of your addiction.

I agree, the only one who can help you is yourself, anyone can give you advice how to overcome addiction but no one can heal you from it but only yourself. If your willing to change then stop to those thing that put you in to mess situation and after that you will realize the big mess happen to your life because of it. For me its better to completely stay away from it, if you know yourself you will possible to be returned to former status for being mess again.

Indeed, it may be too late to cry (over spilt milk). But it was a conscious choice in the sense no one had been forcing him to gamble in the first place, well, at least, not directly. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure, so understanding how addiction works and what consequences a certain form of it causes leaves enough room for maneuver in framing one's passions and obsessions

First, everyone should understand that being addicted is in fact normal as this is just how life goes in general. I could even say that not being addicted to something is a pathology rather than the norm. Second, and to repeat, it is the consequences, not the addiction itself that counts. But being fully aware of that allows one to control the whole gamut of his addictions, and how far they can go

The lesson to take home is that choose your addictions wisely

Definitely the best way to fix this kind of gambling problem.  But the person should identify that he has that problem and acknowledge or admit it himself.  Nothing can be done if the player is on the phase of rejection because his door is closed to rehabilitation.  We agree that family can help but the first act of change should be done by the person himself.

Every individual has a different mindset and at least they have good and bad side thoughts, therefore I feel someone who suffers from compulsive gambling can still bring himself to be released from the shackles. Indeed, when someone has suffered badly then the mindset is no longer good and can no longer be controlled, but at those times at least they still have a good awareness so that, at that time someone must be able to realize if there is something change in him that must be stopped as fast as possible. If they can realize this before it gets too severe, then professional help is not needed and again, to be able to keep your mindset healthy and do everything with good consideration.

when i see this thread i felt that this is for me to read. I called my self in last years got addicted to gamble. First, it because i felt boring, then it felt exciting. But lately, it feels that if i didn't do it ( even when i know i will lose ) i feel i had to do it. Now it times to end this thing since i had nothing to use for gamble except my life. Lol, but never takes this as a joke to u. I am now at bottom of hell, but i believe i will rise because i work hard to achieve good things in my life. And i will try to keep my mind sane since gambling just for fun not for your life.

                     For some people they need to experience it forst hand in order for them to understand what's good and bad for them. That is also the main reason why some gamblers are seriously addicted while some are able to control themselves. Being a gambler for fun is good but sometimes there are people who cannot control their emotions.

I can say that I am a compulsive gamblers before because I am really like that back, to the point that I forget my responsible to my partner because of gambling every day, I lose my body, I missed my weight I do not even do eating because of that, I am so addicted on gambling before, but now, I can say that I passed being a compulsive gambler because I can control myself now, I only play once a week, and sometimes no play in one week, but for me, it is better because I can no focus on my friend, family, and partner, I do not waste my time, efforts and money anymore in nothing, and for sure in future, I will really forget and remove it in my life. I will become a better person if I do that thing.

It is terrible if we are addicted to gambling because you already get the experience so you can share what you face in the past. You can warn other people to stay away from the addicting by having control of gambling. We can get cured of the addicting with helping other people because to quit gambling and control ourselves will not easy. I hope that you can become a better person in the future because you already have a bad experience before.

Handling too much of that they could handle and gambling money that they can't afford to lose are two things that drive a compulsive gambler to continue gambling, there's no turning back because they know so much about gambling and they think that they have the best strategy so they continue to bet and roll the dice thinking the next roll is their ticket to recover all their losses, they are not going to realize how to stop they need outside help, from family and close friends whom they can trust.

Always reminding each other on how to avoid gambling addiction would be an advantage for us to know our limitations. We all have our goals and that is to gain a good profit but sometimes being too eager to win in gambling might lead us into wrong decisions so we have to keep on reminding each other about the risks of being greedy. Its mind over matter and prevention is better than cure even when it comes to gambling.

It just means that gambling can negatively impact your life, it is the reason why having self-discipline is a must because it will help you manage yourself as you gamble. My friend had experienced the same thing, it affects not only his financial status but also his health. He end up losing his weight because of poor sleep and appetite, it makes me realize how bad it would be if you just allow yourself end up on that situation. Well he recovered from his past and learned his lesson which makes me proud because I know how difficult it is to fight addiction.

I like your explanation and understood the point of what you have said. And it's understandable that if something like gambling or trading comes into fruition, you wouldn't call that kind of success as addiction because it's on the positive side.

But if goes negatively, that's where the negative call out starts, addiction, failure, etc.

I got your point, but there are still cases that gamblers are being cured because of the professionals, but have you think that before they visit some professionals, they have passed the advise from their family and friends, of course, that would happen because the only person that would care so much to you is your family and friends, so for sure they already gave some advise, but I think it wasn't enough because it turns into visiting some professionals.
There will be no psychiatrist if all of the disorders can be cured of their own family and friends, so we have still professionals, especially those psychiatrist that can heal you from being a compulsive gambler, they have mastered their degree about the behavior of the person, so they really know how to cure those individuals, family and friend were no enough they will still need the help of a psychiatrist for better result.

Honestly, it sounds like a medical term because I never hear about "compulsive gambling". As far as I am concerned, addicted gambling is what gamblers are doing without control on themselves. From your description I understand you are referring just addicted gambling and I believe we have already have lots of discussions and suggestions across this forum for addicted gamblers.

Gamblers lose their control over the time because gambling makes them excited over their gambling activities which lead them to forget themselves so they are losing all the controls. When gamblers are not regular to gambling then the chances for getting addicted is very less which means they will keep their control intact. So, we must gamble responsibly and with frequent breaks.

Well said, if a person is a compulsive gambler then it only means that he is addicted on gambling, those who cannot control himself from betting, they cannot be considered as a compulsive gambler when he can still control himself from playing a gamble, or even he cannot limit himself from that. The thing is they really need a psychiatrist to be cured, having some advise from family and friend wasnt enough to be cured, it will really requires some professionals like a psychiatrist to stop him from being a compulsive gambler, well, they are expert and they really know the best solution for those persons.

I have read some articles about a gambler that has been cured because of visiting a professionals, so I believed that the best way for them to stop being addicted are those professionals and not their family and friends. Well, family and friends can stop them too, but if they already did their best, but nothing happens, then they may ask help for professionals.

The whole casino and gambling industry is base on compulsive gambling.
Casinos make more money when a gambler keeps on gambling and gambling while they are losing their money. They "push" you to make a lot of bets and keep betting again and again in order to start losing and keep gambling non-stop in order to make money from this activity.

I think it is just enticing but not forcing us to make a bet.  Remember whether we play in a casino or not depends wholly on our own discretion.  Why blaming casinos for players that succumb to gambling because of their lack of discipline and concern for themselves and their families?



That is why they need their family to tell them about the problem.  It may not succeed for the first time but with persistence and concerns, talking to the person with gambling problem calmly will enable to open their minds about and think that something is wrong with them.  Self-denial that they are addicted is another reason why compulsive gambling will never recover by themselves and need intervention from their loved ones to undergo rehabilitation.

What kind of realization needs that someone to actually stop their being compulsive gambler? If they can't stop themselves from doing it then what could be the other people's advice gonna do if he wouldn't listen to them? Only he himself can stop what he has been doing, it's only time can tell what would be going to happen to that person before he could realize what was lost to him.

If someone cant able to stop no matter how hard he tried then advice from the outside would be pointless or useless because he isnt willing to stop no matter what happens due to his addiction.
Mostly people do only stop when they do already experience unfortunate events into their lives like being on deep debt, broken up families and other related things which focuses on financial
and emotional aspects.Once these things are gradually disappearing into your life then thats the time you would realize that you've done something very wrong.
If we dont like for these things to happen then we should be sensible into your actions.

Changing is indeed not impossible if you are really willing to change. If you are already a compulsive gambler it would be very hard to stop in a snap because gambling is already in your system and that you don’t have the ability to control it and you don’t care about the people around you. In this case, the only person that can truly help is your own self, if you will be determined enough to stop being that person then you can, you don’t have to stop immediately but you have to stop little by little until such time you’ll be a able to better control you gambling habits.

Everyone could change even those compulsive gamblers,
They only need to find the right motivation and all the support that they could get from their family and friends.
They also need to find a better hobby to keep them away from gambling.

When their family knows that one of their family members playing gambling, they can remind that person not to playing gambling every day because playing gambling is not good for their money. But if you cannot listen to them and still playing gambling, your family can let you decide if playing gambling will bring a chance to make money or not because they already remind you, but you still deny them.

I think your family will care with you even if you have a compulsive gambling disorder, and they will take you to visit some professionals to help you.

Indeed, the only thing that gamblers should avoid is to be addicted on it, because if you become like that, then you won't realize that you will forget to do some valuable things, you will only focus on winning the game even it is so hard for you to win the game, there are times that you will go to borrow money on your friends to play and if you still keep losing the game, you will lend again, until you will have a deep debt on someone and that is so bad about those compulsive gamblers, they let their properties losing because of their addiction on gambling.

Good for you mate, you won't let yourself to become a compulsive gambler, and the best thing you do to prevent that is you focus on your family and friends, well that is more joyful than winning the game in any gambling sites. The real happiness comes from your beloved ones.

Having a compulsive gambling is a disorder that need a help because they cannot control their self to keep gambling despite risk to their life and even to their money. Many people become addicted because of gambling that's why we need to have goal and have discipline to avoid all th risk in gambling.

Avoiding gambling once you get hooked to it is easier said than done. They don't have control over it, they will only realize there is something wrong with them once everything is ruined. That is why if ever you can still limit your self or best if you can stay away from gambling you should avoid it as soon as possible to avoid having a serious gambling problem. It is still advisable to have different hobbies to keep you away from getting addicted to something. Seeking a professional's help when it is already late will not do you any good. Prevention is always better than cure.

If it is already affecting your personal lives, family and friends. Then it is not healthy anymore. I, myself always reflecting. When addiction is hitting my system I intentionally giving myself some space from gambling. Every time I tend to lose huge, it affect all and do some impulsive things that I don't want to do. You see, if you are a compulsive gambler and there are bad things that is happening, better to leave gambling. Like what I am doing right now.

In this case professional help is needed because a compulsive gambler wont listen to anyone surrounds him. Seeing your loved ones ended up to be a gambler with this kind of behavior is painful. So if you are a gambler with no control better to stop playing, if you became addicted it will be hard to overcome the addiction and its not just about the money you spend in gambling because your physical and mental health are affected as well.

There are no such things as "too late" in this field. I personally know a compulsive gambler who was successfully cured from his addiction 3 years ago. And, although I can't say that he has been living happily ever after, at least he's not a gambling addict any more. That's why those therapists are called professionals, they know the right words, and also the right time when to say those words, so that it was effective. In most cases friends and family members do it the wrong way round, and thus it's not helpful at all.

This is a serious matter, there are a lot of people in the media industry that have become very popular in Televisions and film but, have become poor and lost their career because of gambling. Compulsive disorder can't be stop by only some random person but with have academic degree in psychology. Before its too late, we should help the people who have this disorder, especially those that is our relative or close to ours. I think this kind of disorder is only developed when someone is going through severe setbacks in life and stress that makes their gambling a stress relieving action that might be in return become habitual.

The most affected person is the one's who loved us and I know it is hard to cure this kind of illness,
Because most of the time the gambler itself doesn't consider him/herself as compulsive gambler and doesn't know that it is already destroying their life.
Their love one's are just around them suffering while they are ignoring it and having fun gambling.

These are all case to case things and there cannot be any generalized one common thing across all gamblers. But, addiction is known for its cruelty over its age. So, the earlier detection and treatment may solve the problem quicker. Compulsive gambling is a psychological disorder and any gambler will be vulnerable to it. But, proper guidelines will help gamblers to stay without affected by those disorder.

I believe this type of discussion will help gambler to realize what they actually doing while gambling and what needs to be done and what needs to be avoided to stay protected.

But I totally agree with you

As this is what I'm constantly telling people around here myself. That gambling is not the same as drugs (like narcotics and antidepressants) or alcohol. Unlike these addictions, gambling doesn't make irreparable and irreversible changes to the brain apart from what had already been there before this dependence fully developed

Put differently, we wouldn't even call gambling an addiction but for the negative effects and consequences of it, which are entirely external (money lost, families ruined, etc). Really, if you are truly addicted to something (say, your wifie or hubby, or whatever), but it is beneficial to you and those around you, would you even call it an addiction?

Help (forced) from third parties is very problematic. As you correctly noted, the player does not recognize his dependence on gambling and does not see a problem. In order to limit his right to dispose of his time and money, there must be a legitimate serious reason. Maybe it should be a medical opinion of a psychiatrist and a court decision based on it.

so based on what i read , compulsive gambling is like becoming addictive to gambling ? that is bad already if you are on your own addictive state because you feel your alone  . you dont listen to any people including on your parents.  before we end up here , we should realize asap about the effects of exescive gambling  so that  we can stop before its too late.   before i was going to be really addictive to gambling but thankfully i overcome it already because i think of my self and my family

That explains why they need it the most (professional help), because they are sick. Getting back in gambling after a lose will never change anything in a positive way, hence, it will make just things worst than ever, but that can't be help, since most of the gamblers are hotheaded so they always deal things with anger or madness. Convincing them to go out and see a therapist would be a hard thing to suggest to them, because trust me, they won't even bulge.

Common things that happens always is they wait until they completely destroy themselves for them to seek some help, which is either too late or the other way it is.

It will seem like addicted gamblers are focusing ONLY on winning in gambling but in reality they could not focus on anything which includes all the responsibilities and failing with basic level of performance in gambling. This is the reason they need to gamble more to recover losses and to stand like how they are gambling initially. When they gamble more, they will get severely addicted. It is a recursive reaction but leading to self-destroying

If you notice all these problems are coming only because of gambling for more hours. When gamblers are taking periodic breaks they will avoid these compulsive gambling problems and also they can save their life getting collapsed due to their gambling addiction.

In my opinion, borrowing money for gambling must be a suicidal. When there will be zero possibility to save our bankroll, I'm not sure what assures them to go for borrowing even they have failed for 1000 times with their gambling skills.

Compulsive gambling is an irresistable desire of playing without being conscious of the reason why are you doing such thing. Many gamblers would relate to this and what's worse is that, it could drive them to addiction in gambling. There are gamblers who are still playing despite of losing yesterday perhaps, then having regrets at the end of the day why have they still played. If you are looking for a way to avoid this, professional help would be a good thing. I am not pro at this but I would suggest trying other things.

Compulsive gambling would more likely consume most of your time playing so maybe, if you would have an alternative thing to do that could rrplace the time you are spending in gambling, compulsion would be lessen. But still if this condition is already consuming you, I would suggest seeking for a professional to correctly hadle the situation.

I'm not sure it's enough for qualifying someone as a compulsive gambler. Because it's the same for most hobbies, when you like doing something it's a normal thing to spend your spare-time on it. Many people are spending there free time behind the TV or non educating books. I don't think it's better. If you just waste your time but not your money, I don't think you can be considered as a compulsive gambler.

I think, before seeking any professional help, you can do some personal contemplation on things. You need to assess yourself the situations why you are having this compulsive gambling, list all the items that trigger this situation. Because you alone, will know the answers. And if you really do want to change and address your being compulsive, think of solutions that will address the items listed on what trigger your compulsive gambling. It will require a real motivation on your side to solve your problem.

Yup! If reaching our dreams in life requires motivation then what more for figting a steong addiction. So for those who are currently having such kind of addicction or even those who are broke, try to seek it from your family, friends and last but definitely not the least God :). You can find inner peace through Him and every problem that we face had solutions if you will let Him enter your life and follow his guidance. Don't tell me you can't do it? Yes you can, even if you don't believe at first then still try. "Fake it until you make it" like others said, and I'm sure that you will soon realize how His blessings remove the feel of emptiness in you witjout even knowing at the beginning.

I am afraid that in those situations, he cannot do personal contemplation because what is in his mind will be gambling. He needs to share what he thinks to other people so they can help him to find a way to solve the problem. If we felt that we could not do it by ourselves, then we really need to be supported by other people. But some people can do by themselves, and they can get the answer, and start to change themselves.

We can get the motivation from ourselves or other people, and the solution will come if you have a big effort to solve the problem. I am sure that we can have motivation from ourselves and we can also get the motivation from other people around us.

You have good points presented on this one.
Sometimes, you need other people to see what's going on with yourself.
But only those that really do know you or care for you like close friends or family.
Because sometimes you are not seeing clearly at things when you are in that behavior.
And for them, they will sincerely give you advise on what they are seeing whenever you are in that situation.

It's true that all cases are different. That is so because people are not numbers(or, even if they are, we are far from knowing what numbers exactly), and thus it's impossible to describe them (or their situations) with mathematical equations. So, all general rules are not completely accurate when applied to a particular individual. However, in my opinion, generalization is the next best thing we can do to bring some order into the chaos around us.


Buddhists would object, :) but I'm no Buddhist, so, yep, I agree with you, there are some good addictions out there, for sure.

First thing that you have to know, what your intention to play gambling?

If you just play gambling because there is some of your friend are playing it and you are interested then you will hard to get out for it.

But, I just thinking that gambling is about ourselve. I mean, when your intention to play it because you are curious about it and you think that gambling is something that can be made as an entertainment then you will be easy to leave it.

So, when your intention is like that your control will be easy to manage. Like with situation as you have mentioned, you will leave gambling because you have been losing a lot of money and there is nothinh who will push you to keep play.

For us to get rid of gambling addiction, we have to keep in mind that there are lots of risks that we will be facing if we'll not control our emotions towards it. Being greedy could also bring us into a situation that we might regret in the future. Everything will rely on how we handle things. In gambling, we have to control our emotions or else it will be the one who will control us. To get rid of gambling addiction, we have to discipline ourselves and we should also know our limits.

This is addicted, must avoid what ever it takes. Gambling is complete game, inside it we can see fun, money and prestige, everyone want that to change his life. The reason why people can addicted is not because the glory but gambling have easy method to get win, just deposit, play the game and no longer to see the result. Risk closed by win that could be only dream. The answer is same like other, leave gambling right now and never came back again.

Stopping the addiction completely will cause a lot of emotional outbursts too. There needs to be a balance between the two so one can slowly stop the addiction but not get health issues due to it.

They do regret but they cant stop themselves. It is a lack in self control or abolished control. This can be regained with determination to quit or reduce you bad habits.

Support from friends and family helps a lot in this regard. They know how to bring the player back to the right track or what is right for them. Again the importance of self control is assessed here. Some friends are able to reinforce the control back to the person.

Unfortunately, gambler don't care about the risks. What do they only care is the money they can get if they win and not thinking of the other side of it. Controlling emotions especially if you are addicted into gambling is hard that you can't do it. If you lose, you will do revenge gambling and if you win you will continue to gamble until you ran out of money.

As I said, controlling emotions in gambling is hard. If you are not a disciplined person before you start gambling, it will be hard for you to make an adjustment when worse thing happen like losing your money. Knowing the limits is very easy to say but very hard to do. The best thing to do is to just not gamble at all.

These are obvious tips, but they are just as obvious as they are difficult to apply. Smart people understand this and do not fall into such an addiction, but those people who are less intelligent cannot realize this and gambling turns their life into something terrible. How to help them?

Well said, and that is the reason for you to visit some professionals if even the closest persons in your life won't do anything to make you stop gambling if their lessons for you won't keep on your mind if there advise to you won't work. Still, you really want to change your lifestyle, you want to limit yourself from gambling, then you should make an action, if changing your thinking won't work, or if you change your priority in life and focus on your family and friend but still doesn't work then I recommend that you should go to some professionals about mental health, you can consult on some psychiatrist, sot they will be able to give you a piece of advise and some good drugs. They are professionals they graduated their degree, so I believe that they know what to do in those cases.

Indeed, we are all different, so basically we cannot do some things that others can do; we all have different ways to fix our problem. Still, if your strategy to fix the problem won't work, you can follow others advise or others technique on fixing the problem, there is no problem on that especially if that is a good thing.

But that's definitely not all

It is totally fine to feel certain inclinations and propensities which may develop into what we would call a form of addiction. I think you would be a sort of robot if you didn't, but then it would definitely be a mental disorder. I don't know if DSM-5 mentions anything to that effect, but this human being would be completely asocial

I'm no buddhist either (just curious) but I don't think they can get rid of all possible addictions. If anything, their addiction would be to feel like they have no addiction since you can't transcend without being addicted to transcendence, right? Really, why would you if you didn't? Regardless, such a person would be of great interest to a psychiatrist

Intelligent people might really have that edge when it comes to those decision making but it isnt really necessary when it comes to self-awareness.

It really doesnt need intellect nor IQ for you to realize things on whats happening around you.A simple cause and result minding will really be enough
for making decisions that would be appropriate.Humans can make decisions naturally but all things will vary on how a person will foresee the effects
ahead.

To the people claiming there is a relationship between low IQ and compulsive gambling, I would beg to differ.

At least in the field of gambling I come from (Poker), the most intelligent individuals and the ones with the highest social awareness actually tend to perform the best.

An extremely high IQ individual with great perception can absolutely kill it in poker. Meanwhile the idiots typically get felted quickly. No doubt both the intelligent and the idiots have an equal predisposition to addiction, but the high IQ guys perform better with it.

Advises coming from relatives is merely giving us inspiration, and it do provide us better lives because it's very important take those brilliant ideas coming from love ones. What they've seen from your end reflects on your status in life. It can't be denied in a long process, and every situation of yours will always be determined even if you're hiding or making it private. Gambling affects lives without and won't be noticed unless your family reminds you about your current situation.

When they don't even realize that they are in need of gambling more than anything then how it is possible for the to seek help from professionals on this? If someone get into a stage as you mentioned then bankrupt can only stop them from continuing until that they will ignore anyone who says stop gambling which is bad for you.

When you say compulsive gambling, i think this is stronger than even addiction.
Because when someone has compulsive gambling, they cannot do without gambling in a day
Lets all gamble responsibly please, avoid addiction or mind compulsion to gamble.

There are other person who came to the point that they got bankrupt before they realize that they got addicted on gambling but there are people who starting to get used playing and they are been advise by their family to get rehabilitate so that they can recover their life outside from it, although I'm first they insist but later on if their family pursue to convince them to do the right thing then chances for those who are in the point of being addict of the game will get cured.

Indeed a very effective way to stop gambling is to seek a legal advise because its not easy to stop and if you’re already addict its hard for you to let go gambling. Compulsive gambling is not healthy because sometimes you play beyond your capacity and most of the gambler borrow money just to keep playing. If you cannot control yourself then you really need someone to help you.

I am sure if someone really knows us or care for us will see something wrong happen with us, so they will ask us what is going on. But sometimes, we don't admit, and we pretend that everything is fine and nothing wrong with us. At this moment, we need to open ourselves to them and tell them what is happen so they can try to help us solve the problem. Other people can see a different way to solve our problem, so sometimes, their suggestion will look better to apply.

Depends on the level of addiction like everything else in the whole world. If you think it is beneficial to everyone around you that is not a high level addiction. Just take this example let's say, you are "addicted" to your spouse and normally that sounds cute, like you can't live without them and you love them and you cherish every moment with them and so forth, that sounds nice and that is actually cool and I hope that for everyone.

However, if it breaks to a point of addiction in the sense that you are obsessed about them, jealous of them, and basically ruin their and your own life for being too addicted to them, you could actually hurt people around you. There is a level of addiction in everything in life including gambling where low level of it is decent but too much of it will hurt.

It's normal it's our defense mechanism for telling that where fine even though we are not it's a defense mechanis for us so that we will not criticized by anyone who doesn't understand our situation but sometimes it's the pride keep pushing us to feel ok. And if this is not really healthy we should seek for help so that our family could bring us to a professionals so that we can overcome our addiction.

sorry mate but what about "Legal Advice"? if gambling is not illegal in your country i see no reason or connection for asking about Legalities?because no one can bring you to jail just because you are a gambler ,until you make action that against the law.
but right No to Compulsive gambling.

There are people who are not addicted to anything, but indeed they are asocial, as you said, and, in some cases,  suicidal even. They don't have a passion to do something, and life becomes meaningless for them, and that's hardly a good thing.

Then, can we conclude that addicted gamblers are in better position than those indifferent people, because, when cured, former addicts can apply saved energy and passion to doing something healthy and productive?

They can always try gambling, a cure for all types of boredom and apathy


Well, that depends on a lot of details

Which can be quite complicated and convoluted. More specifically, we don't know who these addicted gamblers were before they embarked on their gambling journey. Maybe they were exactly those indifferent people who had got bored to death and took to gambling as a last-ditch recourse and a shortcut to get some thrill out of their dull lives

But in general I agree with you. Becoming addicted for these "indifferent" people is a telltale sign that their boredom and indifference is in fact quite self-inflicted for doing something wrong in and with their lives, or rather for not doing the right thing, healthy and productive, which would be there instead of gambling and provide as much thrill and excitement

Rehabilitation can cure compulsiveness or if he/she experienced great loss, that is the perfect time healing arrives.
She/he then recognize family members and friends to help him through addiction.

Changing s always a choice we have.
Changes can easily be done specially for things that are only causing bad things in our life just like gambling. If we really love ourselves and people around us who care for us we can easily go away in excessive gambling and do things that will benefit you and other people around you.

you said benefits ,  gambling has benefits too  . it gives fun and money that can make you happy and others too but too much gambling is not healthy anymore and will always lead to being busted  . change is not a choice that we look for if we are on the addicted state but instead we will keep playing and playing even if we know that we are not already normal  .  this is a  scary state once you are on it  . we need to be more spiritual and ask help for god , this is what i do before and luckily i slowly recovered  .

Again, we return to the main problem of gambling, which is whether you are harming anyone from your environment and yourself, including or not.
Indeed, if you are able to control your impulses at the moment when they go too far, then we can assume that you have enough strength and stamina to withstand the emotional stress that falls on you during a loss during games.

If not, then everyone for himself must consciously understand how gambling affects his life.

If we still quiet without saying to other people, we will not get help from them because they don't know what is wrong with us. But no matter what, they will finally know, and we can be at a point that we cannot do anything except asking for help from them. Perhaps, they can ask us to go to a professional to overcome the addiction, or they can talk about the problem so they can try to find the solution. Trust me that will work if you can open yourself and start to talk heart to heart.

Well, I agree that being a compulsive gambler needs a guidance from professionals. Once you start playing gamble and get addicted, it is hard to get out because your mindset will become "I need to make my loss back" and you will keep on playing. Don't just destroy your life because of gambling, have your priorities. There are many way to kill some time.

We also have to believe that it is not only about losing, gamblers who are addictive also have some trouble stopping even though they are already winning big, that's the reason why most of the time they end up losing even if they have a good start.

Rehabilitation will just happen if the gambler is willing to rehabilitate himself and his family are willing to help him.

Aside from that, it will be hard for the gambler to rehabilitate especially if he still has lot of money because an addicted gambler will gamble every cent of money that he has and if he loses, he will find a way to get some money that will be used in gambling.

Changing is not impossible but it is hard to do especially if you are addicted into gambling.

It is easy to say since we are not in their positions but if we try to think their current positions right now, I know that it is hard for them to change since they've already addicted into it. Changing a person isn't impossible but it is hard that it is "almost" impossible.

Do you mean the problem of separation from society? This problem concerns not only gambling - many online gamers or some other games become fanatics of this activity and forget about everything else. I heard in China there were cases when players died right in the gaming clubs due to the fact that they forgot to eat/sleep.

Compulsive gambling is a product of addiction. When these kinds of things happens to you then you may have lost yourself and people like that are usually miserable. Such person will need a help from loved ones. , He will need to forget about all his previous to overcome that compulsion because that is the chain of connection between them.

Agree, no one is gonna make them work for you though. A professional is just a title, they spit words and advice as well like your family, friends and such, it might be that they have some sort of best choices of words for you. But no matter what would it be, if you don't listen, as what I said again, no one is gonna make them work for you. A gambler has to stand up, and should make it happen. Unless, if it has to be physical then be it (but probably won't happening when no one's been affected by gambler's action/habit). And in addition, he won't be able to seek professional advice unless he will prepare a time for it that requires sacrificing his time on gambling.

I actually collect cheaper addictions. They are a good reason to get out of bed in the morning. Gambling (or drugs) are just too costly for my budget no matter how much money i got.

I'm an online gamer and I felt this. Separation from society.

Whenever I go out, I'm comfortable if I'm alone compare to the times where I got some friends if I'm outside. You said that there are cases in China who died because they forgot to eat/sleep. That only means that they are in a gaming addiction and many are experiencing the same thing as they've experienced. Lucky for me, I can control myself whenever and I can manage my time. I know how many hours will I play, go outside, eat and sleep but there are times that I take lesser sleep hours than the usual but I only do it once a week (mostly on Fridays) because of my current work too.

This is a must do but if you do not become aware that you are becoming a compulsive gambler then it really is difficult because you might deny that you are having gambling problems which creates a barrier amongst the people that tries to help you so self-awareness is a must and you can never go wrong when you accept that you are having problems.

Excellent point made, actually it's winning that makes gambling more addictive because when you initially gamble and you loose then you won't get habitual to it but for some reason if you win then you get addicted to it and feel like you found an easy way of earning which is what casinos want because I remember I was talking to a real life casino owner and someone won a big amount and I asked him how do yo handle these losses? he told me just one line " No matter how much he wins today, eventually he will loose all one day here itself".

I agree that sometimes too big a loss can wake you up and that is a good time to re-evaluate yourself because no matter what anyone says as long as we are in the gambling trap where we loose some money win some loose more repeat we would never understand how much we are actually loosing. But once we loose a big amount suddenly we realize like "oh man what have I done?" that is the feeling that can help you exclude yourself from gambling.

The feeling of comfort from being alone is probably not related to desocialization from games. I think this is just a stage of growing up.
The fact that you follow time management and do not allow games to take your time from necessary things such as sleep and work suggests that everything is fine with you and you have no dependence with which you should fight.

Family support is one thing but gambling addiction or compulsive gambling is as dangerous as smoking and drugs because while it does not effect you physically as much although it does hurt you mentally but it hurts you financially. Any addiction that is affecting you financially must be treated in a proper way and when I say proper I mean there must be a doctor's advice whether it is psychological advice or they suggest you to visit rehab centers.

I wonder why people have hard time confessing about their gambling habit while they will proudly walk into rehab center if they are addicted with drugs and feel proud they are being treated. I don't know if drugs addiction counts as a sign of royalty but I have often seen that such people don't feel shame while a gambler would always ashamed to confess their gambling addiction to anyone even their family.

The answer would always be the , people should get therapy and improve their self-discipline, but I think the problem doesn't come only from the person but the businesses too, as long as there are people that are willing to exploit this poor people there is a big chance that the problem of compulsive gambling will not stuff.

Some are hard to control them self because once they are losing big money they want it to come back there losses so they still in gambling. But some are have control they know when to stop and they know when they gamble again. Its been hard once you get addicted on gambling you gonna be hard to stop it.

Some people are just persistent, some people just don't like to quit so easily. There are pushers, people who push until they get what they want. Sometimes watching from a side and criticize is bad thing to do, standing on a side and talking what is good and what is bad. I hate commentators who never got their hands dirty, commentators who never tried anything.
Generally people should do what they wish to do, if you like to gamble and to spend money on gambling it's your thing. Others can dislike that, they can try to stop you, but that will not work, in long run there will be just more tension between that will lead to many problems.
Understanding is the key of successful relationship. I gamble every day, today I am free, I drink a beer and play poker cash hands, my wife understands me, even if I get drunk and lose money.

You should never trust any commentators especially if they don't have any experience in what you are doing. The only thing you need to change when you realized that you have a problem in yourself, Deep realization will help you to change as for my experience. I also have experience getting drunk while playing gambling before and the outcome is always negative, Tried to stop that few times and I successfully get rid of that habit of mine, I can now still control myself from playing gambling and when I play I don't do the things that I know will bring negative things to my gambling activity.

When a person does not listen to advice from family or friends that it is time for him to stop gambling - this can be called a disease with confidence and such people need to be treated. It's like alcoholism.
There have long been clinics that treat people who are addicted to gambling. The most important thing is that the person himself realized that he has such a problem, then he can get rid of it.

Good for you! Gambling is not for everyone, for sure, and drugs, well, they should never be the reason to get out of bed in the morning for anyone, even if they were cheap. Compulsive gamblers, same as drug addicts, destroy their lives and the lives of those around them, and, normally, with time it's only getting worse. Such people should be cured from their addiction as soon as possible, they simply have no other options.

Clinics or professional help wont really be that affective if a certain gambler do have that severe addiction.He wont listen to anyone for sure.
To treat oneself then everything should really be realized on what are the things would be mainly affected if they do tolerate such addiction.
Not only financial aspect but also on social or family relationship would be destroyed.Gambling industry is really become profitable due to this behavior.

Seeking professional help was very important especially in this kind of situation. If we want to help ourselves we should prevent it from the start. If we have a problem about controlling ourselves in gambling we should stay away from it. On the other hand gambling is not bad, it really depends on your discipline. Play responsibly.

In any case, the family needs to save the person somehow, so they will try various ways to wean the person from excessive gambling.As it is, I do not wish anyone to have such a family member.

From what I've read, oftentimes a compulsive gambler has to reach rock bottom before he/she realizes the seriousness of the addiction.

I disagree. It depends on the person in charge for you as how well, especially their methods, in handling such cases. It would be hard at first of course and some may say that they listened but can't stop doing the same thing over and over again. I think most seek professional help in their own volition because they had become aware that their addiction had led to unwanted events taking place in their lives. All I can say is that treating addiction is a process.

That is true. The realizes of what he already did so far will come too late. There will take one moment that will show to him that what he did is wrong, and he only has one choice to fix it up. Otherwise, he will regret his entire life because he cannot back to that moment if he doesn't decide to realize and to try to rise from the bottom.

At this moment, the help of the family will be necessary because the family will try to take him from the bottom, and will be beside him to help and solve the problem. But if he still doesn't want to change, then there is no other way that other people or his family can do.

That's probably true with respect to any addiction

Since if you realize how harmful your habit is before your reach the "rock bottom" and can stop there, you are certainly not addicted to the hilt. However, if you are, and you eventually reach that bottom, it may be too late already. Too late is definitely true in case of drugs and alcohol, but even with gambling you may have already ruined your finances as well as your family by that time beyond the point of no return

Nobody could help them but their own if they wouldn't do anything they couldn't be cured at all.
They need to acknowledge their gambling issue first before they go ask for other people's help.
Because as long as they don't accept it on their own nobody could convince or help them.

Actually, it's not about listening or not listening. Of course a compulsive gambler won't listen to anyone being in the state he/she is. But this state can be changed with the help of antidepressants and mood stabilizers, and then they can listen. It's a fact that medications used in treating substance abuse can help treat compulsive gambling, and that's why it's so important to reach out to professionals as long as a gambling problem is there.



Gambling industry doesn't profit from people's illnesses, it profits from the house edge. In fact, if there were no gambling addicts, and, as a consequence, less governmental restrictions, gambling industry would only benefit from it. So, compulsive gamblers cause harm not only to them and their families, but to the gambling industry as well.

I fully agree with you, some countries ban gambling because of its negative effect like addiction, like China they are a country with the most number of population and if only gambling is not illegal in such country imagine how big it will contribute to the gambling industry, that would certainly make gambling sites  more profitable.

I can't say that I truly disagree with the point established

With that said, however, I don't think it is quite correct to say that the gambling industry doesn't profit from people's addictions because it profits from the house edge. Technically, casinos profit from the house edge as it all eventually comes down to it as luck gets completely removed in the process (even if you don't agree with the latter)

But would you agree if I started to claim that fraudulent scheme operators profit not from their guileless victims but rather from selling their "tokens" even if it does in fact technically come down to selling some coupons allegedly representing value? I don't think you would. But how is that different from casinos profiting off their players, addicted or otherwise?

This is something I agree with, it may seem on the surface that the gambling industry takes advantage of those that become addicted to gambling but if it was not for them then gambling will not have as much of a bad reputation as it has now, in my country it is still very common to find people that have a very negative attitude to the casinos and the people that play in them, when the truth is that the majority of the gamblers are just normal people that gamble responsibly once in a while.

This is not such an obvious question as it seems. If I remember correctly, poker lost a lot in development when some countries began to regulate it more tightly, and some completely banned it. Given the fact that the internet space is globalized, I do not think that in this area we will move towards weakening regulation. On the contrary, there will be more prohibitions. And most of these prohibitions are related to gambling addiction, which is inseparable from gambling.

Gambling addiction is a psychological illness in which recovery depends primarily on the patient himself. If he is not aware of his illness and does not want to get rid of it, then no matter how good a doctor treats him, he will not be able to recover. He will always break down and run to the casino again and again.

In the case of fraudulent scheme operators, the vast majority of their income comes from their guileless victims who are buying tokens/coupons which cost less or nothing in the end. Those victims account for up to 100% from whom those scammers profit.

But only 1% to 3% of all gamblers are addicted ones. Gambling industry could do without them easily. Hope, you can see the difference.

According to some articles that I've read, almost 80% of the people are suffering from gambling addiction.
Agree, sometimes you're not aware about your illness and will discover it once you take the effect of your actions or maybe there are other things that gets affected. So it may take a lot of time just to recover a person who's really suffering in gambling addiction.

Addiction is one of the hardest mental illnesses to treat so be careful on compulsive gambling.  :(

I definitely agree with you here. Technically also, without the people who are addicted in gambling, house edge won't earn any money, so they should exist for each other so the gambling business to keep running and people have chances to win in gambling, though that is very hard to happen for everyone. I don't know how many tries of a certain individual needs to win profits in gambling that he wants because most of the time, it will depends on his luck alone.

Coming to gambling with strategies in plan will not even guarantee your the win but it would only increase your chances of winning.


Cause harm to gambling industry? I don't think so, that doesn't make any sense at all.

Unfortunately, those who are very much hooked on gambling will ignore every sign and will just continue to gamble, even suggestions coming from friends and relatives, they will only realize it when it is almost too late that they almost lose everything, this is when they start to realize that they are a compulsive gambler and needs treatment.

Sure did, many gamblers always have this mindset that they are just enjoying whether they're losing or winning they've keep in their minds that everything is fine, but the moment that they've seen how much time and money that has been wasted that is the time they will start to find help and proper treatment to avoid more.

You can't really call yourself a compulsive gambler unless you have a bigger bankroll size. I said that because the bigger the size of your capital, the longer you will play the game till you lose everything. That's when you can consider yourself as compulsive gambler. Those with small bankrolls get rekt quick still because of their uncontrollable nature but they still gamble with what they can afford to lose whereas high capital losses should not be considered something as affordable gambling.

True, it's hard to recognize mental illness and sometimes, the people around are the one who notices it first.
Gambling addiction is the most common addiction after drugs, they should take it seriously before it happens to themselves.

It is not so easy for find it for themselves as they are already addicted to it until they find themselves in a situation where they have gone too far losing everything and even if winning, they could not stop due to their inability to control their minds. I hope that some day, people will start recognizing themselves and if they find themselves under a 'gambler's' category, they will take necessary steps to remain under controlled mindset and not to get addicted to it and cut their connections with almost everyone in their life.

Yes, to get rid off the problems of compulsive gambling, gamblers must realize themselves as the category of "addicted gamblers", only from that point they could make differences into their gambling activities. If they do not take time for self evaluating about their addiction levels on gambling, they will never able to get out of it.

I believe most gamblers do not recognize themselves as a gambler but they do think like they are making fun out of gambling still they do believe they are not the actual gamblers. Before they are realizing about their addiction, most gamblers are getting addicted to gambling severely. From the point when they are doing self-evaluation, I guess changes to their life will be happening.

As I said, I don't disagree with you

But still you make it look and sound like casino operators profit from something else (house edge) other than their gamblers. Even if technically true, it is not the house edge, it is the money of players that becomes the money of a casino. Whether the money is coming from compulsive gamblers or normal ones is irrelevant from this perspective. It is a zero-sum game after all (plus or minus the house edge)

People just sometimes think that they are healthy, they do not notice what harm they do to themselves and their family by constantly spending money and time on gambling/alcoholism/drug addiction. This makes it difficult to convince them that they should start treatment for addiction.

So many people saying compulsive gambling/reckless gambling but what is your basis on this? Have you seen a gambler online really do this? or having a testimony himself here and lost a big chunk of money or just a hunch? Maybe on a physical gambling platform, they are more devoted to gambling because the influence of alcohol exists at the same time.

I've seen a number of people in person and online through forums like this one compulsively gamble and lose large amounts of money through online platforms. If anything, it can be much easier for people to compulsively gamble through an online platform rather than a physical one because many don't require very detailed verification, and you just need a few seconds and a few clicks to login to an online gambling account. Alcohol can definitely play a part in physical gambling addiction, but online gambling can be just as dangerous.

Today there are a lot of people now are playing gambling games we all know that by this game we can earn a lot of money and profit by just identifying the winning combinations. Still, there is an essential thing we need to do before we take into a gambling game. There are a lot of people investing time to make a research about the things related to the gambling some of them ask other people and made their own techniques and tricks to earn more knowledge and use this to take advantage of the other player. Even we are skilled enough we need to be prepared about the things we did not expect like facing other people that is too much great on us, also playing gambling is very risky it takes a chance of fifty percent or half of it to earn your profit. Still, it ks better if we have an optimistic mind to get more focus and avoid losing money or it is better to earn more income.

Because that is how things work, people are good on giving advices but the irony will be always there, since they can't even give advice for themselves. Other people are meddling in other's people lives that is how they can't spot or realized what is wrong with them, because they don't have time to look at themselves in the mirror, or maybe, that is how they define what happiness is, by not minding their own business.

They are calling others addict even themselves are addict too in something else. Curing addiction is no joke, whether it is in gambling, drugs, or alcohol, it will takes courage and effort to eliminate the bad addiction to all of us.

true true mate but we should do it than not doing it all because once you give advice to other people atleast some of them can listen on it and realized thier mistake and who knows?

  what if one day they prolly decided to stop  .

we can still changed lives on our own little ways or by simply saying a motivational speech or advices even if you knew to yourself that you are not perfect  .

 well there is no perfect on this world anyways. 

I think most people here on forum like me who say we are compulsive gambler aren't actually so. I mean surely, many symptoms match and we do gamble away important funds but there's the trigger which is in our body which might be partially damaged but still works to help us stop the gambling and feel sad about our losses before it is too late.

We never know what their basis for doing that because I never saw an online gambler doing compulsive gambling to stay at the front of his computer for playing gambling all day long. But I guess that guy is out there, playing gambling only. But I saw my friend in a group chat telling about his days to playing gambling, and he tells that day he lose some amount of money. The other day, he said to us that he loses some money. The next day, he tells me that he win some money. I never met that person in real life, but we met in a group chat, and we were good friends.

I keep saying this but this is the reason you have to be aware of their addiction and treat it as any other addiction. Not with stigma and negative emotions but with supportive ones. And encourage them always to reach out to you.

In terms of prevention, buddy system! Have someone to monitor you, and you monitor someone, together you help each other prevent over compulsion,,, win win.

Exactly, and that's my point. Some players are winning and others are losing at the same time, and what is won by the former group is compensated by the latter one. And what's left for the gambling site is the house edge, not the money lost by some players.

Gambling sites want as many players as possible not only because the more money is wagered on the site, the more the site earns due to the house edge, but also because if only a few players are there, it becomes a game between them and the site: if someone loses big, it's the site's profit, BUT if someone wins big, the site has to shell out a big money.

And, being serious businessmen, gambling site owners don't want to gamble, they prefer the security/stability of earning from the house edge, when gamblers, basically, play with each other and pay to the site, in the form of the house edge, for providing a platform for gambling.

I know it may seem like only poker sites operate this way, but, in fact, it's applicable to all gambling sites with thousands of active users.

         That is also the main reason why they keep advertising to attract more of the peoples attention and join the house to play. Since there are also lots of competition they are also upgrading little by little.
 
          Imagine they only launched recently and then they got sudden bankrupt because they lose more than they earn, then immediately they will shutdown. Anyway this feels like we are talking some basic business or structure of any casinos, its completetely irrelevant.

Indeed, all things depend on the person. If he considers gambling as entertainment only, then it is good. Gambling is entertaining, especially those gambling games that require your skills because it has a thrill for me. The gambling only becomes terrible on you if you are really addicted to it. If you are not doing things aside from betting, it makes you so unproductive. Even your health is also affected by it. You may lose weight on it because of the skipping game especially if you are focused on the game. Gambling also affects your mental health or can be called as compulsive gambling, if you cannot control yourself from betting, that's the time that you can now tell yourself that you are compulsive gambling, do not let your self to be like that because it will destroy your life, it will ruin your relationship on your family, friends, partners, and people around you.

Make gambling only as a form of game or entertainment, do not make it as your life, you can play anytime but make sure that it won't affect your life as a right person.

Motivational speech will not be fully effective, unless they take it seriously, because I know that gamblers are prideful, they won't even listen to any of your advices because that would only hurt their egos, and that is what the other problem. People who didn't know how to listed or didn't want to be corrected will never be able to mature, or to help himself on his problem, because he is going to insist forever that he is right.

However, taking the chances to help other people will not be totally wasted because there is a little chance that it would shake them on daydreaming in gambling.

Many people don't realise they have a problem until it's too late, or they just don't want to admit themselves they have a problem.
If someone's life is turning around gambling and that is the most important thing in his life and everything else doesn't matter because of gambling then we can speak about addiction and compulsive gambling. This is not so hard to detect, especialy for gambler's environment, friends and family. It's just the question if addicted gambler is aware of problems and if he wants to be helped.
As far as iI know compulsive gambling is in same category as alcohol or drug addiction so this is very serious social problem.

I have seen one person very clearly that I am 100% sure that was compulsive gambling... me. I was a lot younger and was probably 7-8 years ago but I personally did gambled a lot back to back without really wanting to do that but couldn't stop myself to chase the losses and eventually lost hundreds of dollars (a lot for me at the time) and to this day I still see it as money well spent because it kept me away from gambling for a long time and even today I do not wager more than 4-20 dollars in any sports or any other gambling thing.

If losing 200 dollars meant that I won't be losing more to gambling in the long term I see that as a good investment to not lose in the future honestly.

If you take stuff  like drug to be happy, there is a high chances of you getting addicted to it especially when things aren't going well for you. This is likely what gambling for entertainment would do to someone, (assumming people want the entertainment in order to be happy). You will probably become attached to the gambling when you seek happiness. This is why it important to be skillful in what you do, get rewards from it,  it benefits others too, you enjoy doing it, you stay long doing it and it produces more rewards for you and others. Putting to much time/money on things that do not benefit others, and probably you is kind of a waste and an addiction.

It is good that you have admitted being a compulsive gambler because accepting reality will same us from being addicted well at least in my own perspective because the more we deny is the more we cannot leave it.

realization keeps us on the right track and this will never happen if we dont accept being one.
and also we can do it by mistake but living on this?that is the problem because even we already knew the wrong doings still we continues living with this so better change of accept the consequences .

You cannot reverse the argument cause when he mentioned professionals, they are far too different from your relatives and friends. Professionals have their own ways on how they would assess the situation and condition things to make it change. It could actually be a great help if you would start consulting on a professional so that your gambling addiction would end and you can avoid any possible future casualties and losses.

Actually, we cannot make self assessment. It would be best if we see a professional and let them have the confirmation if you can be diagnosed as a compulsive gambler. Afterwards, if you really are, start listening to their advices or medications (if necessary) if you want it to stop already.

Even if you do not have a personal experience with a person that is a compulsive gambler there are still many studies that show that a small minority of the gamblers have problems controlling their impulses, so we know for a fact there are people like that, also if anything online gambling has made easier for those people to engage in that behaviour since now you can do it in the privacy of your own home and finally the alcohol factor still applies to online gambling since compulsive gamblers can still consume it at their home.

Somehow, that's not my point altogether

I'm not questioning the level of change that an experienced and highly-qualified professional can make. However, if the compulsive gambler in question is not willing to see any professional help at all or he doesn't even accept the reality of his addiction in the first place, how's that supposed to work out?

The truth is a gambler who genuinely accepts that he is addicted may not even need this help after all. As already said on numerous occasions, this kind of addiction is not dangerous on its own (apart from its consequences which can be quite devastating indeed). It is a mild form of addiction, and as such, it is a matter of personal choice mostly

Definitely, those with maximum addiction to gambling should embark on compulsory retirement as this will ensure he or she escape from psychiatric. I heard a friend who was so much addicted to gambling, he would ho extra mile to gamble his salary for the whole month and left the family in severe hunger, sometimes I heard to come to their aid because he was my best friend from childhood. Though, this was the reason we separated as friends and I regretted befriended him from childhood. We as gamblers should know that, addiction to gambling demand compulsory retirement to keep our good friends in life.

Although we all talk about being controlled gamblers there are people among us who are gambling a lot and not being able to stop playing. If they are unable to control their urge it becomes bad for them and their close ones. Becoming a compulsive gambler is correctable and it is important to recognise such a person early so that others can come in to help.

Check you bankroll, playing times and family time to get an idea of how much you are spending online.

The approach to curing the compulsive gambling is spot-on but it is pointed that a gambler will not cure himself, the correct way was to have a family intervention. Wherein, the people who are around the affected person will do the initiative in helping the person. It should come to the point where you are ready to decline the persons request to play just another game. Pleading them to rehabilitate will do almost nothing but you can all persuade him to rehabilitate by making sure that you cut off their funds for gambling and keeping watch. Of course, this things won't work if the gambler doesn't see himself as a gambler that harms his/her loved ones.

And here's a big problem. Addicted gamblers normally don't mean to harm their loved ones. Quite the contrary, they want to make their lives better by winning big amounts and sharing with them. But what they don't see, being blinded by their addiction, is that they have more chances of losing their bankroll than that of winning big amounts, or, of winning a significant, more than 50%, addition to their bankroll, to be more precise. And they, compulsive gamblers, usually aim to increase their bankroll by 100% and more, forgetting that it is highly unlikely to achieve that.

Oh, did I read you right?

It seems that now you no longer claim that it is impossible to consistently win from a casino (provided the latter stays provably fair in the process, of course). It is just that your winnings won't be that great. And most importantly, it requires a totally insane amount of patience and focus, which addictive gamblers simply lack for pretty obvious reasons (because so much patience requires a truly conscious effort on the gambler's part, i.e. not emotion)

Man, I never claimed it was impossible. Quite the contrary, I claimed that with billions of gamblers it is possible, for some of them, probably for just one in ten million, to win big amounts, consistently, year after year.

But that's not where compulsive gamblers should look at. It's pretty stupid to think that you can be one of those extremely lucky ones. Rather one should concentrate on what happens to most of the people.

It is really not easy to get over the addiction of gambling. Gambling is something which really can make people an insane addict. Gambling addiction needs a lot of interference of family in the life of a gambler along with proper medication. There are no ways that one can on his own get over the addiction.

That is the extreme type of addicts. One end of the spectrum and not the complete spectrum. There are casual gamblers too how go to Vegas for a stroll and burning some cash at hand. But they dont expect to win and come back soon enough.

In the extreme variety, it does need professional help but lets not make that as a general statement because it is not. Rather it follows a bell shaped curve where the maximum frequency is for those who are occasional players. They play for fun and at the most need the help of their close ones to stop them.

I have shared my story here before in one of the threads, and while I agree that I became seriously addicted to gambling I disagree with the fact that people like me can’t recover, because we very well can recover if we wish to recover and that’s how I recovered despite being a gambling addict.

Further @best dreams I once again disagree with your analysis that a gambler can’t recover on his own, because they can and I have personally seen people who have recovered because they felt the need to do so.

Lastly in my personal opinion I feel that what you’re saying maybe partially true, or you have very less experience of the gambling industry hence you’re being overly judgmental in the case of addicted gamblers.

Good idea. What levels do you find critical in this case? All people are individual and it seems to me that the range will be very wide. Even families are very different from each other, so it will be difficult to set some parameters common to all. I think people need to compare their behavior with that period of time when they were not involved in gambling. And then they can understand how much gambling has affected them.

I am sure they can recover but some people need professional help in recovering and staying on the right path. If you have been able to control yourself with time and kept your playing habits to much less what you had at one time then congratulations to you. But not everyone can do that.

Anything said here is partially true. Because this addiction is more on a subjective level. We rarely see the extreme cases on these forums. Because ones who ended up coming here sacrificed their account for a last ditch loan attempt and then never came back or sold their accounts. :D

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No sure what you mean by level here?

Thats the job of the people who write the DSM5 or 6 and ICD books. ;D