If Winning and Losing Leads to Gambling Addiction, Is There Really no Way Out?

[Satofan44]

I am really intrigued by how a normal gambling session can lead to gambling addiction.  I read people saying winning in a gambling session can lead to gambling addiction, while I read in articles that losing also leads to gambling addiction.  Does this mean that whether a person gambles for fun or for profit will be a gambling addict, since both winning and losing are experienced by the same group.

Simply because it is inherently addictive behavior. Any way you engage with it builds an addiction, similar to drugs. There is no way to interact with it without it building an addiction.

This is the reason why playing for fun is no different from playing for profit.  Both groups experience wins and losses, which makes our brain release dopamine that can trigger addiction.

So the question is, "Is there really no way out for gamblers to stay fit and in control?"  Is gambling addiction inevitable??   If winning and losing lead to addiction, how can we maintain our sanity?

There isn't really. You're always having a dance with addiction, and trying to play for fun is just giving you sufficient time away from the game to stay somewhat in control. That does not mean that it is under control at all, it just means that the addiction is always close to catching you.

[Oluwa-btc]

It's not just easy to tackle,the thrill of a win excites someone,and the frustration from a loss makes one want to go back and correct the mistakes which keeps the circle going rounder.This phase requires emotional intelligence,self exclusion,set boundaries and limit access;know the pattern and stay guided.

[hedgeh0g]

It's not just easy to tackle,the thrill of a win excites someone,and the frustration from a loss makes one want to go back and correct the mistakes which keeps the circle going rounder.This phase requires emotional intelligence,self exclusion,set boundaries and limit access;know the pattern and stay guided.

And often the gambler experiences so-called emotional swings - this is a state when his mood changes very quickly: joy to sadness, sadness to anger, and anger will change back to joy and this happens several times a minute and because of this, even the calmest person will begin to behave like a neurasthenic.
So when such a gambler gets a sudden big win, then, of course, he will jump up in his chair and scream with joy, and this will not be typical behavior for him, but unfortunately, gambling does exactly this to people. It makes their mood more unstable.

[HistoLock]

Gambling only because a problem of addiction if one allows it to be. It's almost the same with how other forms of addiction work so that's why I agree that even constant winnings can contribute indirectly to the addiction. One mentality that fuels gambling a lot is the fact that in gambling, you can only lose 100% of your money but you can win as much as 1000x worth of profit.

If you do it long enough to convince your brain that it's a need must situation, then it becomes an addiction.

Gambling addiction is so strange that I have also noticed that those who gamble become more interested in gambling after winning and are pushed towards addiction. On the other hand, it is also seen that those who lose play again to get back their lost money and become addicted. So this shows that gambling is the cause of addiction in both winning and losing. If you are motivated by gambling and play constantly then I would say that you play for a short time and only in your free time when you are free to do nothing. Yes, this is also coming back if you gamble you will not even understand when you will lose all your money and you will not even realize in which direction you will win it is quite strange. So I would say that if you do not control it if you become emotional then gambling will be a huge addiction.

[Solodoski]

I totally agree that gambling addiction has to do with mindset. In your illustration all that helped your friend is his mindset, some other person might feel so confident after winning his first bet and continue gambling, but he choose to stop after winning,  so its just his mind set.
Gambling is very addictive and you getting addicted does not matter if you win or lose, it has to do with your mindset and how discipline you are in life generally,  then you will be able to know how to gamble and not get addicted to it.

[uchegod-21]

This whole confusion  about what exactly leads to gambling addiction proves a point that you can get addicted at any point if you let gambling control you. We must not forget that addiction doesn't just happen, it takes time for one to get very comfortable with whatever he is doing, and with time, it becomes impossible to let it go.

People have different gambling goals, it could be to either make profits, recover losses or just have fun. If one pursues these goals tirelessly and consistently for a while, they make themselves at risk of becoming addicted.

[swogerino]

This whole confusion  about what exactly leads to gambling addiction proves a point that you can get addicted at any point if you let gambling control you. We must not forget that addiction doesn't just happen, it takes time for one to get very comfortable with whatever he is doing, and with time, it becomes impossible to let it go.

People have different gambling goals, it could be to either make profits, recover losses or just have fun. If one pursues these goals tirelessly and consistently for a while, they make themselves at risk of becoming addicted.

It does not that a whole lot of time though and mostly it depends on the personality of the gambler being involved. I know people who were mad for just losing 10 dollars at the offline casinos many many years ago and those people were able to quit right after, there were other types though, usually calm who said, let's try another 10 and then let's try another ten, day by day they were becoming involved and no matter if they won or lost, they kept coming back until they were addicted and the only thing they were thinking was gambling. So winning or losing is not that important, the behavior of the person receiving winning or losing is what really defines what leads to gambling addiction more than anything else.

[IjawMan]

I am really intrigued by how a normal gambling session can lead to gambling addiction.  I read people saying winning in a gambling session can lead to gambling addiction, while I read in articles that losing also leads to gambling addiction.  Does this mean that whether a person gambles for fun or for profit will be a gambling addict, since both winning and losing are experienced by the same group.

Simply because it is inherently addictive behavior. Any way you engage with it builds an addiction, similar to drugs. There is no way to interact with it without it building an addiction.

Interacting with gamble does not essentially makes the individual to be an addict after all, it is about your discipline application with gambling. On engagement to gambling you do not have to act abusive to it, when there is a loss or a win accept it because gambling is a coin with two sides that if you are not losing then you are winning. When you are experiencing any of the outcome never chase because that's how you get into addiction

[serjent05]

I am really intrigued by how a normal gambling session can lead to gambling addiction.  I read people saying winning in a gambling session can lead to gambling addiction, while I read in articles that losing also leads to gambling addiction.  Does this mean that whether a person gambles for fun or for profit will be a gambling addict, since both winning and losing are experienced by the same group.

Simply because it is inherently addictive behavior. Any way you engage with it builds an addiction, similar to drugs. There is no way to interact with it without it building an addiction.

True, people engaging in gambling are always exposed and at risk of gambling addiction. Winning and losing always affect the player's emotions, which in turn produce dopamine.  As the brain produces dopamine, the person's tolerance to its effect increases, but the gambler longs for the experience they had when it was high, so they tend to increase the level of activity, like increasing the amount of bets just to re-experience such a high feeling.

This is the reason why playing for fun is no different from playing for profit.  Both groups experience wins and losses, which makes our brain release dopamine that can trigger addiction.

So the question is, "Is there really no way out for gamblers to stay fit and in control?"  Is gambling addiction inevitable??   If winning and losing lead to addiction, how can we maintain our sanity?

There isn't really. You're always having a dance with addiction, and trying to play for fun is just giving you sufficient time away from the game to stay somewhat in control. That does not mean that it is under control at all, it just means that the addiction is always close to catching you.

Who knows, there are people who are playing for fun who eventually got addicted to gambling.  As far as I know, once a person loses control over their gambling activity, that is the beginning of a person's gambling addiction.

We can never expect what will happen between a session, where we think that we are playing for fun something might happen that can trigger a person to get hooked, lose control and eventually become addicted to gambling. 

People tend to blame the casino ( that will only worsen the case), instead of accepting their shortcomings.  Acknowledging what done wrong is one way of returning to sanity since a gambler knows it was his mistake and people who did this eventually change their behavior toward their gambling activity and return to their sanity.

[Fredomago]

I totally agree that gambling addiction has to do with mindset. In your illustration all that helped your friend is his mindset, some other person might feel so confident after winning his first bet and continue gambling, but he choose to stop after winning,  so its just his mind set.
Gambling is very addictive and you getting addicted does not matter if you win or lose, it has to do with your mindset and how discipline you are in life generally,  then you will be able to know how to gamble and not get addicted to it.

Your own discipline will save your butt into this possible messed that may lead you to addiction, same with you, gambling is addicting and those who unable to control their emotions will lead themselves to ruining both their finances and their relationship, self-control that's comes inside you and the daily practices of such act will keep you in the safer side, while if you misshandled such things and exceed from your set limitations, that's the time that you will start to see yourself being dominated by your emotions and addiction can be the possible outcome.

[TheUltraElite]

The surge of pleasure after having won money by doing nothing is high and is often the reason behind a dopamine release. This experience is often wanted by the person who has experienced it once and therefore they gamble again. This is basically how even one gambling win will lead to addiction.

The way out is to distance yourself from gambling completely and immerse yourself in things that you enjoy doing, those that are not destructive but give a happy feeling.

[Hatchy]

~snip

I totally agree that winning can contribute to ones addiction life. That's true because during our wins, we find our self in a kind of state when we are so full with ideas and had I known taughts. Things begins to run through our mind thinking that if we had just risked more, probably we would have made an amazing amount of money. Then we plan that the next round of game was would increase our risk with full confidence.

Unfortunately we loss the money. Then a second taught would be that maybe this wasn't a good round, so we try again and again ending in an endless round of loss.. that's when addiction comes to play a major role.

[qwertyup23]

I have extensively discussed about this phenomenon calling it as the "cycle of gambling" where a gambler, regardless of the result of his game, would most likely gamble again.

To give you a concrete example, if a gambler wins then the most likely decision that they will do is to try again their luck by gambling again. Additionally if a gambler losses, they will have the tendency to recover their said losses by gambling again. This cycle continues until the gambler either (1) exhausted all of their resources; or (2) decides to STOP and accept defeat.

The reason on why this kind of mindset is particularly dangerous is due to the endless nature and cycle of their decisions. Until they decide and accept defeat, they will always be inclined to gamble again regardless of the result of their games.

[taufik123]

-snip-
The way out is to distance yourself from gambling completely and immerse yourself in things that you enjoy doing, those that are not destructive but give a happy feeling.

That's the best option, not chasing a win that is not even certain or based only on luck, especially if it is too insistent to play with more money.

Gambling should be an entertaining, stress-relieving place with several sports games and bets to choose from.
But there are more people who are looking for instant money with gambling.

If you are lucky and get your first win, then it is the right time to go and take all those wins.
But sometimes someone just wants more than that and plays again, this will enter the addictive stage.

[serjent05]

Gambling should be an entertaining, stress-relieving place with several sports games and bets to choose from.
But there are more people who are looking for instant money with gambling.

I think we are overlooking the fact that entertainment can be addictive.  Even if we intend to play for fun, without greed but just pure entertainment, the brain does not stop producing dopamine.  It isn't the money that produces our brain to excrete more dopamine but rather the high feeling of emotion, the happiness, the feeling euphoria that can also be experience when we are entertaining ourselves, through video games, or other entertaining activities.

This is explained in the article Are video games, screens another addiction? .  So I believe it is a myth to say gamble for fun to avoid gambling addiction.  What implemented should be strict personal discipline and control if we want to continuously engage in gambling activities with regular self-check on signs of gambling addiction.

[Onyeeze]

That is truth that winning and losing in gambling may lead us into addition in gambling, so we need to understand the major thing in gambling knowing that the advantages of losing is a higher than the advantages of winning in gambling so that should be one of them that we are supposed to have in mind about gambling, so I believe that gambling is something that have to do with your own personal experience and you have to check yourself very well before you involve yourself deeply in gambling to avoid unnecessary expenses that we affect you, if someone have a plan about gambling that person will not gamble irresponsibly it must to have a budget and that budget will determined it limit in gambling