Understanding Gambling Addiction and How to Prevent it
Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, March 12, 2024
According to the latest UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) statistics, some 43% of the adult British population participates in some form of gambling activity every month. Approximately 26% of people access online gambling verticals, with this contributing to a cumulative remote betting GGY of £6.5 billion (as of November 2023).
As the online gambling market has grown, however, so too has the number of players and bettors who display compulsive behaviour and develop addictions. But what exactly do we mean by problem gambling, and what are the key signs and symptoms that can help you to regain control of your activity?
Getting Started – What is a Gambling Addiction and How Does it Work?
In simple terms, a gambling addiction is a fundamental impulse control disorder that causes you to gradually wager with greater frequency and increased amounts of money over time. Once this type of addiction has taken hold, it can negatively impact every single aspect of your life and persist even once you become aware of such consequences.
There’s also a practical element to the reason why gambling addiction tends to persist and worsen over an extended period of time. This is because bettors incur greater and more significant losses as compulsive behaviour begin to take hold, so they’ll often have to wager more in an attempt to recoup their previous losses and break even.
But what exactly is the science behind gambling addiction? Well, gambling is an activity that has similarities with consuming alcohol and drugs, in that it activates the brain’s reward system. More specifically, you’ll release a hit of ‘dopamine’ every time you place a bet, which creates feelings of happiness and satisfaction and links this directly to the act of gambling.
Dopamine is a compound that’s present in the body and acts as a neurotransmitter within the brain’s reward system. Its primary role is to reinforce the positive feelings associated with a particular action such as betting, transforming such acts into incredibly emotive pastimes that dictate how we think and behave over time.
But how does compulsive behaviour start to take hold? The issue occurs when you continue to win and bet over time, as you may need to bet more money or with greater frequency to achieve the same dopamine hit and high. It’s at this stage that you may to encounter financial hardship and loss, at which point you’ll begin to see gambling as a means to an end rather than a fun or enticing hobby.
Understanding the Signs and Symptoms of a Gambling Addiction
We live in a truly enlightened age when it comes to mental health issues and associated problems like addiction. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has long since considered addiction as an illness. Because of this, it has been possible to identify and isolate the symptoms of gambling addiction in recent times, which can be broadly described under three primary categories (physical, psychological and behavioural).
Physical Symptoms
The physical symptoms of a gambling addiction are the hardest to isolate, as they can be broad in nature and associated with a raft of other conditions. However, they may well be sustained and worsen over time, as they continue to have a far greater impact on your corporeal wellbeing and condition.
The most common physical symptoms of gambling addiction include headaches, nausea, diarrhoea or constipation and sleep deprivation. Disruption to digestive and cognitive function are particularly commonplace, as you may also encounter so-called “brain fog” and find it hard to perform even the most rudimentary tasks on a daily basis.
Psychological Symptoms
There’s also a strong correlation between these physical symptoms and the psychological manifestation of a gambling addiction. For example, an addiction of this type may encourage feelings of stress, anxiety and even depression over time, and these may also trigger physical issues such as those referenced above.
As your behaviour and addiction progresses, you may also begin to encounter feelings of restlessness, irritability and guilt. The latter feeling will be linked directly to your actions as your addition worsens, especially in instances where you start to spend money recklessly and keep this fact from your loved ones and dependents.
Behavioural Symptoms
Becoming more secretive in the process of gambling more and borrowing money is one of the most prominent signs of addiction. However, most bettors report increased betting activity and expenditure as the first overt symptoms of compulsive behaviour, particularly as you look to recover previous losses with increased aggression.
There’s no doubt that addiction (and indeed any manifestation of mental illness) can also cause you to become more selfish and self-centred over time. This is often no fault of your own, but it’s important to understand how selfish behaviour impacts those around you and can lead to negative consequences in your life.
The Practical Implications of a Gambling Addiction
As we’ve touched on, many of these symptoms are quite broad in nature and may be hard to initially link these directly to a gambling problem. However, there are overt signs and many practical implications of a gambling addiction once it begins to take hold, and recognising these is key if you’re to avoid the worst-case scenarios.
- Financial Hardship and Significant Losses: We’ve already spoken about how dopamine and the impact of continued losses can cause you to wager more and with greater intensity over time. Even if you’re wealthy, this will lead to significant financial hardship and difficulties, as your debt levels continue to increase and you start to struggle with the monthly settlement of bills. You may even eat into your household savings as the situation becomes graver.
- The Breakdown of Personal and Professional Relationships: Developing a gambling problem can be isolating, as you become increasingly preoccupied with betting and recovering gambling losses. This may cause you to neglect your work and other more stable sources of income. At the same time, your focus on gambling and increased spending may cause to become estranged from your spouse or children.
- Increased Emotional Issues and Dysregulation: There are many negative emotions associated with gambling, with problem bettors known to be at a higher risk of developing anxiety, depression and stress-related conditions. This situation may become much worse over time, especially if gambling also emerges as an emotional crutch or coping mechanism or the only viable way of recovering significant losses. The more entrenched your issues become, the worse your emotional state and mental wellbeing gets.
- Developing a Guilty Conscience: When you start to gamble outside of your means and start to acquire funds through extensive borrowing from friends and family, you’ll often do so under false pretences. You’ll also do this with knowledge that you may never be able to pay the money back, creating feelings of guilt, and self-loathing in the process. Similarly, you may draw funds from a joint-bank account or borrow under your partner’s name if your own credit lines have been exhausted, you’ll experience similar feelings of guilt and shame.
- Weakened Physical Health and Associated Addictions: When you become solely preoccupied with gambling and any associated financial issues, you may also neglect your physical wellbeing. More specifically, your diet will suffer and you’ll get less exercise, increasing your risk for several chronic and potentially serious conditions such as heart disease. You may also be at risk of developing similar anti-social behaviours and addictions, with alcohol and drugs known coping mechanisms during times of stress.
What are the Risk Factors for Developing a Gambling Addiction?
Now that you understand the various symptoms and behaviours associated with gambling addiction, the next step is to consider risk factors and your chances of developing this type of compulsive behaviour over time. This is crucial when looking to prevent the onset of problem gambling and recognise signs as early as possible.
- Do You Have Existing Addictions or Mental Health Issues?: Just as a gambling addiction may increase the risk of your becoming hooked on drink or drugs, the reverse scenario is also true. The term “addictive personality” is used to describe a selection of traits, conditions and environmental factors that make you more prone to developing an addiction, although this can be hard to quantify. However, if you struggle with generic mental health issues like anxiety or personality disorders, you’re statistically more at-risk of developing an addiction.
- Age and Gender: It’s thought that younger online gamblers are more at risk of developing an addiction, which is why the UKGC and government have recently sought to impose a £2 slot betting limit for players aged 25 and under. Bettors aged between 18 and 34 are thought to be at particularly high risk. Men are also twice as likely to be problem gamblers than women according to multiple global studies, despite both genders showcasing similar participation rates. This is largely because men bet significantly more than women on average.
- Location and Employment: There was a recent focus on the growth of betting shops and opportunities in deprived areas, such as Erdington in the West Midlands. Recently, the local high street here campaigned to prevent the opening of an eighth betting shop, so there’s no doubt that problem gamblers are more likely to reside in such regions. Intriguingly, they’re also statistically more likely to be unemployed, despite the narrative that big spending VIPs are most at risk. People who are out of work may turn to gambling as a way of generating income, which was a clear trend during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bottom Line – How to Proactively Reduce the Risk of Gambling Addiction
Cleary, the psychological process of addiction can be slow and gradual, so there’s ample opportunity to arrest problem behaviour and proactively change course. This initially requires you to be aware of the early signs, symptoms and behaviours, at which point you can take charge of your activity and plot the best path forward. Here are tips to consider when minimising the risk of gambling addiction.
Manage Your Bankroll Responsibly and in a Disciplined Manner
Before you wager a single penny, you must set a manageable and conservative bankroll. This should never exceed an amount of money than you can comfortably afford to lose. This should also be set to cover a finite period of time, which makes the process of managing your bankroll much easier and responsible. You can seek help in this regard by setting customisable deposit limits that suit your bankroll and the frequency with which you wager.
Fully Utilise the Available Suite of Responsible Gambling Tools Online
Customisable deposit limits are one of the many responsible gambling tools now offered by licensed casinos and sportsbooks online. Other options include self-exclusion, which is overseen by the independent GAMSTOP initiative and enables to take a full break from betting for anywhere between six months and five years. You can also abstain from receiving sponsored messages and bonuses during this time. You can also access your account history at any time online and engage in so-called “reality checks”.
Choose the Most Responsible Payment Methods
It’s also crucial that you wager using payment methods that are responsible and encourage more controlled deposits. For example, the Paysafecard is a prepaid voucher that has a payment limit of £40 per deposit, while it can be reloaded or used to accept withdrawn funds. You may also want to utilise an e-wallet that keeps your bankroll separate from the alternative funds in your bank account. You should definitely refrain from depositing using a Visa debit or credit card, although the latter option is no longer available in the UK having been outlawed by the UK Gambling Commission.