Gambling: The Need to Bet

For those who don't bet or only do so occasionally, the idea that they might eventually find betting a compulsion seems far-fetched. However, needing to place a bet can be induced by events in your life or forces acting upon you. The resulting compulsion is just as genuine.

Is being dependent on drugs or alcohol the same as the need to gamble?

Being unable to regulate or halt the need is one way in which it is the same. Refusing to recognize the existence of the need and the miserable feelings produced by it are two more ways it matches. Both dependencies become worse and worse over time and the steps down that worsening path match in each case as well.

Step one is the 'hunt', seeking the uplifting feeling that you get when you win. Using the compulsion to mask difficulties or dull the ache they produce. A drug user, alcoholic or compulsive better, are people exclusively focused on their need. They are always seeking that emotional high and they have no good opinion of themselves or their value at all.

Unlike a chemical dependency, the need to place a bet is not demonstrably obvious. Also, someone who bets compulsively can live quite ordinarily for ages. The sizeable amount of money they can owe, however, protrudes onto your notice.

Those in the grip of a betting compulsion need to receive urgent psycho-therapy at the beginning of any rehabilitation regime, since they are much more prone to taking their own life than those suffering from a chemical dependency.

Does every style of betting produce an equally strong compulsion?

Worst of all are those ways to bet that produce an instant high. Arcade games and one-arm-bandits produce such effects. Using these machines and repeatedly obtaining a 'good' feeling, can lead many moderate betters into compulsion, more so than those who bet on other things.