What Is Game Addiction or Pathological Game?

The easy access to sports betting and games of chance (roulette, poker and slot machines, mainly) through applications for the mobile and computer, which can be accessed 24 hours a day by making low-money bets, leads to teenagers and young people to believe that the risk is minimal.

The anonymity that the internet gives them and the immediacy of the results are two of the reasons that encourage them to “try their luck” in betting and in this type of game. In fact, they start playing on togel hongkong these websites from their own home or in groups of friends and they bet on all kinds of variables: who will score first, how many goals each team will score, etc. … Even if they win sometime, the losses will always outweigh the gains and the losses will come … that’s when they will try to recover what was lost, which will lead them to ask for and sometimes steal money from family or friends.

Therefore, what was once gambling or gambling out of curiosity, entertainment or fun has become a necessity, an addiction for which families, educators and socio-health professionals have the responsibility to protect our young people and educate them in a world in which the game is and will be present and convey that with the game they will never win.

What is Gambling Addiction or Pathological Gambling?

The game is an activity that has always accompanied the human being, as a leisure option, as a way of learning, of relating to others, of avoiding routines … but it is also a business that generates multimillion-dollar benefits and is now more accessible never. Although over time we manage to reduce its advertising and change the regulations that regulate it, we must learn to live in a world with gambling without this posing a risk.

Gambling addiction or pathological gambling is a disease or disorder recognized by the World Health Organization, in which a behavior of “persistent and recurrent problematic gambling” appears, causing a deterioration or clinically significant discomfort. This disorder can appear with any type of gambling (slot machines, bingo, roulette, poker, sports betting, lotteries, etc.)

  • You need to play more and more money and more often.
  • You have tried several times to control, reduce, or quit the game, without success.
  • You feel nervous or irritable when you try to reduce or quit the game.
  • Often, he has a busy mind when betting or making plays.
  • Play as a way to escape discomfort.
  • When he loses money, he usually comes back to try to “recoup the losses.”
  • He lies to hide his degree of involvement in the game.
  • You have jeopardized or lost an important relationship, your studies, or a job.
  • Count on others to solve the consequences of the game.

Economic

Although the game togel singapore can be seen as a way to obtain “easy money”, when this problem is increasing it tends to monopolize all the player’s economic resources and has to look for money from other sources such as borrowing from friends and / or family, spending savings, abuse of cards or so-called “microcredits”.

These are small loans but with high interests, which, although they do not require many conditions to obtain them, are often unpaid due to the lack of resources and when interest accumulates, they can generate large debts.

Psychological

When the game becomes abusive, symptoms of depression, anxiety, impulsiveness, aggressiveness, isolation can appear, and in serious situations, even thoughts of suicide.

2. Characteristics of sports betting players:

Although pathological gambling can develop with any type of gambling (machines, bingo, roulette, poker, etc.) we have observed that sports betting players develop some distinctive behaviors.

The act of gambling (playing) is a minority compared to other activities directly related to gambling: looking for sports information, consulting results, visiting specialized websites or forums, preparing statistics, following sporting events, etc. These activities take up much of your time and become your primary concern. Although they are big sports fans, over time they lose interest in watching the games to focus exclusively on gambling. They even develop anxiety symptoms (excessive worry, tension, irritability) before events or sports information.