How Gambling Addiction Affects Families

Many countries have either outlawed or allowed online gambling, with many regulations and laws surrounding it of course. One country that allows online gambling is France, who passed new regulations and laws March, 5th 2009. They believe that rather than banning 2,500 websites, it would be more innovative to give licenses to those who respect public and social order. France is looking to adapt to “internet reality”, however that means regulating online gambling, i.e. taxing the income made on it. However betting exchanges will remain illegal under these new regulations and laws.

On February, 26th 2013 a revised bill permitted online gambling in New Jersey. The law legalizes online gambling for a 10 year trial period, restricts the operation of the websites to Atlantic City's eleven casinos, and imposes a 15% tax on online gambling revenue, instead of the 8% currently imposed on casinos. The act requires that the gambler be at least 21 years old and play from a computer in New Jersey.

However gambling can be very addictive and psychologically harming. Gambling is one of the most insidious of human vices, as it presents the illusion of easy money yet can quickly lead to financial ruin. The odds are never in your favor whether it is poker, blackjack or anything else; gambling is a successful industry because the house always wins. The addiction can occur when a person feels that they are in financial ruin and can only solve their problems by gambling what little they have in an attempt to get a large sum of money. Unfortunately, this almost always leads to a cycle in which the gambler feels they must win back their losses, and the cycle goes on until the person is forced to seek rehabilitation to break their habit.

Another type of gambling addiction results when a gambler plays the games and makes risky bets to experience the emotional high associated with taking huge risks that occasionally pay off. In both cases, the person affected by this addiction must have the desire to stop the behavior, not just to please family and friends.

Excessive gambling often causes many emotional symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts and actions. In extreme situations, these thoughts may lead a gambler to actually making an attempt to end their life. Losing everything to gambling is devastating and leaves many people feeling completely hopeless.

Gambling far too frequently causes the disintegration of families. Families are often caught off guard and shocked when they find out how much money has been lost at the hand of their spouses gambling addiction. They feel betrayed by their partner and scared in the sudden realization of their financial crisis. Savings, property, and or belongings may be suddenly lost at this time. Isolation may set in because of how much the gambler has hurt their family, which stalls or sometimes completely stops the healing process.

There can be a grave impact on children in the family when a parent has a gambling addiction. They may feel forgotten, depressed and angry, sometimes feeling that they have caused this problem, and that if they are “good” that the problem will stop. Some children take care of younger brothers or sisters, or try to support their parent. This puts a lot of stress and anxiety on the child that they are unable to deal with at that age. Children may also start believing that they must take sides between their parents. They may stop trusting a parent that makes promises they don’t keep. Sometimes stooping to stealing from a parent or getting in trouble at school. Children may attempt to draw attention away from the parent with the gambling problem by using drugs and alcohol, gambling, and breaking the law.