Medically reviewed:06/22/2018
Last updated: 05/15/2019 Author: Addictions.com Medical Review
To be moral implies a choice. In order for gambling to become a moral issue you need to make a choice about whether to gamble or not. Without the choice it is not a moral issue because it becomes a law to be followed which is an entirely different question. Dec 30, 2016 Now, gambling is a moral issue on which the various denominations of the church have differing positions. It is submitted, however, that here we have one area in which they may be united.
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What is Gambling Addiction?
Gambling addiction or gambling disorder is defined as persistent and recurring problematic gambling behavior that causes distress and impairs your overall livelihood. Gambling addiction affects roughly 0.2% to 0.3% of the general U.S. population, and tends to affects males more than females, though this gender gap has narrowed in recent years. Gambling disorder is a behavioral addiction that can be effectively treated using a range of cognitive and behavioral therapies.
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The desire to buy scratch tickets, play slot machines, and visit casinos aren’t necessarily signs of gambling addiction. But when the desire to gamble becomes overwhelming to the point you can’t stop thinking about it until you gamble on something, may be a sign you need help. Those who suffer from gambling addiction will continue to gamble despite negative financial, legal, and social consequences.
Gambling disorder is a brain disease that can cause you to do things you wouldn’t normally do if you weren’t suffering from addiction. Behavioral addictions like gambling disorder are often difficult to manage and control without getting professional help. Addiction treatment centers can help you overcome gambling addiction and teach you important skills aimed at helping you repair problems in your life caused by your disorder.
What are the Signs and Symptoms of Gambling Addiction?
There are no physical health symptoms associated with gambling disorder. Familiarizing yourself with common gambling addiction behaviors can clue you into whether you or a loved one may need professional help.
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Chasing after losses is the most common tell-tale sign of gambling disorder. This particular symptom is marked by the urgent need to continue gambling to earn back a loss or series of losses. Individuals diagnosed with gambling disorder may abandon their usual gambling strategies to win back all losses at once and may lie to family, friends, and therapists to hide the severity of their addiction.
The following behaviors are potential signs of gambling addiction:
Those with a mild gambling addiction may exhibit between four and five of these behaviors, while those with a moderately severe gambling addiction may exhibit six to seven of these behaviors. People who suffer from severe gambling addiction will usually exhibit all nine behaviors. Moderate to severe cases of gambling disorder tend to be more common than mild cases.
You might have a gambling problem if:
Negative Effects of Gambling Addiction
Gambling addiction can produce many more negative effects than just financial hardship. Gambling disorder can affect your physical health, mental health, and social functioning, and lead to the loss of important relationships with friends and loved ones. You may also suffer a decline in work or school performance, and feel more restless and bored with all other areas of life that don’t involve gambling.
Those who suffer from gambling addiction tend to suffer from higher rates of poor general health than those who don’t gamble. Tachycardia and angina are common health problems among those diagnosed with gambling addiction. Many who suffer from gambling disorder also tend to experience distortions in thinking surrounding their addiction, such as superstitions, overconfidence, and a sense of power over the outcome of chance events. Nearly 50% of those receiving treatment for gambling disorder experience suicidal ideation, while an estimated 17% have tried to commit suicide.
The negative effects of problem gambling include:
How Does Gambling Addiction Interact with Addiction?
Alcohol and cocaine are the two most common substances associated with gambling and binge gambling, respectively. Alcohol is legally available in most gambling settings such as bars and casinos and is often rewarded to gamblers for free at many of these establishments. Roughly 44% of people with gambling disorder in the U.S. also suffer from an alcohol use disorder.
Binge gambling is defined as intermittent episodes of uncontrolled gambling after long periods of abstinence. For instance, a person who practices binge gambling may only visit the casino five times per year but gamble non-stop for long periods during their stay. Cocaine use tends to be common among these gamblers since it produces stimulating effects of increased energy, alertness, focus, concentration, and confidence.
Individuals with gambling disorders tend to suffer higher rates of co-occurring alcohol and drug use disorders compared to their peers. Gambling often takes place in environments that enable and encourage alcohol and drug use. Gambling can also trigger mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, which many may self-treat using alcohol and drugs like marijuana, painkillers, and other addictive substances.
How Are Gambling Addiction and Substance Use Treated?
Gambling addiction is commonly treated using cognitive and behavioral therapies that treat the root psychological causes of your addiction. These therapies also help you identify and change negative, unhealthy thoughts and behaviors that may have led to your gambling addiction. Treatments for gambling addiction can be tailored especially for you or your loved one based on the factors surrounding your disorder.
Gambling addiction can also be treated using community reinforcement, group therapy, and 12-step support groups like Gamblers Anonymous. These treatments help you identify your triggers that can lead to gambling and teach you ways to overcome and manage those triggers. For instance, if a stressful day at work usually makes you feel like gambling, you may learn yoga, deep breathing, or other healthy methods that relieve stress without putting your health and well-being at risk.
Gambling Addiction Help
If you or someone you love needs treatment for gambling addiction, it’s important that you use a treatment approach that best suits your recovery needs. Gambling addiction treatment is available in many different settings, including inpatient and outpatient treatment settings.
Inpatient gambling addiction treatment can greatly benefit those who suffer from severe gambling disorder, and who have suffered severe financial, legal, or social problems. Inpatient treatment includes around-the-clock supervision in a hospital-like setting where you can live for the duration of your treatment program. The intense level of therapy, counseling, and supervision provided by inpatient treatment centers can help significantly reduce the risk of relapse while in recovery.
Compulsive gamblers often need support from friends, family members, and peers to help them stop gambling. Gamblers Anonymous groups can provide peer and social support for those in recovery or for those who wish they can stop gambling. These groups can provide a solid, healthy foundation for a successful and long-term recovery from gambling addiction.
Here’s how to help a family member or loved one suffering from a gambling addiction:
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Looking at the ethical view of gambling through the eyes of Utilitarianism and Deontology perspectives we will find 2 very different views with the same outcome. Should there be any restriction of gambling? Is it a form of freedom, or an invitation to addiction?
George Washington said: “Gambling is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.” Benjamin Franklin advised: “Keep flax from fire, and youth from gaming.” There is all kinds of gambling these days, there is internet gaming, sports wagers, casinos, animal fighting , and many other ways , we can even gamble in the stock market.
Utilitarianism suggest that we do what’s right for the most people involved. As I think about that statement the only entity that gambling really helps is the corporation that is presenting the gambling opportunity itself. Money that could be invested, loaned, and recycled through the economy is instead risked in a legalized gambling scheme. Legalized gambling siphons off a lot of money from the economy.
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More money is wagered on gambling than is spent on elementary and secondary education ($286 billion versus $213 billion in 1990). Historian John Ezel concludes in his book, Fortune’s Merry Wheel, “If history teaches us anything, a study of over 1300 legal lotteries held in the United States proves…they cost more than they brought in if their total impact on society is reckoned.”
What is better for the good of society would be to stop gambling all together because only a handful of people may win enough to actually help them in anyway at all. Sports gambling has affected sports by introducing organized crime into the sporting arena. Past scandals at Boston College or Tulane illustrate how gambling has adversely affected the integrity of athletes, coaches, and colleges. Players have been involved in point-shaving scandals and the problem could only become worse in an environment where sports gambling is legalized.
The solution in the Utilitarianism perspective would be to not allow gambling because it hurts more cities and people than it helps. Psychologist Julian Taber warns, “No one knows the social costs of gambling or how many players will become addicted…the states are experimenting with the minds of the people on a massive scale.”(7) Families are torn apart by strife, divorce, and bankruptcy. Boydon Cole and Sidney Margolius in their book, When You Gamble–You Risk
More Than Your Money, conclude: “There is no doubt of the destructive effect of gambling on the family life. The corrosive effects of gambling attack both the white-collar and blue-collar families with equal vigor.”
Moral Issues In Today's Society
Looking at the Deontology perspective we will try to look at the reasons behind gambling. Although gambling has a clear financial effect, it is fundamentally an emotional issue (KalebKaleigh, May 2011).
The behaviors of an addicted gambler can be similar or the same as a drug addict or alcoholic. A 1994 study out of the University of Illinois that indicated the social problems created by gambling, (e.g., gambling addiction, domestic abuse, suicide, crime, indebtedness, etc.) outweigh by far any benefits to the community. In fact, the gambling enterprise costs “taxpayers $3 for every $1 of state revenue collected.” If gambling hurts more than it helps, the denontology perspective would look at why.
Compulsive gamblers find ways to deal with increasing monetary loses without curbing the gambling habit. For instance, going into retirement savings to try their chance at the “big win.” On the other hand, if the gambler becomes increasingly irritable, taking over finances, and spending more time away from home without an explanation, suspect something is wrong (Stannard,2010). The mentality that you can get something for nothing is very addictive.
When I was a bingo caller we would call a new player a virgin because they did not have the feeling of winning yet but after they won and realized how easy it was and how fun the feeling is when you win, they were instantly addicted. They would be there every night looking for that feeling again, even if they didn’t win for 30 days after. People like getting a lot for a little and the excitement of winning is very addictive.
American society has deemed gambling an activity that is victimless and therefore the right to gamble has been upheld. Gambling disorders are broadly defined as persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling that disrupts personal, family, or vocational pursuits (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
If drugs are illegal because of what they do to individuals and families then why shouldn’t gambling be illegal too? The social and economic cost associated with gambling is enormous. Pathological gamblers may develop general medical conditions associated with stress, and there is elevated risk of suicide (Petry, 2005). Pathological gamblers also are reported to have incresed rates of mood disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and substance use disorders (Crockford & el-Guebaly, 1998).
When looking at this through a Deontologist perspective we have to look at the reasons of gambling addiction. The explanation of loss of control of gambling behavior (so-called pathological gambling) presents a considerable challenge for general theories of addiction for two main reasons. First, unlike many other addictions, gambling does not involve the ingestion of substances that alter psychopharmacological states. Second, like many other addictive activities, the majority of the population participates to some degree (Walker 1992b).
Decision making disorders could play a huge role in a gambling addiction. The addict will have problems deciding when to gamble and how much they should gamble. It has been argued (Evans & Coventry 2006) that the explanation of gambling behavior should be seen in the context of two different types of decision making – implicit and explicit systems. The importance of implicit (unconscious) processes in relation to human decision-making and reasoning has been demonstrated across a wide range of decision-making and reasoning tasks (Evans 2003).
Not matter what the reason is for a gambling addiction, gambling can ruin a person and those around them. Gambling causes crime and families being torn apart. No matter which way you look at gambling either through a Deontologist perspective or Utilitarianism perspective, the outcome is the same. When there is gambling introduced to society, there will also be crime and addiction.
References
A. Bechara, H. Damasio, D. Tranel & A. R. Damasio (1997) Gambling and decisionmaking: A dual process perspective. Science 275:1293-95. Coventry, Kenny R A dual process perspective Coventry, Kenny R. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31.4 (Aug 2008): 444-445
J. St. B. T. Evans (2003) Gambling and decision-making: A dual process perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7:454-459.
R. W. Wiers & A. W. Stacy, eds (2006b) Gambling and decision-making: A dual process perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science 15: 292-96. McKenna, David. 1973. Gambling: Parasite on Public Morals. Christianity Today, June 8. Charles T. Clotfelter and Philip J. Cook, Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), 123-127. List Of Moral Issues Today
International Gaming and Wagering Business, Supplement, The United States
Gross Annual Wager 1997, 30 Downs, C, & Woolrych, R (2010). Gambling and debt: The hidden impacts on family and work life. Community, Work & Family, 13(3), 311–328 Lesieur, HR (1998). Costs and treatment of pathological gambling. The Annals of the American Academy, 556, 153–171 Franklin, J, & Thoms, DR In Shaffer H (Ed.) (1989). Clinical observations of family members of compulsive gamblers. Compulsive gambling: Theory, research and practice (pp. 135–146). ![]() Cite this pageWhat Is A Moral Issue
Ethical Problems of Gambling. (2016, Aug 21). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/ethical-problems-of-gambling-essay
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