Gambling is a fun activity, but it’s also a risky one. People gamble for a variety of reasons, but it can be an addiction if you don’t control your spending.
A gambling disorder is a serious problem that can affect a person’s life, and they need help to get over it. Treatment options include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic therapy, and family and group therapy.
Defining harm from gambling
There is a need for a consistent definition of harmful gambling to guide research and treatment services. It should be able to encompass the range of experiences and impacts that people have on their lives as well as those of their friends, family and communities. It should also be grounded in a public health approach to ensure that harm is measured and treated in line with other types of harms.
Harm minimisation is an important principle for gambling related harms and is a core component of public health approaches to prevention and intervention. However, defining harm from gambling is not always easy and this has resulted in an ambiguous term that does not capture the full range of experiences and impacts of harm.
We have developed a new definition of harmful gambling that aims to capture the range of experiences and impacts of harms from gambling, whilst ensuring that these can be measured in line with other types of harms. This new definition is based on the concept of Independence of Events and is grounded in a public health approach.
The concept of independence of events is fundamental to the legal definition of gambling and it means that a person cannot have an advantage over another by exploiting past outcomes or by being able to predict the future. This is a crucial difference between betting on a sporting event and gambling on a game of chance, and it makes the difference between legal and illegal gambling.
Identifying and treating harms from gambling can help you understand how gambling affects your life and make positive changes in your habits and lifestyle. These changes may include reducing the amount you spend on gambling, getting help to stop gambling, and changing your relationship with money.
Support for your loved ones
If you are concerned about a friend or loved one who has a gambling problem, it is important to find out if they are receiving treatment and support from a reputable service. This can make all the difference to helping them stay on track and prevent relapse.
A gambling problem is an uncontrollable pattern of behavior that causes significant problems in a person’s life and can interfere with their relationships, work and studies, or even cause criminal acts. Symptoms of a gambling problem can start at a young age or even later in life, and can lead to serious financial, physical, and emotional consequences.
Counselling is often recommended for problem gamblers, but it can be difficult to find someone who will listen and provide the type of therapy that is right for you. Some people choose to get help on their own, but others need a professional.