Thursday, November 13th 2008

By Lily Panamsky

     It’s Friday, and some students are thinking of taking a risk tonight. They’re grabbing their money, heading to the nearest casino and letting their chips fall where they may. That’s right—they’re going gambling tonight.

     Gambling opportunities and venues are closer to home than most might think. Lotteries, scratch cards, and online poker are all easily accessible to everyone, including students, and of course, the traditional dim-lit casinos, the havens for gamblers, are scattered throughout the cities.

     With so many different forms of gambling, the total profit in Canada is high. CTV News estimated the net revenue from government-run lotteries, video lottery terminals and casinos at 13.3 billion in 2006. Although millions of Canadians dabble in risky gambling and the Responsible Gambling Council reported that 332 000 people in Canada experience gambling problems, it is university-aged students (18-24 year old) that rank as the most likely age demographic to actually develop such a problem. In fact, the rate at which students find themselves playing toss up with their money is double that of adults.

     McGill University did a review of 23 college studies in 1999 and found that gambling problems were prevalent in seven per cent of college students, compared to 3.4 per cent of adults. The Responsible Gambling Council stated that in 2005, 6.7 per cent of students had a moderate or severe gambling problem.

     When asked why students are at the highest risk for developing an addiction, Dr. Nathan Cooper, a psychologist for the Centre for Student Development, alleged that the historical context of gambling played an important role in its current status. “If we look historically at when gambling was introduced, when it’s become legalized and how that’s emerged culturally, students in particular within the past 10 and 20 years are the first generation that have grown up in a culture that has accepted and legalized gambling activity, so that is a particular susceptibility in terms of overall general attitudes toward it.” He contended, however, that a university environment does not necessarily increase the frequency of gambling. It is usually the market outside of a college setting that targets students through online pop-ups and good deals on Casino nights.

     Third year Engineering student Jonathen Suriyakumar gambles recreationally among friends 1-2 times a week and attends casinos every few months. He stated that he gambles “for the money and the feeling you get when you win. It’s like a rush of adrenaline…it’s like giving a little kid sugar.”

     Suriyakumar confessed to having steadily increased his allotted spending amount: “[I] started going to the casino in February only willing to spend $100, now I am willing to go as much as $600 and lose it without thinking [anything] of it.” He explained that his interest in casinos and gambling in general lay in the promptness of it all: “It’s like a quick “investment.” You put down a certain amount of money and you can double up or even get more [than] what you “invested.” There is the obvious risk of losing it, but I’ve gambled enough to be pretty confident that I will win hence making it in the end not a waste of money.”

     An overconfident attitude, especially after a few wins, is common among students unfamiliar with the probabilities of gambling. Dr. Cooper explained the psychological aspects of gambling: “Basically it’s a series of superstitious behaviours: the ability to recall wins versus the ability to recall losses—all these types of things people are making judgments they actually feel that they can beat the odds when in reality the house always wins.” 

     After a little beginner’s luck, people may find themselves quickly losing their money, and begin to panic and continue playing. Chasing one’s losses, Dr. Cooper explained, is the most common way to get stuck in the gambling whirlpool. The process is, “I get into the hole [of] $2000-3000, there’s really no other way I can think of to generate that amount of income within a short amount of time.”

     Increasing your spending limit, or breaking your set amount is a sign of a potential gambling problem. Dr. Cooper also added, “Cash flow issues; credit problems—maybe that’s not an early sign but it [can lead to] a lot of white collar crimes; preoccupation with it, starting to interfere with personal and social functioning. That’s how a lot of things are diagnosed about pathological gambling. This is interfering with ability to do your schoolwork successfully and it’s also starting to negatively affect your relationships. People really don’t want you around a poker table anymore, other close friends may be noticing a change in your behaviour if you seem a little more agitated, or they simply haven’t seen if your sitting behind a computer screen the whole time, playing blackjack or poker.”

     Like any addiction or problem of overindulgence, recognizing and admitting the problem is the first step to recovery. Unfortunately, most people deny any problem until it is too late to turn the tables back around. Dr. Cooper mentioned, “Most people that are drinking, doing drugs, or gambling are pretty happy with themselves. They really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel—they have to be out cash, out  a job, lose a house—before they say “you know what, everybody told me but I finally get it, this is a problem and I want to do something about it.””

     The direct risks involved with gambling are fairly evident, including losses in cash and other assets, and feelings of restlessness, anxiety and depression, but there are also many indirect risks with overindulging in gambling. People may adopt a risky attitude in the daily sectors of their lives, including their jobs. They may find themselves riding an emotional rollercoaster and feeling isolated from their peers, their friends and their family. 

     There are also certain biological traits inherent in some people, like impaired impulse control or hypersensitivity to endorphin-based stimulation, that may be triggered from gambling and encourage an addiction. Gambling problems also translate into social and familial problems. Suriyakumar knows a few friends whose lives have been affected from their parents’ gambling problems: “One resulted in a divorce, another [in the parents not speaking] to each other anymore, [and the] last one resulted in a separation, but the father worked out his gambling problems and hasn’t gambled ever since.”

     While Dr. Cooper declared bingo and lotteries to be the main addicting activities, they yield smaller losses than other activities, like games played in casinos or betting. Addictions associated with online gambling, or gaming, are also make headway: online gambling is currently the fastest rising sector in the gambling industry. It differs from its real-life counterparts because it involves no communication besides networking. The games are very personal and private, and if played excessively, begin to hinder social stimulation. 

     Although most forms of gambling have a lot more cons than pros, card games can at least help develop rational skills and provide a forum for social engagement. Online gaming takes away that forum; people can spend hours upon hours huddled behind a computer screen without any physical interaction with others.

     Overindulging in any type of gambling, however, can be seriously detrimental to people and should be addressed before the problem is uncorrectable. “It’s disturbing to hear about somebody who’s wearing a Depends diaper so that they can sit at a slot machine [or] sit at a computer,” said Dr. Cooper. “[When] they don’t want to miss a round of poker [that badly], it’s problematic.”

Tags: addiction, CASINO, GAMBLING, MONEY