Gambling – A Path To Addiction Rather Than Fortune
Gambling, or the arts of betting on an object, staking something with value, with the conscious of knowing you risk all or nothing, hoping you're gaining something out of it, rather sometimes you know people lose. The outcome when it comes to gambling, is only determined by luck or faith itself, otherwise sometimes people find themselves losing millions thinking “Oh, it's just one game it wont hurt that much”, up until you're about to check your pockets and they've seem to be emptied out. Gambling comes in all different forms, whether it's online through a screen, rolling a pair of dice to find out your lucky number, or spinning a wheel to see what arrow it lands on.
Playing cards were first introduced in the 9th century in China, the cards had been often decorated with human forms, faces everything, as it became more advanced, the faces of Kings and Queens were developed on the cards. The first gambling houses, or as you should call them, casinos, first made an appearance in Venice, Italy in the 17th century, 1638. The first casino was called “Ridotto”, it was the first established safe gambling environment and later on dispersed throughout Europe.
With the help of Western settlers, games started to come about, some of them, were called “Roulette” and Vingt-et un”, they were later introduced to the United States from France. In 1787, when steamboats were first invented by John Fitch, they were the main source of trade for wealthy farmers and barters, it was originally from the 17th century of Persia, and was being played in New Orleans in 1829. So it could be up to people's standards, it had been regulated so it could be more accurately played or otherwise some people could've been losing too much money or gaining a crazy amount. , and that's when gambling machines came around,or slot machines, coin jugglers whatever you wanna call it which came from New York and the most well known were defined as Sittman and Pitt. Another invention had come around at the same time, and it was named the “Liberty Bell”, which was invented by Charles Fey in San Francisco. Last but not least, online gambling and video slots came around, in 1976, which laid out a road for those whom enjoyed gambling but would rather sit on their couch and watch something spin.
Moving closer to 1994, the “Free Trade & Processing Act”, which defined the “allowance of licenses to be granted to organizations that were applying for online casinos”. Before they invented online casinos, a company by the name of Microgaming, which was considered “one of the biggest casinos and slot developers to this day”. Since nowadays there are lots of hackers, the development of security and desire increased, which lead to the software of Cryptologic being developed, this is an online software company for the online casinos, sooner rather than later safe transactions were being made and led to the first online casinos in 1994. As we have advanced when it comes to technology, more users of gambling have found convenient ways to lose, win, and get fortunes through the click of a button or the touch of a small screen you carry around as you would call them, a cell phone.
According to an interview by Dr. Robert Perkinson, in the article by “Addiction Love To Know”, he mentions that gambling is as serious as a drug or alcohol related addiction, when he is asked the question,”Is gambling as serious as a drug or alcohol addiction?” he states “Yes,with higher suicide rates with pathological gamblers and their family members”. Further into the interview, the most commonly symptoms of gambling addiction include, the major focus of their life is to gamble, and what they can do to make sure they are able to, which involves breaking the law. The person may also whether or not feel guilty about it and feel down on themselves. Lastly, after multiple attempts of trying to quit the person may not be able to and that's when often times they will seek advice from professional psychologists.
In the article, it mentions “90% of gamblers quit by going through treatment, attending meetings, and going to aftercare for one year”, not only does that occur but also less than 70% also quit after the experience of treatment. At the end of the article, Dr. Perkinson says that online gambling is far more addicting than “regular” gambling because it is much more available through the touch of a screen. Last question he is asked is “If you think you know someone who has a gambling addiction, should you try to intervene?”, he answers to that question yes, but why? “Intervention works 60-80% of the time and often saves the gambler from death or the family from destruction”.
To conclude, gambling often times has a greater result of addiction rather than ending up making billions as the average person thinks they would, before anyone gambles they should think of the consequences. Back then most people bartered so they thought it was normal, but nowadays it is far more dangerous.
