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\nIf you’ve ever seen a gambling advert, you’ll probably we aware that a ‘please gamble responsibly’ message is habitually included somewhere. Despite this, gambling responsibly can be easier said than done for thousands of people all across the UK. Not only can gambling be fun, it can be thrilling and for some vulnerable people, that thrill can become addictive and lead them into rash decision-making, especially when it comes to the amount of time and money that they spend pursuing gambling.If you’ve ever found yourself at the edge of irresponsible gambling, or if you are currently struggling with your gambling, then this page is for you. Learn how to recognise that you spending too much time, money or both gambling, how you can prevent this from happening, and the steps you can take to step back from gambling including important support resources.<\/p>\n
Gambling is fun. If you are watching a football match, betting on one side to win can make it more thrilling as you are exposing yourself to risk. You could lose money or win money, depending on the outcome of the match.<\/p>\n
The human brain is very good at rewarding itself when we experience pleasure. You’ve probably heard of ‘dopamine’, but may not know what it is. It’s a chemical called a neurotransmitter, and it’s what makes us feel ‘happy’ – or at least that is one of its roles.<\/p>\n\n
One of the jobs that dopamine does is to influence us to experience … more dopamine. The brain finds itself in a ‘risk and reward’ cycle – dopamine is released in anticipation when we enter a risky situation, and then more dopamine is released when there is a positive outcome to that risk. For some people, that means they are physical risk-takers in that they take on ‘risky’ physical activities (even as mundane as playing a friend at tennis) in the expectation of the reward (winning the game).<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, one of the things that our brain is not good at is accepting that sometimes there is no reward when we take a risk. The anticipation of the reward leaves us feeling low when it doesn’t come – when our backed team loses, or when we don’t obtain the result that we were expecting.<\/p>\n
The majority of people can simply shrug off this lack of reward, but some people cannot. The feeling of the need for reward is so great that they just really need to experience it. This means that if the anticipation fails to gain its reward, reward must be sought elsewhere, which is usually by the placement of another wager, which carries the threat of an endless cycle of risk-taking and reward-expectation.<\/p>\n
One other thing our brains are not good at is keeping the levels of dopamine it releases consistent. Winning a \u00a310 bet in January, for example, is less likely to be rewarded with the same feelings as winning a \u00a310 bet in February, and we’d need to win a \u00a320 bet in February to feel the same. This will become a \u00a340 bet in March, \u00a380 in April and so on. By the end of the year, we may need to win a \u00a320,000 bet in order to feel the same as winning \u00a310 twelve or so months ago.<\/p>\n
The first time you drive to some brand new place you’re careful to listen to the sat nav, or look out for landmarks, or even stop to ask for directions (unless, of course, you’re a man). By the tenth time, you know the route off by heart, so you barely notice where you’re going. By the 100th time, you get out of the car at your regular destination and realise you’ve absolutely no idea how you go there.<\/p>\n
Our brain likes us to form habits. It doesn’t want to have to go through the exact same process dozens and dozens of times, so once we do something a number of times, the active part of the brain passes responsibility off to the subconscious, which is an area of our minds that’s capable of performing actions that do not need our full awareness.<\/p>\n
Humans are very good at forming habits, even if they are bad for us. If we associate something with something else – such as watching a movie while drinking a bottle of wine – then our brains will form this habit, so eventually we’d find it difficult to watch a movie without\u00a0<\/em>a bottle of wine.<\/p>\n The same can eventually be applied to betting. If we bet often enough, then betting becomes a habit that becomes detached from our original reasons for doing it – which could have been for fun, or to hopefully win money. Once betting becomes a habit we will start to find it hard not\u00a0<\/em>to do it, even though there’s no risk feeling, or reward that we care about. This can lead to betting when we don’t even feel that there’s any need for us to do it.<\/p>\n There are a lot of emotions involved in gambling – the anticipation of the event on which we bet, the hope that we’ll win, the emotions of watching the event (if we choose to), the happiness of winning, the disappointment of losing, the concern that we are betting too much, the fear (if we are betting when others have said that we ought not to) of being found out … all these emotions can lead to emotional turmoil.<\/p>\n Gambling can only be done safely if it done logically. Logically also means honestly, such as having the awareness of recognising when our gambling is inappropriate, or where the risk makes the potential reward not worth it. Unfortunately, emotion is logic’s worst enemy. We seldom make logical decisions when we are influenced by our emotions, which can lead to dire consequences when we make illogical decisions on a repeated basis.<\/p>\n Gambling also involves money, which is another aspect of life to which huge levels of emotion can be attached, especially if money that was needed elsewhere has been lost to gamble, or if money has been loaned or even stolen to fund gambling, or if substantial gambling losses are experienced. Gambling while emotional seldom ends well.<\/p>\n In conclusion, gambling can be and should be fun. Once it stops being fun, it’s time to stop gambling, however recognising when that point has arrived can be difficult.<\/p>\n The following information is derived from the UKGC’s ‘Statistics on participation and problem gambling for the year to March 2023’<\/a>.<\/p>\nGambling can become too emotional<\/h3>\n
Responsible Gaming – Facts and Figures<\/h2>\n
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