Gambling: Good or Bad?
Gambling is a disease, often thought of as a psychological condition many cannot control. Gambling exudes endorphins, that allow a high to take over one’s body. Not only can gambling ruin the lives of players but also that of their families; therefore, I am against it.
Twenty-one is an age that allows many luxuries to saunter into your life. You’re allowed to consume alcohol, you may purchase a handgun, and your finally allowed to gamble. It’s a rush as you walk into the glistening casino, all the bright lights, the sparkling glass, the laughing adults, the glistening slot machines, the opulence of it all. It’s exciting to finally be considered an adult. Sure, once you turn eighteen you’re considered a legal adult, but once you turn twenty-one your maturity level has soared in the eyes of your elders.
So, as you sit down at the grandiose slot machine and tug at the lever you’re completely oblivious to the disease you may have allowed into your life. The addiction that might be being fed as the blackjack dealer slaps down a new deck of cards right beside you. You’re completely oblivious to the sudden appearance of this possible addiction. You are just flying high on the thrill of it all.
As of February 9, 2009, three million adults in America met the criteria for pathological gambling. Gambling is just like any other addiction; it grates on your emotions and slowly takes control of your life, allowing you to feel nothing but that rush.
Statistics show that compulsive gambling may lead to devastating circumstances for the gambler and their family. A compulsive gambler may experience the same withdrawals as any other addict: chemical withdrawals, which may consist of sweating, palpitations and extreme itching, emotional withdrawal, post acute withdrawal, and new addictions. Someone who suffers from pathological gambling (ludomania) may also experience delusional fantasies involving unrealistic winnings, whether it be past, present or future gambles.
One semester San Diego State University’s The Daily Aztec reported a student standing outside the university, asking various passerbys for money. Why, you ask? The reason the young man had said, was because he lost his tuition money playing blackjack in Las Vegas. The student, an “experienced gambler,” lost $1,000. He states that he’d set aside his money for tuition, but then lost $500 playing. He then lost another $500 trying to win his loses back.
Another student reports that he’d become so addicted to gambling he decided to take up dealing as an occupation. The dealing cured him of his need for a gambling fix.. “John” reports that he’d seen many persons lose $3,000 in ten minutes and someone else swoop in during that period of time and win $6,000.”
Although, the latter student’s outcome proves that not everyone suffers with an addiction to gambling, we cannot prove that it’s a healthy “sport.” While gambling may start off as a game for some, and stay that way, it can become a lifestyle for others.
I feel that the high associated with gambling is similar to the high experienced by the miners during the Gold Rush, the get rich quick excitement. The Gold Rush caused such a frenzy throughout the world that people couldn’t help but feel a rush with the possibility of striking it rich. Native Americans were killed over a little speck of gold, children were forced into labor to keep the mines operating longer hours, and families were torn apart just so someone could spend their day out in the audacious sun, looking for a little of something or a lot of nothing.
I doubt the people that lived so many years ago realized they had fallen “prey” to an unhealthy addiction, but because of gold, millions of men and women suffered with an addiction to gold, the gamble of “get rich quick” much like that of todays compulsive gamblers who will sacrifice anything to gamble one last time. That one last time will be the big win.
As Ayn Rand once said: “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
