Do you take chances? Are you up for winning some extra cash? Well, look no further than the lottery, casinos, online betting, and the bookies – the biggest waste of not only your money but your time. They entice you. Rope you in, tie you up and taunt you. Gambling ruins your life. Can you believe that some people are still willing to take those chances?
What was once thought of as just a compulsion is now seen as an addiction that has huge implications on our society and individuals? To help put it into perspective, in 2013 the University of Las Vegas found that 23 Vegas casinos fished in over a whopping $72 million dollars each. That’s around $630,000 a day! How much longer are we going to be giving these nefarious corporate schemes our money? It’s time to stop.
Adverts. Those flashy, pop-ups appear anywhere on any device, television and even in the streets. We may think we aren’t taking it in or we don’t care. However, that’s just how they catch us. It appeals to our subconscious mind. These gambling advertisements prompt us to bet and the vastness of the advertising campaigns makes it seem like a normal, harmless activity. It makes out that winning cash is easy and fun, like it’s just all some big game. The slogan ‘When the fun stops. Stop’ created by the Senet Group and pasted onto every betting ad out there is made to motivate gamblers to stop and think before betting carefully and in a level-headed manner. However, this isn’t as effective as they claim it to be. Following a research study at the University of Warwick, the ‘thought-provoking’ message has actually been shown to show no significant impact on the attitudes of gamblers. A report author, Dr. Lukasz Walasek stated that ‘The purpose of the “When the fun stops, stop” warning labels is to encourage more responsible gambling behavior. Yet there is hardly any evidence suggesting that such labels are effective.” These ads are not helping people to question their gambling habits, but instead are encouraging people to do more with their big bold headings and flashy lights. This needs to stop. We need to stop feeding into people’s addiction and get them the real help they need.
The fluke and casual attitude of slot machines are what makes them so tempting. They are extremely easy to play, you need no previous experience and you do not need to depend on your knowledge or a particular skill. It is purely down to luck and maybe just maybe, we might be lucky that day. The thrill of the game is what really catches us out. You want to win more and more, so we keep on going till we are out of money. Approximately £14.5bn was spent in the UK in the gambling industry in 2017-2018 and this covers a wide range of betting activities including the National Lottery. The average household spends at least £3.20 on gambling a week. This may not seem like a lot, however, if we put that into perspective and we see just how much we are spending a year that number increases to £166 that could go towards much better things. We need to stop buying into these sneaky tricks designed to make us play more. The chances of winning the lottery are slim to none, 1 in 45,057,474 to be exact. So why do we keep on doing it? What is happening? Are we refusing to accept the fact we are being robbed of our money or do we become too hooked to the ‘high’ to see the blind truth?
Nowadays it’s easier than ever to be persuaded and influenced by things online and in the streets. Gambling is no exception. This is especially apparent for young people and vulnerable individuals who are more likely to be affected by these ads and such encouraging us to bet and gamble away freely. Researchers have found that there are also other factors that contribute to a younger audience being persuaded to gamble within society like family members and friends who may establish gambling to them. It has become increasingly difficult to deter younger people from being exposed to such things. Even in my own experience when on holiday at Blackpool or Scarborough, we have gone to the seaside front that is teeming with arcades and filled our plastic cups with 2p’s and 10p’s in an attempt to win holiday scraps that we don’t really want or need. It was an exciting and innocent family activity where half an hour later we were £30 down.
Between 2015 and 2018 marketing for gambling has grown drastically and is still on the rise throughout television and the media. Why are we saying that betting and gambling away all your money is ok to a younger generation? We need to start making changes to how we present these things and we should control and steer this whole new generation away from things like gambling. 22% of media adverts have been found to augment chances of winning in casinos and online betting with limited repercussions. This gives that one young person a reason to gamble. We are literally telling underage people to bet. It’s obvious what we are doing, why is there nothing being done to solve or help it. Is it on purpose? Gambling and betting would be outlawed if the Government didn’t make as much money from it as they do. It’s obvious the Government makes money from gambling, but you would be surprised if I told you just how much they really made. £2.7 billion. They made £2.7 billion from 2016-17 from gambling duties alone.
Addiction. Drug addiction. Alcohol addiction. People can get obsessed with a lot of things. The worst outcome for betting is gambling addiction. It ruins lives. It corrupts people. From the minute you slip that pound coin into the slot machine, who knows where it will take you? Chances are, you get a buzz from nearly winning that teddy bear you see in the claw machine. This is how gambling addiction starts. The drive to continue and pursue the big winnings. The huge prize that feels like it’s within arm’s length, you reach out for it and then it takes another step back and asks you to enter another coin. Once you are hooked there is no going back. Just like any other addiction, the people who are obsessed with pressing play one last time are blind to the high it gives them. The addiction is often associated and linked with problems like substance abuse, anxiety, and stress. We need to take a step back and address the issue. We need to offer people struggling with addiction, be it gambling or any form of it some help.
Conclusion
To conclude, I believe first of all we need to address the issue to people dealing with the addiction. We need to offer support for people who really need to break the unhealthy lifestyle. We could do this by proposing counseling groups with people dealing with the same issues. We could also get them to speak to a clinic and I hope with time, the harsh addiction many people face with resolve and the number of reported people with the dependency will lower.
