20% of gamblers attempt suicide — why don't we take the addiction more seriously?

maxd

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Article at BigThink.com (by a non-gambler) on the psychology and sociology of gambling addiction and casinos:
As Chris Hedges writes in his latest book, America: The Farewell Tour, 20 percent of gambling addicts attempt suicide, the highest percentage of all addictions. Though the opioid crisis is
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, there are
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combating it. Cigarette manufacturers are required to post warnings in large fonts alongside photos of diseased lungs. Smartphone addiction
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, but we haven't had the courage as a society to face that one yet. From alcohol to sex, at least nominal attempts at curbing behavior are attempted. For the most part, gambling escapes this fate.
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Seems a rather high figure. I mean what is the general term applied here, anyone that's ever gambled? Heavy gamblers? Dotty playing Bingo on Fridays? Sweeping percentage to claim 1 in 5...

And the article went into the realms of feewings and non-rationale, so essentially an opinion-piece:

If you look at the way a casino is designed, and you remember that Trump is a designer of many casinos, including his non-casino properties, they follow the same design logic of disorientation and trying to sweep people away from themselves, away from rationality, away from a position where they have clear lines of sight and can act as decision-making subjects."

That bloody Trump again :laugh:
 
At a cursory glance I'm guessing that should read 20% of AMERICAN gamblers.
For starters, you can't smoke in our casinos, our games have mandated warning labels, and you couldnt flag a hostess here with six arms and air traffic cones :p
 
Reason being probably is that its seen as a self Inflicted problem, where as supposedly doing drugs or drinking can be deemed to more social issues.
 
Are they commiting suicide because of gambling or is that people who commit suicide also have played slots or bet on sports?
 
And is it causation or correlation.
Is it gamblers off committing suicide because of gambling, or people with mental health or other issues take readily to gambling or have a combination of addictions.
 
This is no surprise to me. I've heard for the last 25 years that suicide amongst gambling addicts are really high, and the highest compared to other addictions.
I do find a change in the way people are looking at it now though, at least in Sweden. It's a lot more help to get now than it was 20 years ago.
 
Very misleading article.

Starts with the heading 20% of gamblers attempt suicide.

Then it talks about 20% of problem gamblers which is one hell of a difference from 20% of gamblers.

Since the majority of adults gamble in one way or another it is totally yet another non gambler on a high horse about gambling.
 
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For me gambling addiction in relation to a problem is almost like crime addiction in relation to robberies.
I mean it exists, it is complicated and it is a problem. But the bigger issue, the elephant in the room, is the money. It is all about the money.
Because very few people (if any) have perfect control. Loss of control and money problems are easy. Can happen in a night. Addiction is different.

I bet most suicides are related to financial problems. If you don't have money it's easy to lose everything.

Once a minister of finance wanted to impose a mandatory limit on how much you can lose in a day. There wasn't even a discussion about it. All media wanted to crucify him for "killing investments" and "loss of hundreds thousands jobs" and he was removed.
 
I agree that the article is very misleading. Gamblers and problem gamblers are two very different beasts. Those with gambling problems are often the same folk who have a propensity to have an addictive personality. We all know folk who have gone from one type of addiction to another. Some addictions can be concurrent.
For that reason not only is his conclusion that 20% of gamblers attempt suicide is flawed but a conclusion that 20% of problem gamblers attempt suicide is flawed.

If he said 20% of folk with an addictive personality attempt suicide then that may need to be taken more seriously.

Back later after I locate my jar of evo-stick
 
Very misleading and simplistic indeed. He's talking about actually attempting suicide... so if you have 1000 people on casino floor, 200 already tried to hang themselves at some stage? Don't think so.
 
I think many of you are missing the fact that the guy who wrote this article have taken some facts from a book and other facts from other research. Like journalists do.
He is more or less just asking why we don't take suicide among gambling addicts more serious.

He did a miss in the title though, if he even wrote that himself, but the text in the article is correct and include the word addict :)
 
For me gambling addiction in relation to a problem is almost like crime addiction in relation to robberies.
I mean it exists, it is complicated and it is a problem. But the bigger issue, the elephant in the room, is the money. It is all about the money.
Because very few people (if any) have perfect control. Loss of control and money problems are easy. Can happen in a night. Addiction is different.

I bet most suicides are related to financial problems. If you don't have money it's easy to lose everything.

Once a minister of finance wanted to impose a mandatory limit on how much you can lose in a day. There wasn't even a discussion about it. All media wanted to crucify him for "killing investments" and "loss of hundreds thousands jobs" and he was removed.

Can agree, if someone is risking much money for a lucky life-changing win and it is not working they way to just give up totally is not far away.

Especially when the sessions going bad people tend to go crazy and depositing multiple times in a row. I always tell people to set a limit, it can be a high limit but at least set one. I have often daily limits around 20-175 € this helps me to not get tempted and often I self exclude for 24 hours or 7-14 days from certain websites so I have always just one or two casinos where I play. I still think that we need a global system, so people can not register in a new casino and ruin their life.

(We all know that responsible gambling is not really done with heart, it is just to show "look we doing something" but nothing that would be a complete solution)
 
The industry could nip problem gambling in the bud but they purposely skirt around the issue because funnily enough, it's these problem gamblers that provide them with a large slice of income.

I still believe going along the lines of SoW and RG but less draconian, would be mandatory deposit limits upon signup and subject to review after a few months. It works for all other financial institutions whereby you build up credit etc

In this industry, you get the unlimited credit options and then everyone wonders why players can't control their spending? Which then leads to all manner of personal problems
 
My ex was one of those statistics, and I believe the 20% is a correct figure. It could even be higher, but due to the shame of it, not all numbers will be reported. His was horse racing, and was before I met him, but he was very close to it one night. When he went to OLG's gambling resource, they just asked a few questions and gave him numbers to call.
 
20% of gambling addicts having suicidal thoughts at one point would sound more realistic to me but I haven't done any research into it. 1 out of 5 attempting it just seems like a really big amount of people... Scary really if it's correct :eek2:
I live in a city that has a casino, with the river right behind it. One of my friends work security there and told me that at least once a month they get a jumper, but its ALWAYS kept hush hush. :(
 
I work in a doctor's surgery and the amount of men who feel suicidal or have attempted it is quite shocking it isn't unusual to have a call at least one call a week from someone who is depressed and see notes on men who have thought about it, it is far higher than women I can't recall the last time I spoke to a woman who was suicidal but males, we have a 16 yr old who is thinking about it, a 36 yr old who jumped off a bridge, I spoke to a man last week who admitted he was thinking about it.

It makes me feel down to think there are men of all ages thinking like this, maybe it's the current pro female word we live in being told about equality making men feel devalued but something is very wrong at the moment in the male community.
 
I work in a doctor's surgery and the amount of men who feel suicidal or have attempted it is quite shocking it isn't unusual to have a call at least one call a week from someone who is depressed and see notes on men who have thought about it, it is far higher than women I can't recall the last time I spoke to a woman who was suicidal but males, we have a 16 yr old who is thinking about it, a 36 yr old who jumped off a bridge, I spoke to a man last week who admitted he was thinking about it.

It makes me feel down to think there are men of all ages thinking like this, maybe it's the current pro female word we live in being told about equality making men feel devalued but something is very wrong at the moment in the male community.
:(
 
but something is very wrong at the moment in the male community.
I suspect it's always been there - we were always just discouraged about speaking of our feelings :)
 
I suspect it's always been there - we were always just discouraged about speaking of our feelings :)
I don't think so in 4 and a half years working there I have not seen as many men talking about it or admitting it as now, there has certainly been a change in last 6 months to a year. Maybe I don't get as many females admitting it as they tend not to talk to blokes about there health as much.
 
I work in a doctor's surgery and the amount of men who feel suicidal or have attempted it is quite shocking it isn't unusual to have a call at least one call a week from someone who is depressed and see notes on men who have thought about it, it is far higher than women I can't recall the last time I spoke to a woman who was suicidal but males, we have a 16 yr old who is thinking about it, a 36 yr old who jumped off a bridge, I spoke to a man last week who admitted he was thinking about it.

It makes me feel down to think there are men of all ages thinking like this, maybe it's the current pro female word we live in being told about equality making men feel devalued but something is very wrong at the moment in the male community.

My two daughters have informed me that something like 70% of students at their Universities where on some form of medication for anxiety and/or depression"

I have no idea if this has any baring on numbers or not,but. Given how difficult it has become these days with being granted extra help via personal independence payments is it possible that some people use their emotional state as a means to obtain a higher amount of benefits?
 
We also had a 14 yr old boy who told the doctor he had had suicidal thoughts which is a difficult age as you cannot give children anti depressants without the child being throughly monitored, in our surgery we do not give antidepressants to people under 18 and children cannot be referred to adult counselling services they have to go through CAHMS and wait for referral. Sad to see children admitting to a doctor that they have considered such a thing as suicide and the options are limited for the child.
 

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