Gambling is different to alcohol, smoking or drugs because it does not have the noticable physical effects or limits of substances. This means the harm is not easily identified by the person gambling or those around them. It also means there is no limit to the harm that can be done, if people have money, time, and access to gambling.
No bodily signs
If people are using alcohol or drugs, it produces physical changes The person and those around them can identify those changes in the short and long term. Gambling does not produce signs of intoxication or physical problems that people can identify. Gambling produces changes in the person and their behaviour. Spending time on their phone. Being distracted, withdrawn or moody. Dropping out of social activities and being short of money. Not acting like themselves.
These may not be noticed by people around them. Or there may be many things that could cause this. It also means that people may not notice when they are gambling too much or starting to develop an addiction.
Talk about it to somebody, anybody. Just talk about it and acknowledge it because it’s easy to hide it. It’s really easy to hide it because if you gamble during the night, no one’s going to know. I think it gets to the point where it’s gone too far before you realize that it’s gone too far because it doesn’t affect your body as such. It doesn’t show to other people.
I think because if it’s alcohol and drugs, it’s all physical dependence, and they can see the harm it’s doing but with gambling, you can’t see it. If they can’t see a problem, they don’t think it’s there. You can stop yourself. You’re not hurting people. You can stop yourself anytime you want to do, but it’s not as simple as that. It’s not as simple as that.
Gambling can be hidden from others
People can conceal their gambling from others because it does not produce identifiable physical signs. They can hide their gambling from those close to them and from services. This secrecy adds to the depth of shame, addiction, and the harm that’s experienced.
Gambling is even more concealable because it takes place online. This means people can gamble in private. Rather than being in a gambling venue, where others could see what they were doing.
And what I always say, especially having worked in drug and alcohol recovery as well, if I had gone upstairs, you know, smoked a crack pipe or injected heroin or drank a bottle of wine or something like that, I would have gone back downstairs you would have seen it, you would have smelt it. My behaviour would have been different, you would have noticed it. Gambling, nothing at all. I went down with a smile on my face and that’s the thing with gamblers, because gamblers become incredibly adept at lying and putting on a front.
No bodily limits
There is a physical limit to the amount of a substance you can take at a time. The harm from alcohol or smoking is gradual and cumulative. If you stop, the damage can be reversed. Many have expressed that the limit to someone with a gambling addiction is how much money they could get. Along with time and opportunities to gamble. With the availability and intensity of gambling today, harm can escalate rapidly. People can lose money available to them in a short space of time. This harm is irreversible.
I know I’ve used drugs and alcohol many times during this conversation, but there’s only so much, there’s only so much drugs you can put into your system before your body goes that’s enough, and it shuts down. There’s only so much alcohol you can drink. Gambling you can lose absolutely everything in the space of a night, in the space of an hour if you want to. You can just literally do everything and that needs to be tackled.
And people would find that so hard to understand. And for me, there is no stop button for gambling addicts. There is no stop. And whether that is winning a thousand pounds on a Monday and another 3000 on a Tuesday, that person will keep going back, and back, and back or I will keep going back, and back, and back until I’ve got zero. There is no stop.