5 Ways Gambling Hurts People

For some people, gambling is their best chance to ever become rich. They hope and pray that the lottery ticket they bought will contain the lucky numbers that will bring them a windfall and change their financial story for good. Unfortunately the reality is that gambling is more likely to cause you heart ache and depression than actually solve your problems. Many people wonder why gambling can’t be banned outright, it makes no meaningful economic sense to have an industry that trades on luck and false believe but it might seem that in a way gambling is entertaining and harmless at least it isn’t something like narcotics or prostitution which have many criminal and harmful social effects on society. Whatever your take, gambling is not what people serious about their success and financial future should take to doing. It will cause you more harm than good, the real people who make money from gambling are those who organize it and they thrive on feeding people with false hope, greed and an easy life. Here’s why gambling is a waste of time;

Gambling has an extremely slim margin of success

What is the likelihood of you becoming president ofAmericaand winning $100 million from playing a lottery? In a country of over 300 million people assuming a serious person steps forward and makes a plan to pursue a presidential bid he has to overcome party biases, build up his political portfolio, gather support, raise capital and have a strong strategic team in place among other considerations. By the time he/she is done with all this in may be say 10 years his chances of becoming president might be 1 in 1000 after some serious work done. How about gambling, if I make a plan to win $100 million dollars what are my chances of succeeding? Most likely the same yesterday, today and forever, I have a 1 in over 1 billion chances to win such an amount and no matter how hard I work at it my chances of succeeding will remain extremely slim. In order words gambling is all about luck and no true success is founded on just luck alone. Hard work, persistence, careful, realistic planning among other factors play a key part in defining how successful a person will become especially financially.

Gambling fuels Delusion

Without doubt, gambling promotes delusion. The false believe that you are close to winning a large amount of money when in actual fact you are far from winning it will encourage one to keep trying to win by playing or buying more tickets. If the gambling involves card games that could even worsen after some initial winnings. You might be compelled by greed to stay on and play for more winnings then out of no where what you have suddenly slips out and you are left with no winnings at all. You are made to escape reality just as drugs and alcohol provide a distraction for one’s real problems gambling is a little worse, you think you are winning or about to win whereas you are far from winning, in fact you are closer to losing everything you have, gambling offers a false sense of security maybe that is the reason some people are addicted to it.

Gambling is a waste of precious resources

Evidence that people are wasting their resources when gambling is seen with gambling addicts. They are usually broke, in serious debt or financially bankrupt. If you check their gambling history you will be surprised that they have spent more money on gambling itself than on say their rent, mortgage, school tuition or other very important need they might have even ignored. The fact that they are so eager to win a lot of money might cause many of them to spend all their savings and most of their earnings pursuing a pipe dream that by the time it hits them real hard how far they have ruined their finances the only way out may be to sell off their property and possibly become destitute after trying to fix their bankruptcy issues. How many addicted gamblers are home owners or employers? Most of them either depend on others for survival or are in serious financial mess or even destitution. All the money spent on gambling is wasted the time used up could have been better employed for something more productive such as acquiring a new skill or getting a job or even starting a business.

Gambling often leads to Financial Dependency/Problems

The fact that gambling is based on luck means that people who seriously take to it do not believe they have control over their financial future. This would mean that whatever money they have or own, they believe it has to come from someone else and not by being productive or self reliant but by betting or hoping that a system would favor their fantasies. How can someone who doesn’t have a job but spends hours a day gambling or who has a job but spends his earnings carelessly and hopes that the little he ‘invests’ in gambling can set his finances straight? The truth is gambling doesn’t make them financially independent because every money gone into funding that pipe dream is lost forever with not returns or benefits attached. Better to spend it on things that one could appreciate than to continue living is problems.

Gambling is Addictive in a harmful way

Every addiction is bad I’m yet to come across one that isn’t. Even addiction to one’s hobbies cannot be classified as a good thing because of the imbalance and disconnect it creates in one’s life. All addictions have a tendency to cause emotional and mental challenges sometimes leading to severe depression and premature death. There is hardly any long term benefit from addiction and sadly gambling can be addictive especially for people who have had some initial winnings and are spurred on to continue believing that those winnings might still be replaced by more gambling. This thinking if reinforced in the person will ultimately lead him or her to a life of perpetual ‘try my luck’ mindset which can’t be a background for finding success and happiness in life. If we think all successful people are lucky then we might as well say all unlucky people are failures and anyone who isn’t successful has bad luck but don’t be surprised that is how people with an addiction for gambling might view life.