by Roger Larder

Created on: January 24, 2009   Last Updated: May 11, 2012

Compulsive gambling is caused by the inner voice that tells you 'next time it will be different, you've learnt from your past mistakes and you'll never be that unlucky again'. The compulsive gambler knows that they only lost the last bet because of lots of randomly strange events conspired against them, and it would be unnecessarily cautious, indeed foolish, not to keep betting.

Compulsive gamblers are lazy by nature, they dream that they can become rich without lifting a finger (well, maybe a chip or two) and see 'beating the system' as an easy get rich quick scheme. Of course most, if not all, gamblers have had successes, so they use these examples in their head as proof that they have what it takes to predict events better than the next person, even if the next person is a bookmaker with years of experience and profits behind them. No gambler would ever pretend that bookmakers or casinos lose money, but they manage to convince themselves that its all those other saps who keep gambling organisations in business, and that they themselves can eat into the profit margins. Unfortunately though there are professional gamblers who really can earn a living out of predicting results or the turn of a card, they are few and far between. Professional gambling methods are readily available in many books, some detailing how to count or manipulate cards whilst playing Blackjack, and there is a tendency among many gamblers to think 'If they can do that, why not me?' Often the difference between a gambler's success and that of the professional is put down to a cruel twist of fate that couldn't possibly happen again. Always gamblers believe that they have what it takes to win.

Of course as with any addiction a need for a high is paramount to compulsive gambling. As I said before, every gambler has had successes, and are convinced that they are due another one. So they are chasing that euphoria, that knowledge that they are cleverer than everyone else, and that a glamorous lifestyle will be theirs without any real effort on their part. If, or rather more inevitably when, the gambler starts to lose money, they remain convinced that the only way out is to carry on gambling, and at the very least, get back to even, always certain that their luck will turn. By this time they are no longer chasing that euphoria, no longer expecting to feel on top of the world, but merely trying to prevent themselves from feeling like the world is against them. Often gamblers are so certain that they will win, that they gamble with money they cannot afford to lose, so they need to keep gambling once they are down, otherwise they will have to face up to the truth that they have been bested by a game they thought they could master, they will look foolish for throwing money away playing a game so obviously rigged against them when they hoped to fund the next extravagant purchase by cleverly exposing some weakness in the system. Of course, the more they gamble the more they have to chase their losses. So gambling becomes instinctive, the only way out, the only way to lose that feeling of complete hopelessness, so the gambler is compelled to carry on until they have nothing left.

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