Gambling addictions - why? Gambling addictions should not be an issue at all; the easiest solution to this would be to ban gambling, to shut down all the arcades, all the bingo halls and the Internet websites that encourage and promote gambling. Gambling addiction should not be a mental health issue which it is.

For many mental health issues there is rarely a cure so why has the gambling addiction cure not been embraced? Mental health issues usually stem from chemical imbalances in the brain and a traumatic time in a person's life which has caused them to be mentally ill.

People only become addicted to gambling by the red herring that is money, an addiction that is motivated by money should become addressed by the Government and brought to a halt, the Law does not have patience nor does it support people who murder for money or people who mug others for money, so why should we put up with people becoming addicted to arcades etc?

The Government should stop issuing licences for such a dangerous path for people who are not strong enough to stay away from these places; if these such places were shut down then there would be no red herrings for people to fall for. I also believe that we should be questioning the employers and employees of these establishments and there own moral compasses. Why do they not use their employment to an advantage and turn on the establishment and have it shut down, surely they would be more of a hero to the people that they have saved from themselves?

It could start out with a two pence machine but then the need to gain money and prizes grows like an unstoppable force and soon these people lose their homes and their jobs, why do we fight against capitalism and paying taxes but we do not fight and question gambling and the people responsiblefor these establishments, surely there is two sides of the coin. After all we are all paying for someone elses gambling addiction through our taxes, but why do people not speak out about this. These establishments only take advantage and exploit the weak minded and hearted, usually as a society and as a nation we fight against exploitations of all forms yet gambling does not appear to be on the radar and we should be asking ourselves why.

Who is it really who is abusing the gambling system is it the people who get pulled in to these establishments or is it the people who run and fund these establishments who are the true abusers of the system?

People should not be exploited in such manners just to line the pockets of Capitalists, good people getting sucked into a black hole that will be their downfall and yet nobody fights it, the other problem with these establishments is the amount of theft which is committed by not only the gamblers themselves but the employees to who steal from the company.

Money is fueled by greed and it is quite clear that addiction to these places only adds fuel to the fire of greed, we cannot ask the people addicted to gambling to stop because as they hit the label of addict, it is too late for them to just turn their back on a machine. It is the people who stay away from these establishments that should be helping the current addicts and removing any danger of future addicts.

One establishment that I worked in as a bar tender had arcade machines and you would see people wasting hundreds of pounds on these machines with no hope of seeing their money again. Their blood pressure is rising, their attitudes are becoming angry and confrontational, but not with a human being with the machine that was robbing them. This is a very very sad sight to see, when such intelligent beings resort to violence with a machine that robs them of their money because they do not have the will power to stay away.

Learn more about this author, Natasha Attwood.
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