Running head: gambling addiction

Running head: GAMBLING ADDICTION

Gambling habits among teenagers

Final draft

Bekbolat Nurgali

KIMEP University

“Pre-teens, teens and college students have unlimited access to the internet – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because of the repeated exposure they have to illegal Internet gambling sites, they fall victim by the thousands” (Bachus, 2009)

Gambling addiction is a problem of every country, but not every country’s officials want to fight with the rate of gambling addicted population because money earned from gaming centers may fill government funds, coffers and fiscals in order to maintain worthy governmental programs (Koven&Lyons, 2010). Unfortunately, Kazakhstan is one of these countries overlooking the issue. According to the agency of statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the percentage of people that have potential to gambling is approximately 15%. It shows us that every 7^th person may have gambling addiction problem. Due to the increasing rate of gamblers, officials should organize strategies that will cut the problem from the roots. There are several solutions to decrease the amount of gambling addicted teenagers in Kazakhstan such as making a new policy, and creating support groups. The purpose of this paper is to find possible and feasible solutions to gambling addiction for teenagers in Kazakhstan.

At first, it is important to reveal the origin of the problem. Gambling addiction is a behavioral addiction characterized by an abnormal and uncontrollable urge to gamble (Brncik, 2010). Gambling itself is classified in four main categories: gaming (e.g. card games, casino games), betting, lotteries and speculation (e.g. gambling on stock markets). It would be better to identify the most popular category among teenagers. The lotteries and stock markets are neglected because these categories are trendy for adults, not for adolescents. As the result of prohibition the casinos in the territory of Kazakhstan, except coast of Kapchagai reservoir in Almaty oblast and Shuchinsk district in Akmola oblast (Section 9, Law of Republic Kazakhstan “on gaming business”, 2007), the number of bookmakers has increased. Bookmakers became the most attractive way of gambling among teenagers. In that case, there is a question: What caused a problem? Desire to gamble can be caused by number of social problems. The primary reasons of gambling are lack of money, wish to get entertainment, and pleasure of winning, all of these can be distributed by gambling. As the time goes on, teenagers get addicted to gamble. The loss in betting causes to play again to get own money back; on the contrary, win in betting increase the fantasy of gamblers to win again. However, the factors that are not related to teenagers also exist. A huge amount of gambling centers, so called “Bookmakers” or “Bets”, make easy approach for teenagers. In addition, another reason of it is that teens are not informed about the detrimental effects of gambling in school. What are the consequences of gambling addiction? “Gambling can lead to the depression, anxiety, and even to suicide attempts. These factors may cause the decrease of academic performance and failures in school. By losing money, gamblers may have familial problems and loss of friends (Woolman, n.d.). This financial problem may also be the cause of crime in order to find money to bet. Moreover, those who can get addiction of gambling without much difficulty grow significantly day by day. The problem of gambling addiction is absolutely serious; we utterly need to solve this problem for the further development of the country, because young people are builders and basic representatives of our country.

The first solution proposes to make a new policy concerning Bets and Bookmakers. It means, specifically, to strengthen face-control. According to site urbandictionary.com, face control refers to the policy of upscale in establishments to strictly restrict entry. The beginning step to achieve the favorable results is reconsideration of Gaming law of Republic of Kazakhstan. Present constitution states: casinos are not allowed in the territory of Kazakhstan, except several towns (Kapchagai and Shuchinsk). However, these cases have no connection with teenagers. On the other hand, new policies such as age limit and strict face-control will not allow teenagers to enter in the gambling centers. The novelty of law is directly connected with the problem of teenagers entering in bookmaker centers without obligatory face-control and documents check is known. Consequently, with implementation of laws the number of underage visitors will grossly decrease. The first advantage of this solution is that even though this program shows great results, it also has other side and drawbacks. Because of the prohibition of underage visitors in bookmakers centers and accessibility of online bookmaker web-sites almost from everywhere, the number of online gamblers will increase. Another point that must be considered is that applying such law will take both time and finance. The government put a huge amount of time and finance into this action.

The second solution for gambling addiction among adolescents seems more realistic and feasible. Creation of self-help groups such as "Gamblers’ anonymous" may help to decrease the number of gamble-addicted young people. The “Gamblers’ anonymous” is the group of gamblers where they can share their stories of life and experience regarding gambling (Gambling Anonymous). They are getting persuaded in that they are not alone; they help each other prevent the addiction to gambling. These kinds of projects were approved in developed countries such as the United States of America, Japan etc. There are a lot of advantages of this solution. First one is addicted teenagers will be provided with non-judgmental environment, where everybody has the same problem and no one will dare to judge other person. The second one is the maintenance of group support from other gamblers. Due to the atmosphere, where almost every addicted gambler experienced the same problems, it can be concluded that it is easy to get to the condition of self-understanding of a problem. In addition to all the pros, this project will be completed without financial paying, which completely opposite to the first solution, where financial loss is expected. Nevertheless, solution has a minor nuance. It is difficult to perceive for one that one is gambling addicted. However, after considering all the points, the negative sides can not compete with all the positive aspects.

To sum up, the problem of gambling addiction exists in our society and some cases must be considered. There have been lots of in-depth researches as to find practical and working solutions with regard to this problem. In fact, the disadvantages of the first presented solution overweight its advantages; therefore, it is not feasible and less likely to work efficiently. The main barrier that should be confronted is a large financial investment that is needed to make this solution possible. However, from my perspective, I deem that the second solution - creating special supporting-groups such as “Gambling Anonymous” - is the most coherent one. Although, there are minor disadvantages that could block people from attending such support-groups; yet, these cons such as feasibility and advantages as free-charge and non-judgmental atmosphere could easily be overcome. In the final analysis, it could most reasonably concluded that the second solution is better that the first. The second solution requires not that much of efficiency and investments of any kind that the first solution does require. So, the government should seriously consider of implementing the second solution as for decrease the rate of gambling and the amount of the addicted people in the country. In the end, I want to share the saying of famous American golfer, Payne Steward: “ People who have never had an addiction don’t understand how hard it can be ”.

Reference List

About Us | Gamblers Anonymous. (n.d.). Gamblers Anonymous. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/no

Bachus, S. (2009, June 1). Online Gambling Debate: Barney Frank Vs. Spencer Bachus - US News and World Report. US News & World Report | News & Rankings | Best Colleges, Best Hospitals, and more. Retrieved November 19, 2012, from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2009/06/01/online-gambling-debate-barney-frank-vs-spencer-bachus_print.html

Brncik, C. (n.d.). Definition Of A Gambling Addiction | LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM - Lose Weight & Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools | LIVESTRONG.COM. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/133751-definition-gambling-addiction/

Koven, S., & Lyons, T. (2010, August 9). Is Gambling a Good Economic Development Bet? | icma.org. ICMA: Leaders at the Core of Better Communities | icma.org. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http://icma.org/en/icma/newsroom/highlights

Ministry of Health. (2007, January 12). Zakon Respubliki Kazahstana ot 12 janvarja 2007 goda № 219-III "Ob igornom biznese" (s izmeneniyami i dopolnenijami po sostajaniju 10.07.2010 g.).). Zakon.kz Novosti Kazahstana na segodnja, poslednie novosti mira, zakonodatelstvo Kazakhstana. Retrieved November 14, 2012, from www.zakon.kz/61651-zakon-respubliki-kazakhstan-ot-12.html

The agency of statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Rate of gambling addicted people in the country. The Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from www.eng.stat.kz/Pages/default.aspx

Woolman, L. (n.d.). Gambling Addiction Statistics. Addiction And Recovery | Drug And Alcohol Addiction and more.... Retrieved November 28, 2012, from http://addiction.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Gambling_A

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