Gambling, Addiction and Crimes - Essay Example

& No Gambling, Addiction and Crimes (Consequences and Solutions) 09 December Introduction Gambling can cause addiction and this addiction leads to crimes. Once that happens, gamblers tend to commit crimes to maintain their vice. Addicted gamblers resort to all types of ploys to get their hands on money to maintain their vice. This is why gambling is either prohibited in some countries or being strictly and heavily regulated. This is because gambling has very serious consequences on individuals and society as a whole if not controlled. This is an activity that is big business today with an estimated $335 billion in industry revenues last year. The gambling industry entices people to try gambling in order to get them hooked and become addicted and the industry knows full well the consequences of an addiction. A former lawyer of John Ascuagas “Nugget” embezzled $3 million for his gambling habit and in another case, the accountant of a doctors clinic stole some $2.3 million from her employer to feed her habit of buying lottery tickets, as much $6,000 per day. She had pleaded guilty and was charged with a second-degree grand larceny. As it becomes an addiction, some decent, reasonable, respectable and rational people are really tempted to steal money and also commit other far more serious crimes like murder for their gambling addictions. Gambling involves taking the odds or probability of a certain outcome to be occurring. Gambling can take many forms such as horse racing, card games, table games, slot machines, dog racing, sports betting (boxing, basketball, soccer, etc.) and even on the Internet. Some forms of gambling are considered tame or mild in nature such as sweepstakes, lotteries and bingo games because the bet amounts are not very large although prizes can get very big. There are warning signs of a gambling addiction and people should be made aware of them. Discussion Planning a future action is a healthy attitude. This is the same principle involved when businessmen and investors go into business in order to earn money. This speculative attitude generates investments and jobs such as in the form of insurance contracts (fire, auto, marine, flood, etc.), life annuities and the modern and very complex forms of contracts like financial derivatives and stock options. The futures market in agricultural commodities is a very good example of gambling based on speculation but minimizing the risks involved. However, this paper will explore and discuss the troubling issues associated with types of gambling in the strict sense of the word. This paper looks at the problems generated by the uncontrolled urge to gamble that has negative consequences for the individual involved. This paper will research on various dilemmas faced by the compulsive gambler and his family and friends. When people take so much of their time to gamble and place high stakes on a bet in which financial ruin can result, gambling now becomes a serious problem. In other words, gambling has serious negative consequences that can lead to depression, self-esteem, suicide, crime and even murder. Problem gambling affects adversely not only the individual but often everybody and society because it diverts people and resources from being made productive. In general, gambling becomes an issue when one of either two things happens. The first is called problem gambling in which the gambler engages in the unhealthy behavior of gambling without totally losing control of himself or herself. The gambler knows the sure consequences but still continues to gamble excessively that disrupts normal life, spending more and more time and money on gambling but still persists in doing so in order to chase previous losses. A more serious form of gambling addiction is known as compulsive gambling which is more serious because it is now a psychological problem of impulse-control disorder (Saisan, Segal, Smith & Robinson 1) and is the focus of this paper, especially on crime. Psychology – gamblers usually are in a state of denial. People who gamble deny they ever have a problem and they lie about it to other people and also to themselves. The sad part is that gamblers themselves believe in their own lies because they are afraid to face the truth. What they fear the most is if they tell the truth, people will reject them for it. This is the usual justification that gamblers give when asked about the truth of their situation. It is pathological on the part of gamblers to distort reality and deny they needed help (Perkinson 13). Gamblers also try to minimize the problem if ever they will admit to it, that it is not so bad at all. “People who are not gamblers usually try their luck at gambling primarily for the fun or thrill of it,” (Jet 16). These people are mere social gamblers who put down a small amount for joy and excitement but they do not think of it as gambling already. The warning signs of a gambling problem are: preoccupation with gambling thoughts (fixation), escalation by betting larger and larger amounts, trying to stop, escapism (to forget a loss or pain), chasing previous losses, lying (denial) and alienation (destroyed personal relationships). Gambling can start as innocently enough since the transformation is very gradual and can be hardly noticed by the gambler until problems start to crop up and addiction starts to set in and hard to shake off. Experts are in agreement that gambling is one of the few pervasive activities that cut across all barriers of race, class and culture (Griffiths 49). It is surprising to know that people who occasionally gamble (social gamblers) like buying a lottery ticket, scratch cards or bet on a horse race or play bingo reach a high of 80-94% (in Great Britain), 68% for Americans and 81-92% of Australians (Griffiths 49) and all of this is due to a culture of taking chances as a way to instant riches that is ingrained in Western societies (Cosgrave 156). Today, the culture of this chance mentality has been studied extensively by sociologists and psychologists as it involves the concept of irrationality in supposedly rational and logical people. In this case, a culture of gambling has been successively reinforced by societal and technological changes, first with the legalization of gambling, then second with casinos and third, with the Internet. Gambling addiction is seen by psychologists and other health care professionals as a major mental health problem, primarily one that involves impulse control. Gambling research today has encompassed other related fields such as genetics and neuro-biology to help in the understanding and treatment of why some people get addicted to gambling while others do not get hooked on it. Psychologists are of the opinion people who start out gambling for mere entertainment but graduate to problem and compulsive gambling are most likely to be thrill or novelty seekers (Dryden-Edwards 2) and fueled by feelings of control when in fact gamblers have no chance of controlling the outcome of a game of chance (Frey & Eadington 141). Gambling as an addiction is no different from the addiction caused by psychoactive substances such as alcohol, nicotine, marijuana or illegal drugs. A key criterion for classifying gambling to have become an addiction is when it creates a psychological dependency on the part of the victim who can no longer function normally without getting a “daily mental high.” Gambling now takes on the nature of a recurring behavioral compulsion. Psychologists want to have this wider definition of an addiction because previous definitions of addiction relate to substance dependence only without regard to behavioral addictions such as compulsive eating or shopping, sexual addiction or to pornographic materials, video games and the Internet. In all these instances, the effects are the same which include feelings of guilt, shame, rejection, anxiety, humiliation, hopelessness, helplessness depression and suicidal thoughts. Behavioral scientists have continued to focus on gambling because it presents plenty of significant social, legal and economic implications resulting to some severe complications. A few psychologists like Harry Frankfurt and Charles Taylor had proposed early versions of a new principle called as self-assessment in which a person is deemed to be psychologically a healthy person only if he or she exercises a “sense of responsible innerness” (Graham 323). A few experts think a person has become addicted to gambling when it solely becomes the very central organizing theme in life to exclusion of other concerns (Craighead & Nemeroff 619). Problem Gambling – this is a milder form of gambling addiction because it does not involve persistent thoughts on gambling when not actually engaged in a gambling activity. It means the person with this type of problem can forget about gambling for a while but then get back to gambling during discrete periods in his life. The problem gambler knows very well he cannot afford to lose any more money and often gambles longer than he originally planned. A person like this usually denies the gambling activity to close friends or his own family. Lying about the gambling becomes almost a habit in itself. This person hides his gambling by denial. In addition, problem gamblers are likely to engage in forms of gambling which require skills such as card games like poker or blackjack (Weiss & Loubier 508). Problem gamblers know they have a problem on their hands and may try quitting for some time but often revert back to gambling. Some casinos have offered these people voluntary exclusion programs in which a known gambler asks the casinos not to admit him in when he tries to enter a casino. Compulsive Gambling – this is often referred to as pathological gambling because it has become a sickness of the mind. Compulsive gamblers cannot take control of themselves and cannot resist the temptation or urge to gamble, often persistently in huge amounts that led to financial ruin and damage personal relationships. This is the type of gambling that can lead to serious crimes such as theft, fraud and forgery and to the more heinous crimes of assault or even murder. People who are compulsive gamblers will kill just to obtain the money denied to them by well-meaning friends or family members. People under this classification are more likely to engage in games that are based predominantly on chance factors for the outcome. A few medical researchers have even gone to the extent of obtaining MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) images of the brain functions of pathological gamblers to see if there is a difference between them and normal people (Dannon et al. 1). Preliminary data suggested pathological gamblers usually have an impaired cognitive performance in terms of executive function and interference control; the study tried to find out a neuro-biological basis in the frontal cortex. Crimes due to Gambling – there is a very complex relationship between gambling and criminality (Folino & Abait 9) and the legal view between compulsive gambling and crimes had changed over time. Previously, gambling was not considered as a pathological condition and criminals were sentenced based on the full force of the law. However, medical science has in a way enlightened some of the legal experts and judges when meting out punishment also to consider the pathology (scientific study of a disease or ailment) as a mitigating factor. This is because psychologists consider compulsive gamblers as people who are not in control of their actions that adversely impact on their cognitive reasoning and exercise of the free will. This new view of compulsive gambling contributes to the new development of what some mental health experts associate with impulsiveness or the personality trait to initiate a behavior or commit an act without prior thinking or forethought of the consequences. The tendency is to act on the spur of the moment and this is further related to taking risky acts, no adequate planning and to make up one’s mind very quickly which in itself are signs of various neuropsychiatric disorders which have been fully documented already. Impulsiveness is a trait of most pathological gamblers and the psychologists further point out it is related to violence. The theory linking impulsiveness with violence is that under certain stressful circumstances, the same compulsions can lead to anti-social behavior such as physical violence and crimes. Neuro-scientists also found out that impulsive behavior is very similar to addictive processes. In this paper, crimes committed in relation to compulsive gambling are those which are connected with an individual’s criminal behavior such as stealing to continue the habit of gambling. The discussions will not include organized crimes perpetrated by syndicates which are involved in the big business of the gambling industry such as those in protection rackets or other consumer-driven crimes like prostitution or illegal drugs because these are victimless in the sense it does not involve violence against persons or personal property. Crimes discussed here will entail those committed by the individual gambler to further his activities. Fraud – most people believe there is a strong connection between gambling and a rise in criminality. Most statistical data tend to support this assumption although the gambling and casino industry denies this connection. However, the American Insurance Institutes estimated $1.3 billion in insurance fraud annually is committed by those who gamble compulsively. The other data also suggest that crimes rates tend to rise in those areas where casinos are located. Some legal experts estimate about 40% of all white-collar crimes are committed by gambling addicts who are in desperate need of cash to fund their habits (McGrath & Ison A6). In one spectacular case, the vice president for sales, merchandising and operations of a big electronics company had embezzled a total of $65 million from his employers for a period of 5 years for his gambling debts at Las Vegas without being detected (Chen 1). The length of time and the sheer amount involved indicated the difficulty of catching criminals who use can use their positions of authority to hide their crimes. Additionally, corporate frauds are usually perpetrated by one person alone which makes detection more difficult (CFO 1) because that person most likely has no existing criminal records yet. Theft – crimes of this nature are sometimes pretty much in smaller amounts only and committed by younger individuals desperate to find some cash quickly. Thievery is sometimes considered as a minor crime such as breaking into unattended homes and carting or carrying away some appliance and furniture in order to be sold and raise cash immediately. Most of those involved in theft will be captured by the authorities due to possession of stolen property. Forgery – this crime is committed by gamblers when they want to withdraw monies from the bank under a joint account, usually with their spouse. Pathological gambling usually takes time to develop and so the compulsive gambler will initially find legal means to obtain the money needed to gamble (Thompson 74). It is only later on during desperation stages will the gambler turn to illegal means such as fraud, embezzlement and forgery to get the funds. A new twist is identity theft by forging the signature of someone else to obtain new credit. Physical Assault – despite the denials of the spokesmen of the gambling industry, the crime rates in the areas where gambling establishments are located tend to rise after opening of these gambling places. A major concern is what legal experts term as “ambient crime” that were committed within the vicinity of casinos (Padwa & Cunningham 30). These are crimes which are usually crimes against persons and increased rates of street crimes like mugging. In particular, law enforcement officials noted that in places where there was a low crime rate, the rates markedly increased once gambling has taken root in a certain locality (ibid.) because the people who still want to gamble after running out of money turn to crimes to obtain money. In many places, no matter if gambling is strictly regulated, there are always increases in crime like pick-pocketing, larceny and robberies. What is very alarming is the crime rates stayed up once casinos were introduced into an area, and even more alarming are increases in violent crimes and for street crimes, a large increase in auto thefts and car-jackings. Assaults on police officers also increased in those areas which mean criminals do not distinguish their victims anymore due to the despondency generated by gambling losses. Murder – what should alarm anti-gambling advocates is the rise in violent crimes that include murder, robbery, forcible rape and aggravated assault. The feelings of hopelessness and despondency can drive compulsive gamblers to commit these crimes because an addiction is causing them to lose control of their mental faculties. The urge to gamble is very strong and so these gamblers will commit these crimes to get their hands on money. These people will not easily take no for answer. Impulsiveness, gambling addiction and violence go together in most cases. The murder statistics go both ways, with gamblers being murdered for inability to pay back gambling debts incurred from crime syndicates while some compulsive gamblers go to killing people (family members, parents, loved ones and friends ) who will not lend them money anymore due to persistent gambling losses (Costigan 1). Conclusion People can start gambling innocently enough such as for entertainment purposes only. However, this initial fascination with gambling can lead to more serious consequences if one is not aware of how a person can get hooked to gambling. This is because gambling is similar to other substance-based addictions like to heroin, marijuana, cocaine or other illegal drugs. In essence, compulsive gamblers exhibit the same symptoms such as withdrawal symptoms, the tendency to develop tolerance (by increasing the amount of wagers), depression and getting a high when gambling similar to cocaine addicts getting an injection of cocaine. Although there are tentative biological links to compulsive gambling (such as the lack of serotonin and norepinephrine), it is important for family members to immediately seek help of medical professionals before the gambler will harm himself or commit suicide or also harm and even kill other people due to his compulsive gambling habits that is now out of control. A lot avenues for seeking help are available such Gamblers Anonymous (GA similar to AA or Alcoholics Anonymous), psychological counseling using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), voluntary exclusions from being allowed into a casino and peer support from friends or close family members. Despite tax revenues generated from licensed gambling, the social impact of gambling is almost always negative on the community (Hsu 235). Like any addiction such as cocaine, illegal drugs or nicotine, it is always advisable not to start gambling, no more how innocent the first tries might be as it can lead to addiction. It is the obligation and responsibility of society to help compulsive gamblers and see them as the victims of their own behavior rather than as criminals. They need all the help they can get. Family members should be always aware of how people can hide their gambling habits until it is too late sometimes to do anything, such as preventing a murder from taking place due to the accumulation of gambling debts (Goldenbach 1). Works Cited Chen, Jason. “Fry’s Electronics Store VP Allegedly Embezzled $65 Million for Gambling Debts.” Gizmodo.com 23 Dec. 2008. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. CFO Staff. “Ethics: Deception Perception.” CFO Magazine. 1 Sept. 2008. http://www.cfo.com/members/index.cfm/login Web. 30 Nov. 2010. Cosgrave, Jim. “The Age of Chance: Gambling and Western Culture.” The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 29.1 (Winter 2004): 155-158. Print. Costigan, Christopher. “Alameda, California Scene of Yet Another Gambling Debt Murder.” Gambling 911. 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. Craighead, W. 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