Let’s understand the game…
INFORMATION ON THE COMPULSIVE GAMBLING
The Program „Joc Responsabil” is getting out from Bucharest
by Leliana Pârvulescu, Psychologist
Autumn is coming closer, pushing us more towards reflection, new beginnings, plans for the future. It is the best time for people addicted to gambling to regard this season as a fresh start. Especially now, when I have a good news. The ‚Responsible Gaming’ program travels and you will be able to access it in therapy offices outside Bucharest.
The program specialists will be available to you, provide you with information, counseling, advice. Go to www.jocresponsabil.ro. and you will find there everything that interests you. What is important is to trust that you will be the most important people for the program specialists.
Let’s remember now what gambling is and what happens while you are playing. It is worth mentioning that only some people will run into gambling problems.
You will find here information on the game, luck and addiction, which we will call a pathological gambling. This article and the ones following will aim to introduce the fundamental aspects that gambling underlie and the potential excesses of certain people.
Some information is familiar to you, some is not.
What is a game?
‚The game is a universal activity that not only regards all the human beings but also many animal species. The documentaries about nature often show how animal babies play with one another. Anyone who had in the house dogs or cats were able to see that for themselves. Human beings are not far away, as it is known that the game is a pleasant, gratifying and also structured activity, in the sense that it facilitates the acquisition and development of important personal and social skills.
Sports are an example of competitive games: the child doing sport learns many things useful for his future life: to comply with rules and hierarchies, socialize and cooperate towards a common goal (mainly in the team sports), to make a constant effort to improve his personal performance, to bear the disillusions and frustrations, to accept failures. Competition is an element present in many cards games, snooker, chess, checkers, table games.
For some of these games, it is the ability that matters most, while for others luck is the main component. The ability is that quality that a person gradually acquires by practice and training: even though some individuals prove to hold special abilities and succeed to reach excellence stages (the so-called champions), anyone can improve performance by preparation, at least to a certain level.
The role plays, eg ‚let’s pretend that you are … and I am …’, help the child express himself, think in an abstract way (this thing can be done by a child of a certain age, at a more complex level), see things from a perspective that it is not his, understand the difference between reality and representation. Such games are the base of movies and drama plays.
There are games where the purpose is to stimulate in both children and adults certain psycho-physical sensations of excitation: craddle, montagne rousse. When these activities reach intense stimulation levels (think of the amusement parks), some people will see them as attractive and other will be extremely bothered. In such cases, gratification comes from the simple psycho-physical stimulation, in the absence of the symbolical aspects present in the types of games already described.
Does luck have anything to do with gambling?
Certain games rely on luck, on randomness. The dice game, for example, is mechanical and is based only by the success of throwing the dice; the game of cards includes a component of luck and one of ability – the less skilled a player, the more influence the random component (the cards that fate will deal to him) will have in the final result.
Gambling is a game where luck prevails and anticipates a bet, a money stake and other values. In this context, the term of ‚luck’ refers to a risky activity: in gambling, the random element is fundamental while the skill matters less or not at all, hence comes the risk. On the contrary, when the random component were marginal, we would not speak about a luck game but a skill game.
Gambling is able to make changes in the mental and physical states of people; it is quite exciting from a psycho-physical perspective to gamble – to play a certain amount of money knowing that you could either make more and be left with nothing gives you a certain thrill that can be either gratifying for some or bothering for others. Whoever appreciates such stimulations could look for more intense challenges, thus betting higher sums of money and taking a more risk. In a hypothetical soccer game between a very able team and another whose technicality is knows as inferior, it is possible to bet on the team more likely to win but the final earnings will be very small, as the win is less significant when the guessing is easier.
On the contrary, betting on the other team, it is likely to have a higher win. The waiting for the result might be described as a thrill and a superior excitation, but the probability to lose would be similarly high. The player is either looking for this feeling or he is hoping to win, but he will always bet where the chance to lose is higher.
In other words, excitation means money.
Gambling can only be about luck (roulette, dice, electronic games, loteries, Scratch and Win…) or they can include a certain share of skills (many games of cards). The companies producing and providing the games (hereinafter called ‚the bank’) will eliminate the skill component as much as possible, as this thing guarantees higher winnings and more predictible. If the game is only ruled by the randomness laws, the bank is more able to calculate its own expectations in terms of winnings; otherwise, if the final result includes other variables – for eg, the ability of the players – they are an unknown variable for the bank, hence less desired.
