“Let me see your hand Papa,” I prodded, as Papa Paul was pressing down the two bicycle playing cards with the side of his left palm while gently flicking up the corners of the cards to catch a glimpse of the face value and suit. “Marginal,” Papa whispered to me as he revealed the corners on the underside of the cards hoping that another player would catch on the tell and call his all in. He had pocket aces. Across the table, Aunt Erika called his all in and flipped over her pair of nines. Sure enough, after the first three cards were flipped, Aunt Erika hit her three of a kind. With disappointment and anger, Papa exclaimed, “even the best hands lose sometimes. There goes fifty dollars!” At the time, I pitied Papa Paul for his misfortune. Papa worked a few hard hours for that money to see it be taken in one hand of poker. Fortunately for Papa Paul, he could have easily lost more than five hundred dollars on that hand in a game of online poker.

There are many types of addictions that cause affliction in ones life. Gambling is a form of addiction that puts one’s valuables at risk for a chance to gain someone else’s. The thought of putting your own belongings, usually money, at risk for the chance to win more has a tendency to affect the brain like a drug. A study led by Dr. Hans C. Breiter of Massachusetts General Hospital found that “the parts of the brain that respond to the prospects of winning and losing money while gambling are the same as those that appear to respond to cocaine and morphine” (“Gambling Affects Brain Like Drugs”). The game or deal itself generally doesn’t entice one’s interest, but rather the “prospect of winning” while gambling causes the “blood flow to the brain [to change] in ways similar to that seen in other experiments during an infusion of cocaine in subjects addicted to that drug” (“Gambling Affects Brain Like Drugs”).

Gambling is not an exchange in goods or a payment to play a competitive game with high stakes. Many people tend to forget about the risk involved with gambling while only focusing on the rewards that come from potentially winning a game. You can find gambling in just about every country in the world and state in the United States - except for Utah. In most places, people are susceptible to the influences of gambling starting at just eighteen years old. With a wide range of accessibility to places that allow gambling, almost everyone will be influenced by some type of gambling after their childhood. The severity of gambling however, has been noted by most countries - such as the United States - and restrictions on gambling have been placed in order to protect minors from falling prey to gambling addictions. For example, it is now illegal to gamble online or in casinos in most states in the United States until you are at least twenty-one years old. Governments are taking forceful action to restrict the effects of gambling, yet thousands of people manage to lose everything that they have to a gambling addiction every year.

Many countries, such as the United States, allow for their citizens to make their own decisions based upon their own free will. From this ideology, gambling has been able to grow out of the control of most governmental regulation because governments can’t easily restrict how somebody spends their hard earned money. Many people argue that it would be immoral to restrict one’s ability to act freely and gamble the money they worked for. However, this argument fails to consider that most gamblers have families that rely on the same source of income and that by gambling away one’s income is also gambling away an entire families means of providing themselves with the necessities of life. With the accessibility of gambling to all members of a family, there is always the potential danger of putting an entire family into a tough spot for one’s personal entertainment.

Accessibility to internet allows anyone with an electronic device to come in contact with gambling. Libby Sutcliffe from BBC News published an article on the crippling effects of gambling after interviewing an online gambling addict. Army major Justyn Larcombe, the gambling addict interviewed by Sutcliffe, knows the results internet gambling well. Larcombe managed to gamble away over seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds on online betting sites (Sutcliffe, “Gambling Addict Who Lost Everything Rebuilds His Life”). Starting with “a small bet placed online in 2009 during a rugby match,” Larcombe gradually “gambled away his savings, the equity in his house, money his wife had given him to look after and then when all that was gone, he started using his company credit card” (Sutcliffe). With just one click, people now have the ability to put all of their valuables at risk without stepping foot into a casino. The simplicity and ease of internet gambling is becoming exponentially enticing as more people have access to the internet thanks to a booming market of electronic devices. Even people like Army major Justyn Larcombe, a soldier trained to be disciplined and responsible, are capable of falling susceptible to online gambling. One click is all it takes to lose everything.

While gambling seems overwhelmingly accessible and dangerous - and it is - there is much to be done to prohibit the effects of gambling addictions. Governments are already regulating gambling that interferes with interstate and intrastate commerce, so more regulation could be easily implemented to prohibit gambling that afflicts entire families. Gambling addicts often gamble away entire paychecks and savings, leaving their family with no money to pay for bills or necessities such as clothing and food. Laws can be passed to limit a percentage of one’s investment in gambling per month to ensure that their family is still able to live comfortably. While this wouldn’t completely cure gambling addiction, a restriction on accessible money to gamble could give a gambling addict an idea of regulation and its benefits. Over a period of a few years, limitations will cause gambling addicts to become accustomed to gambling in moderation and casinos will still have a steady flow of gamblers to maintain a profitable business.

The effects of online gambling will continue to cripple entire families from the selfish actions of one or more individuals until more laws are passed to regulate the damage that gambling can afflict. Local politicians and government leaders can take lead in the defense of families across the globe to ensure they are protected from the dangers of gambling. More regulation is a great start to combatting the issues of gambling addiction.

Works Cited

“Gambling Affects Brain Like Drugs.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 25 May 2018.

Sutcliffe, Libby. “Gambling Addict Who Lost Everything Rebuilds His Life.” BBC News, BBC, 14 July 2014.