Gamblers in general
Hoping to
win money Excitement
Feeling the need to win back losses Problem gamblers
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b) Consider two reasons you placed in the overlapping section. Why did you place them there? Now compare and contrast two reasons from each section that are not overlapping. What makes two of them associated with problem gambling and two not?
c) Discuss with your partner whether there are any other reasons for gambling. Compare your results for this exercise with the rest of the class.
Exercise 2 – Gambling traps
Read Michael’s* story and then complete the activities that follow
Each week my family buys a Lotto ticket and we watch the draw on TV. Our numbers are our ages and our birthdays. Mum said these numbers would be lucky for us. It’s exciting watching the balls drop and hoping they will be our numbers. The family has won some small amounts of money but nothing big yet.
I have a computer connected to the internet in my bedroom and I like to surf the net. One night I found an overseas gambling site where I could play lotto online. The trouble was that you had to have a credit card to play. I had money saved from my part-time job that I wanted to use, but I didn’t think Dad would let me use his credit card. Even though I wanted to play, I knew I couldn’t. So I tried to shut down the site. A few seconds after I shut the site, it came back asking me to play. I shut it down and it kept coming back. I thought this had to be a sign that I would win if I played.
I decided to try. My plan was to use Dad’s credit card and pay him for what I’d used plus surprise everyone with the money I’d won. So I took Dad’s credit card number off one of his receipts and started playing with $100 credit.
I didn’t win anything for a couple of games, then I thought, I’d paid for them, so I should keep playing. Then I won a $15 then a $10 and a $20 prize. My luck was in. Then I changed my strategy. I decided that I should keep playing with the same set of numbers every time. I’d heard that I would be more likely to win this way. I kept playing and sometimes I was very close to winning. One time I got four number and all the other numbers were one off! I was so close I was sure I was going to win. One of my numbers is nine. In one game there was 10 and an eight, so close to my nine. I was so sure I was going to win the big one that I used Dad’s credit number again and again.
Why do people gamble?
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I couldn’t think about anything else except playing online and worrying about what I owed on Dad’s card. I couldn’t concentrate on my jobs at home and Mum started asking me what was wrong. I just couldn’t tell her what I’d done and that now I owed Dad more than I could pay I him. I just kept playing to try to win Dad’s money back. Then Dad checked internet banking and saw what he called ‘some unauthorized use of his card’. When he phoned the bank to complain about the $400 I knew I was in big trouble.
Michael, aged 15
*Michael is not his real name.
Reproduced from What are the odds? Understanding the risks education kit, Sue Thompson, Powerhouse Museum, 2004
a) List the reasons for gambling that you can identify in this story.
b) Lotto numbers are generated randomly, that is, each time they are drawn it is a fresh game and which numbers are drawn is pure chance – the machine has no memory of previous draws. Using this knowledge, explain the mistakes in Michael’s thinking.
c) Was the pop up advertising the site really a sign that Michael would win? d) Did Michael steal from his father or was it just borrowing?
e) Think of an alternative way Michael could have paid his father back, rather than continuing to gamble.
f) How did this episode affect Michael’s health and wellbeing?
g) How do you think it would affect him if he owed $5,000 or $50,000? h) Explain Michael’s belief in luck and strategy for winning.
Why do people gamble?
The continuum below shows the stages that a gambler may go through from gambling as a recreational activity to severe problem gambling.
No problems Moderate Problems Severe Problems
Viewed as Entertainment – Hobby – Social activity – Pleasant surroundings – Seen as Guilt – Arguments – Concealment of – gambling Some depression – High Expenditures – Anxiety –
Win back losses – Present as Depression – Suicidal thoughts – Divorce –
Debt and poverty –
Crime –
Chasing big losses –
Source: www.problemgambling.vic.gov.au
Exercise 1 – Looking for signals.
Choose a partner and work together on the task below
a) For each of the following, describe briefly what the problem might feel like for the gambler, look like and sound like. An example has been done for you, complete the missing information in the second Y diagram.