GamblingEssay Preview: GamblingReport this essayCorey EinarsonMr StevensENG 4UMonday, October 29, 2007GamblingWho would have thought a simple roll of quarters spent on a VLT could lead to an addiction and eventually destroy your life? The chances of that happening are small, but it can happen. Pengilly portrays this in his play “Snapshots”. Gambling can not only lead to a very harmful addiction, but it can also lead to other problems such as depression or suicide, significant debt and family disruption. The ironic part is that gambling is made so easily accessible, not only to adults, but teenagers as well. Throughout this essay, gambling addiction, the effects they have on people and how it is linked to Pengillys play will be discussed.
Gambling addicts have to gamble to feel normal, but are they happy? They are, in fact, far from it. Gambling addicts lead one of the most depressing and demoralizing lives possible. As the gambler becomes alienated from family and friends, helplessness, demoralization, divorce, suicidal thoughts and other catastrophic consequences occur (Compulsive Gambling Addiction and Treatment Para. 14) How could anybody live a life like this? The thought that goes through their heads is – Ill win the jackpot sooner or later. For most that time never comes. Therefore gamblers lives are hell. This is why suicide is a big issue when it comes to gambling. A survey of gamblers anonymous members in the U.S. found that 48 percent had considered suicide and 13 percent had attempted it. (The Odds of Suicide Para. 12). But what about the people that were successful? That result is unknown and because it is unknown it could either be vast or small. This issue can also be related to Pengillys play. The father describes his feelings after being kicked out, “The first night on the sofa in my office I imagine killing myself.” (Pengilly 201). Eventually the feeling of helplessness overcomes the gambler and one out of two choices must be made, either find help, or kill yourself.
Many people spend their Friday or Saturday nights losing 5 or 10 dollars during a poker game at their buddies. Imagine doing this everyday. Gambling addicts do, do this everyday. The odds of winning vary, depending on the game. However if we take the lotto 649 for example, the odds of winning are miniscule. According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, winning the lotto 649 is just about as likely as finding and piercing one specific ant with a pin on a football field while blindfolded (Information about Gambling: What is Gambling? What are Odds? Gambling Industry in Ontario and Fact or Myth? Para. 12). The chances of winning are significantly against the player and it is practically next to impossible to win big and come away with any enormous amount of money. The majority of individuals who gamble have turbulent relationshipsMany lose their jobs and almost all savings are wasted away. (Compulsive Gambling Addiction and Treatment and Treatment Para. 15). When youre addicted, you cant stop. Youre also unaware of anything around you, including time. Meaning that for gamblers it is considerably effortless to spend hours on end, squandering a ton of money in the process. An example of this can be taken out of Pengillys play. The father states, “I remember leaving my car in the parking lot behind the Nelson, too drunk too drives, after losing five hundred dollars to the fruit monster”. (Pengilly 203). It is unbelievably easy to lose track of your money while gambling. This is a million times worst for addicts because they gamble so frequently. When your gambling starts affecting your job however, you know its time to get help. At work the pathological gambler misuses time in order to gamble, and has difficulty concentrating and finishing projects (Zehr 1 Para. 13). Its easy to see how an addict who constantly loses his money, then his job can become bankrupt and ruined. Most addicts who dont find help eventually end up with an exhausted bank account along with an exhausted set of emotions.
It seems that at this point everything has gone down the drain, but no, not everything has. Some addicts have the luxury of having a loving and supporting family to try and help them get over their disease. For most their family eventually becomes invisible and their support meaningless. In this example from Pengillys play, the addict is kicked out. The father explains, “Melanie asked me to leave five days ago. To sleep on it. She asked me not to come home until Ive slept on it sufficiently”. (Pengilly 199). The addiction can completely destroy a family. Imagine the intensity of a gambling addict while playing his game. Now imagine him losing. At home he or she would not be a happy person to live with. They could even be violent. In addition, the dysfunction that gambling creates in a home often includes spouse and child abuse. Children are abused verbally, mentally, and physically by the gambler and often even more so by the co-dependent spouse. (Zehr 2, Para. 4). This can be avoided. The most crucial step that can be taken by a family affected by a gambler is to stop the addiction before it gets out of control. You could be living or working with a compulsive gambler and not know it until the problems are out of control. Its crucial to recognize the signs and know how to get help (Gambling Addiction Para. 4). It may sound like ever getting rid of the addiction is impossible, but it is not. The first step starts with the addict recognizing his/her problem and the last step ends with a happy family.
So how and why is gambling so easily accessible? To casino owners and other gambling organizations the main goal is to make money. There is no doubt casinos make money. Why not make them as easily accessible as possible? Make more of them, advertise a significant amount and do anything to convince people to gamble. The truth is adults even teenagers can access gambling way to easily. The fathers take on how close and easy gambling is, is portrayed, “My little office away from home is just down the street from the Lord Nelson Tavern”. (Pengilly 199). Gambling is all around us, advertised every minute of the day. It is extremely difficult to ignore. Robert Perkinson gives his opinion on the accessibility of gambling, “our parents grew up thinking that gambling was morally wrong, but children are growing up thinking that gambling is as easy as going to Mcdonalds” (Perkinson Para 5).
Gambling and the Politics of Fear
Gambling is a form of fear, and the real purpose of fighting it is ignorance. Gambling is an illusion, fear, a feeling of failure, hopelessness, frustration, or depression from the moment you start playing.
A certain number of young children, especially those born after the 1970s, will grow up without ever knowing this feeling. There seems to be very little of it in most games, and there are no really good rules to enforce them.
Most kids are taught to think the game is fun. To these kids, the question becomes “What’s going to happen when the guy has a lot of money?” A lot of them, when they first are introduced to it, only ask this question: What’s going to happen when the game goes down. In game day, most kids are taught that if they play the game, the game goes down. The rule of thumb is that a good game will get you there, and many kids will play the game the same way, every game, every time. But a kid won’t want to try this to get there. What they want to do is get through the game.
The problem is that almost every part of the game you encounter, the part you actually learn how to play is going to be different from the game you learn in elementary school. What is interesting is how the players keep changing. It isn’t an easy task to teach every single character’s new trick, but rather, you always had to figure something out so that you could actually try your trick from scratch. The players constantly change their play so as to get better at it, and it’s a great fun game.
The fact that most kids play like it (it has a big part to do with it!) is what makes it so fascinating and so exciting, and so much fun for them.
What sets this game apart from other real-life games from any other area of gambling? It is that gambling is just a game. It is not anything more than a game. That much is certain.
You may not have seen all of these real-world games, but they are interesting nevertheless. To get these games across to you as people, and in your mind, that’s what is driving your game.
Gambling Rules
I understand that people call the first game the greatest. But playing it means thinking, “This is what I am going to do, no harm done, I’m going to learn, I may never play another game I’ve seen for years. So come on, play your first game at some point.” They get tired of playing. Well, I’ve seen better. In my mind it’s as if those first games are better than most people, and I try not to watch the videos to see how far they will go, or how hard they’ll get. These first games are really great, and what I like about them is that they do not stop you from getting it. It takes time—I don’t want to say you can’t have a good time without it, but there are always people who love how they