What is Compulsive Gambling?

What is Compulsive Gambling?

Compulsive gambling is an addiction that causes an individual to experience irresistible urges to gamble.

Compulsive gamblers often build a fantasy life filled with dreams of what they will buy or possess when there are enough winnings. Pathetically, there never seems to be enough of these winnings to make even the smallest dream come true and gambling compounds the frustrations rather than minimizes them. In the gambler's world monies won are sacred and to be used only to gamble more in the hopes of winning even more.

In spite of financial losses and escalating emotional turmoil, compulsive gamblers continue to believe that they can control or moderate their gambling activities at will, at anytime. However, our experience confirms that compulsive gamblers cannot do either of these things.

When compulsive gamblers reach the point where they are willing to admit loss of control over gambling and the complete unmanageability of their lives, they may finally be ready to accept help. This can be found in Gamblers Anonymous. 

Excerpt from Page 7-8 of "Information for the Newcomer = Second Edition" 

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