COLUMN: Gambling can be an addiction, just like drink or drugs

In the UK our seaside towns are associated with amusement arcades and kids having fun on the fruit machines or the 2p sliders in the hope of that elusive win that will make them the envy of their friends.

It’s not just restricted to UK seaside resorts though – it’s the same in bowling alleys, which typically have large children’s amusement arcades.

You can find the children’s fruit machines on motorway service stations as well. Gambling is all around us. We have non-stop gambling advertising on the television, gambling is online, on our mobile,in the betting shops, in the amusement arcades, in the pub,and in bingo halls, amongst other places.

We even have subliminal advertising in the form of a Kellogg’s breakfast cereal called ‘Krave Choco Roulette’. 
Gambling has been normalised.

Lurking beneath the surface, though, are the gambling addicts, and gambling is an addiction like alcohol and drugs. It creates the same adrenalin rush and dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway in the brain that is perhaps more known about in connection with crack cocaine.

Growing up today is no easy feat – there are lots of pressures and challenges in this fast paced world. To introduce children to gambling seems abhorrent. We wouldn’t let our children try crack cocaine. So why is allowing them to see gambling as fun, harmless, and possibly an easy way to make money that in reality exists only for the owners of the fruit machines?

We are starting to hear all of the tragedy of addiction to harder forms of gambling, such as fixed odds betting terminals, online casino gambling, etc but the roots are in the normalisation of gambling that sees so many people take up the activity in the first place.

We need a conversation about gambling’s place in society and if we want to expose our children to such risks.