Gamblers Anonymous Offers Hope

MILLIONS of gamblers who want to kick the habit can have a way out with the help of Gamblers Anonymous, a nonsectarian, nonprofit organization that helps compulsive gamblers.

Any gambler who thinks he needs help has only to register with the organization and express his desire to follow the program religiously.

Gambling is defined as any form of betting or wagering for gain for oneself or for others.

There are gamblers who have no idea what a casino is or how to play poker, blackjack, baccarat, slot machines, roulette, Texas Hold 'Em, jai alai, lotto, sweepstakes, or horse racing, dog fighting or even what a deck of cards looks like.

They gamble on anything--even on the weather. There are those who gamble on the chance that a particular fly would land on a glass arrayed on a table. They even gamble on a particular man from a distance that he would turn back in a few minutes or more.

A man who plays mahjong every weekend starting Friday evening and ends in the early hours of Monday could be classified as a compulsive gambler. For he could be making problems with family members.

Compulsive gambling is not due to financial problems. It's more emotional in nature. He could have started the habit without him knowing that he is already into the habit.

In the first place Gamblers Anonymous does not consider compulsive gambling a vice. GA believes that the sickness cannot be cured but can be arrested.

Compulsive gamblers are very sick people,who are unable and unwilling to accept reality. They are emotionally insecure and immature.

They imagine themselves of grand things and nice lives with their future winnings. If they succeed, they still have to gamble to make their dreams bigger and even better than what they first imagined.

If they lose, they desperately even gamble more to recover their losses and to realize their dreams no matter what the cost. They even mortgage their houses or pawn their cars to get funds.

A compulsive gambler wound does not stop in finding ways to get his funds just to gamble some hoping to realize that high living with their winnings.

To recover from compulsive addiction each should be honest, open minded and willing to follow a certain regime that has been proven by the organization.

Those seeking help should accept that they are in a grip of progressive illness but desirous in following concepts for them to be cured.

Self-medication through reading medical journals may initially help them. But in the long run they may revert to their old habitss.

Will power alone without outside help, like Gamblers Anonymous, would not work either. For along the way there are temptations.