Healthwizard Health Information

Types of Gambling

Fruit Machines also known as one armed bandits and slots.
Bingo, aka, lotto, keno, housey-housey.
Lottery Tickets.
Cards, there are many different games that are gambled on, the most well known being poker in its many forms. It can be played in Casinos, your own house, and now online.
Animals. Mainly horses and dogs but others will be used in different parts of the world. It used to be that you had to go to the track to place a bet, apart from the illegal bookmakers, but now you have betting offices (Off Track Betting) and online services as well.
Roulette. Once it was only available on a visit to the casino but now is available online.
Dice. Played in rooms, back alleys, casinos and now online.
Betting Shops, Off Track Betting. In the U.K. there are many of these places on every high street where, as well as the usual types of betting listed, you can place a bet on anything, from your wife giving birth to twins to the election of the next Pope. They have also proliferated on the internet where one site has concentrated on betting on the lives of celebrities.
The Stock Market. This is meant to be the acceptable face of gambling and is used by our pension companies to provide for us in our old age but the bottom line is that these companies are betting that the companies they invest in are going to grow in value and make our savings increase. Sadly, there have been many instances of scandals involving this and other financial institutions that show that this is just as addictive.
Spread Betting. This is a term applied to a variety of different betting circumstances that can lead to great wins and spectacular losses. It is a form of gambling that was used on the Stock Market and originally called ‘hedging’ as in hedging your bets. It has now been applied to any number of different activities from football to anything with a variable outcome. For example, suppose a bookmaker decides that there will be 20 points scored in a basketball match, a person can bet higher or lower. Say you bet £20 higher, then every point over 20 you get £20 but if it is less, then you pay £20 for every point under 20 which can lead to a lot of money. That’s the problem, when you bet this way you do not know at the time you place the bet, just how much you are going to lose. It is a very easy way to get hooked. After a big loss a person can panic and start trying to get back their losses with dire results.
Betting on the Web Although already mentioned, betting on the web is on the increase and deserves a special mention. All types of gambling are available online and it is very easy to get sucked in with offers of free money to start betting. A person sitting at their computer upstairs from the family could be loosing hundreds of pounds, dollars or whatever currency per night without anybody knowing until it is too late.

In the USA poker has had a glamorous history dating back to the saloons in Wild West towns and the Mississippi gambling boats. It is said that President Harding once lost an entire set of White House china playing poker. Despite the fact that under the 1961 Wire Act gambling on the internet is illegal, an estimated 20 million Americans are playing on line. Texas Hold’em poker is the most popular game which owes its growth to the televising of some of the big tournaments and also celebrity games where stars of movies, music and sport play, giving poker a sheen of respectability and glamour. It is estimated that Americans spend $6 billion per year on line betting.
Only about 15% are winners, some spectacularly so, but that means 85% are losers, some tragically so, as Gamblers Anonymous will testify.
And young people battle gambling addiction more than adults. Here are the latest prevalence rates as reported by the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, the following are the prevalence rates:

•16-24 year old males 4%
•11-18 year old males 4-7%
•National average, all ages 1.2%

On American college campuses, poker playing, both socially and on line, is almost reaching epidemic proportions. More young people gamble than take drugs, smoke or drink.
How can you tell if someone is addicted to gambling? Similar to the characteristics noted for other top addictions, the main ones to look out for with gambling follow.