Gambling is a compulsive and dangerous form of addiction because of the thrill it gives a person based on unpredictable outcomes that are either rewarding or unrewarding. The brain’s reward system can be triggered, causing the psychological neuro pathways to be reconstructed and formed in a way that makes you not want to stop gambling because it encourages you to take a risk based on the potential prize that is there.

Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Sanil Rege explains, “When a person anticipates something to do there is generally a reward that follows and this triggers the brain’s reward system and gives it motivation to follow through with the act. Dopamine gets released and affects the prefrontal cortex to make someone chase the anticipation of the reward.”

Always looking for a dopamine rush and the thrill of risk-taking can get many people hooked on chasing a high. This high is not like other drugs but it is arguably one of the worst highs since the rewards are unpredictable and the addiction will come from a continuous cycle of risk-taking.

Gambling addiction can be very dangerous because it can ruin someone’s whole life including certain aspects such as relationships, huge financial losses, and detrimental effects on mental health. 

Once one is hooked on gambling, it is very hard for them to stop, as most see it as a get-rich-quick scheme, which it is not. Gambling can win people a lot of money, but at the same time you can also lose a lot of money, and most people try and win back their losses, making it even harder to quit because it is in their head that they lost so much money. 

Neuroscientist Dr. Huberman explains, “The reason why gambling works and why people will go back and back again is because of the hope and anticipation. A gambling addiction is very sinister because, unlike other addictions, the next time can be the time your life changes.” 

Access to gambling is not as hard as people think and this new way of gambling is suppressing the addiction, many kids and people under the restricted age of gambling can gamble due to it being readily available online. Online gambling is so dangerous because at any given moment someone can go on their phone and start gambling under the radar. Since there are not the traditional signs of gambling, you never know who could be affected by gambling.  

According to www.algmus.org, “Online gambling is easier to hide from family and friends because it is all at the fingertips of a person. People may not realize they have a gambling addiction because it is not traditionally affecting them, but this newer way of online gambling helps suppress the addiction and make it less noticeable.”