Poker Addiction is just like any addiction refers to. Being called a poker fanatic doesn’t necessarily mean being an addict. There are some factors that could aggravate into addiction. Recent statistics states that four to seven per cent of people playing casino games are gambling addicts. But unfortunately only few people understand the danger of being such. Quite a number of them have no idea that their passion for gambling has become a disease.
Are there real symptoms of poker addiction? Yes. There are players who play high stakes games for many hours every day but still remain relatively calm and cannot be called compulsive gamblers. Even if one loses big amount of money at a casino once in a while he cannot necessary be branded a gambling addict.
You are an “addict” the minute you stop drawing the line between your gambling money and money for living.
Losing all gambling money and have just enough to pay the bills thinking about borrowing a small sum from a friend and double it at a poker table tomorrow evening, as he feels that he will be lucky is a usual gambling addict way of thinking. Gambling maniacs, like a crazy gambling addict, lie to their families and friends, borrow money from different people and are able to do almost anything in order to have more gambling money. They usually lose everything very fast as they have no patience and are constantly on tilt.
Even it is realized that the love for poker has become a mania, it is very difficult to cure it. The game is the only thing you care about, your only love, passion is in it too. So, what are ways to avoid the temptation of playing? If you feel that your passion for poker has become dangerous, immediately refer to the specialists from organizations formed for this purpose like the Gamblers Anonymous Association created in 1957 by two gambling addicts who hid their identities. They found out that communication, discussing of the problem and mutual support are keys to recovering and conversing with them would be beneficial.
Poker players should be aware and not scared to assess themselves. If a person would answer why he plays poker and answers the following, the risk of being an addict is large. This is one way to prevent further damage of being an addict.
- Play for fun.
- The brain interprets poker as fun, and it will naturally want more of it so you need to control the amount that you play.
- Play to gamble
- A player may enjoy gambling on other casino games and think that in playing poker he has better odds then the others, the fact of the matter is unless you are an excellent player you have better odds playing casino games.
- Play because you enjoy the social atmosphere.
- Playing in a live casino is fun. It is one of the best time to meet new friends. This can become an unhealthy addiction because you can end up not even caring about winning and instead become addicted to being accepted and be a part of a group or a community.
- Play because I’m bored
- Playing out of boredom can lead to an unhealthy addiction. You don’t care enough to win, your motivation is just to fill time, you can even hate poker but you’ll still play it because it fills the boredom.