Gambling is an activity where people wager something of value, usually money, on a random event with the intent to win. It involves three components: consideration, risk and a prize. The activity can take many forms, from card games like poker and blackjack to slot machines and video-draw poker, to sports betting, horse racing and football accumulators. It can also include lotteries, instant scratch-card games and online casinos.
The negative economic effects of gambling have been well documented. Those effects may be felt at the personal, interpersonal and societal/community levels. Intangible social costs are often omitted from economic analysis, and it is difficult to measure or quantify them in dollar terms. Moreover, omitting the social dimension of gambling from economic analysis limits its ability to contribute to public policy decisions.
Intangible benefits of gambling are also important and can help to balance the overall picture. For example, the construction of a new casino facility may result in more jobs and income being generated in a community. It can also improve a local environment by creating or expanding wetland areas. However, these benefits cannot be easily measured and quantified, making them a relatively small portion of the total economic impact.
Likewise, some of the positive effects of gambling can be derived from the therapeutic effect it has on gamblers. The bright lights, blaring music and buzz of excitement that surrounds a casino floor can provide an escape from the daily stressors of life. This escapism can provide a short-term respite from the worries of daily living and allow gamblers to focus on the game at hand.
A number of services are available for those with gambling problems, including family therapy and marriage, career and credit counseling. These services can help a person to address the specific issues that have arisen as a result of their gambling problem and lay the foundation for repairing his or her relationships and finances.
There are also a number of ways to reduce the amount of money you spend on gambling. One way is to cut back on the number of games you play or the amount of money you bet. Another way is to stop gambling completely and find other activities that will give you a similar feeling of pleasure. Alternatively, you can get rid of your credit cards and have someone else be in charge of the money you spend, or postpone gambling for a while.
The personal and interpersonal level of external impacts includes invisible individual costs, which include emotional pain and suffering from the gambling addiction and losses incurred by significant others. It can also include indirect monetary harms, such as petty theft and illicit lending, and it is not uncommon for pathological gamblers to perpetrate intimate partner violence. Those harms can also have long-term consequences, even after the gambler stops gambling. Intangible costs of gambling at this level are also difficult to measure.