Responsible Gambling

What Is Gaming Addiction and What Are Its Causes?

Gambling addiction can be described in many ways, but here’s our own according to our team members– it’s the inner feeling telling you to start chasing your losses. If you can’t take losing as a regular part of gaming sessions, it means you probably lost more than you can afford to, right?

That’s the first red flag telling you to stop and re-evaluate your gambling goals. If we turn all that into numbers, we get the bigger picture of the NZ gambling market. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs which oversees online gambling in the country, one out of every five slot machine enthusiasts in NZ is at some risk of developing addiction problems.

While that sounds like “just one” person, it’s rather one too many. The Ministry of Health, on the other hand, does a gambling-related survey every two years. In 2020, the survey concluded that over 184,000 New Zealanders aged over 16 are at some level of risk of developing gambling problems. We therefore take it as our responsibility to point you in the right direction and promote responsible gambling.

To do that, let’s go over the main reasons behind problem gambling as a condition:

1. Overwhelming presence of pokie machines– One of the main reasons is the abundance of slot machines available to NZ players across the country. The mentioned survey states how 50% of those machines were sorted throughout the most under-developed social and economic communities in NZ, having over 18,000 machines country-wide.
2. Unregulated online market – Based on the New Zealand Gambling Act of 2003, local companies aren’t allowed to organise and advertise online gambling to NZ players. However, the offshore gaming market is still somewhat of a grey zone and some decentralized crypto casinos allow underage players to access online casino games.
3. Market size – It’s officially unknown as to how big the current iGaming market in NZ is, but to give you a bit of background, the 1999 survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs saw a market cap of NZ$1.2 billion for land-based practices alone.

How To Detect a Gaming Addiction

We all tell ourselves how “It won’t happen to me” and keep validating our in-play decisions. While that’s not an issue for many responsible players, it can be devastating for some who unknowingly find themselves in a problem. Remember, gambling can be addictive, and like every other addiction, it has some telltale signs that you should notice:

• Inability to cope with your losses.
• Thinking about playing again as soon as you finish a session.
• Not being able to come up with a limited bankroll or time frame for sessions.
• Losing track of your spending.
• Looking at gambling as a way of making a profit.

If you find yourself immersed in any of these potentially harmful states of mind, please turn to a qualified expert for gambling therapy. We aren’t medical experts in the field, but we’ll leave some useful numbers you can use in the worst-case scenario down below.

The Stages Of Gambling Addiction

Besides the signs of gambling addiction, you’ll also need to be familiar with the stages of it to timely notice any signs if they manifest in your daily gaming routine. You’d be surprised by how harmless these stages may appear at first since some of them may be regular parts of your everyday gaming sessions, so let’s take a closer look:

1. Winning Phase. All players fit into one of two groups – you’ve either started gambling with a win or a loss. If you’ve won big before, it’s easier to get hooked, even though it doesn’t mean all the winners get addicted. However, if you get into a winning streak where you feel as if you’ve “cracked the code” or have found a foolproof winning strategy, it easily converts into the next stage.
2. Losing Phase. This one is sadly when reality hits since most casino games have an embedded house edge that you can’t beat. In most games like slots, it’s the RTP which gives the casino an advantage in all cases, so you will inevitably also experience a losing streak sometime down the road.
3. Desperation Phase. If you handle a loss like a perfectly normal thing, it’s a great first step towards responsible gambling. However, if you take all your losses desperately and immediately get bad thoughts or think about playing again just to retrieve your recent losses, it often leads to problem gambling.
4. Hopeless Phase. The worst thing to do when gambling is to go over the line and let a loss affect your emotions and mental well-being. If you start feeling hopeless or consider borrowing money or pushing your friends and family away just to come up with a new gambling strategy, it’s the moment when it’s necessary to seek help.

It’s important to realise that this could happen to any of us, regardless of how mentally strong you are. So, it’s best to use some proven tactics to ensure responsible gambling to avoid ever having to deal with such issues.

10 Tips for responsible gambling

We had to go through the previous sections to explain what problem gambling is and how to identify it, but now we come to the most useful part. We’ll go over some tips that will set you on the right track to playing responsibly and within your budget:

Set a Budget

Setting a clearly defined budget is the main step of responsible gambling. Before you start playing, make sure to limit yourself to a sum that wouldn’t hurt your personal finances if you were to lose.

Set Time Limits

Time limits are right up there along with forming a budget since playing for too long may negatively impact your clear judgement.

Avoid Gambling Under the Influence

You should never gamble when intoxicated since you need your mind at its full capacity to make smart in-play decisions and stick to your budget.

Understand the Odds

Before you start playing any game, make sure you understand the rules, payouts, and odds, as well as have some basic idea of the gameplay.

Take Breaks

Always take regular breaks when gambling and know that sometimes it’s best to walk off and come back for more some other day if you are having bad luck.

Avoid Chasing Losses

This one is what leads most players to problem gambling in the first place. As long as you never wager more than you can afford to lose, chasing your losses shouldn’t even come to your mind.

Don’t Borrow Money to Gamble

Remember, gambling always comes down to winning or losing, so if you borrow money to gamble, there’s at least a 50% chance you’ll lose that money and have to pay it back.

Gamble for Entertainment, Not Income

We’ve mentioned this one before and it’s quite simple – only professional poker players may earn a living by playing games of luck (or chance), so if you are not a professional, don’t gamble with profit in mind.

Seek Support if Needed

Don’t hesitate to reach out for support if you suspect you might be having a gambling issue.

Know Your Limits

Make sure to go into each gaming session with a clear wagering limit in mind, and always leave the game if you reach that limit.

How to Protect Children From Gambling Addiction

Besides protecting yourself, it’s vital to protect your siblings and kids. Youngsters can be under the influence of family members and other grown-up figures in their environment when it comes to gambling, so you may want to consider taking the following steps to protect them:

Keep your young ones educated on the risks

It’s best to speak openly about gambling, its role in modern-day society, and how it can impact one’s mental well-being and finances. Knowing the risks will help them understand why it may not be the best road to take.

Keep an eye out on available content

These days it’s simply impossible to avoid certain gambling promotions. Whether it’s YouTube or your favourite sports channel, it can’t be helped, but you may be able to limit the availability of content sources your children are using.

Teach them financial responsibility

Make sure to explain to your kids how important financial dependability is and why it matters to manage your spending. Try to explain that every NZ dollar wagered could have a better use, at least until they get to an age where they can provide for themselves.

Set rules and boundaries

While your children are not of a legal age to gamble, make sure to set clear rules and boundaries to prevent them from thinking about taking a chance.

Explain the addictive nature of it

Try to explain to your young ones how gambling is just as addicting as illegal substances and drinking, and that it can negatively impact their well-being.

Where to Get Professional Help

As one final piece of advice we need to give you, make sure to never back down from reaching out for support if you even suspect of having a gambling problem. It’s not a shameful thing to do; you can only benefit from it and find a solution to your gambling-related issues.

You can reach out to The Problem Gambling Foundation for a free consultation knowing that it will be held private between you and the foundation.

There are tons of other resources you can use, including the DIA Gambling Group website where you can get a free consultation and a lot of useful materials on gambling addiction prevention and steps to take for recovery.

Of course, you can also count on the helpline of the Gambling Commission New Zealand where you can find a 24-hour gambling addiction prevention service, or use a text messaging service if you feel more comfortable that way. The Gambling Helpline allows you to socialise with other players fighting the same issue and get conversational treatment in a safe environment. Plus, you can always resort to Safer Gambling Aotearoa for a full educational approach to solving gambling issues.