A Million Dead End Streets

"A gambler with a system must be, to a greater or lesser extent, insane." -George Augustus Sala (1828-95) English writer and journalist

Put another way, a gambler with a system is nothing more than a fool. The immutable facts about gambling is that it is detemined by streaks. Because the percentages are in favor of the house, over the long run the gambler will lose.

Card players think they are in more control, but don't fool yourselves. Winning and losing is largely determined by luck. The cards are random. The human factor plays a small role, but it is not the determining one.

So with the incontrovertable evidence that gambling is a fool's errand, why do we continue? Because even the slightest hope of winning justifies the excitement felt by the act of gambling. But let me ask you this: If you knew that the attactive and hot person before you that had you all lathered up was infected with HIV, would climb in bed with him/her? Of course not.

Yet, we walk away from the gambling whore not with HIV, but with our teeth kicked in or our noses smashed. And as bad as we feel, once we are on our feet again, we go back for more abuse.

We don't gamble because we are masochistic, we gamble because we have no control over the impulse. The promise of pleasure and excitement we feel totally obliterates the previous experiences of pain.

Let's not forget that compulsive gambling is a habit and like all habits it must be broken. The emotions and the moods that trip the urge and compulsion must be recognized and replaced with something else, another behaviour, another way of thinking. When these new responses are strong enough, then the habit can be broken.

It's like the old saying goes, "Nothing is going to change until you change it."
In no way am I offering a solution to gambling, but only an insight.

And there are other spiritual and emotional gifts to breaking the gambling addiction, gifts that allow us to live more fully and compassionately.