Gambling addiction has been haunting people for years. It is too difficult to give up the opportunity to make easy money because it seems to every gambler that his day will come and he will win a substantial sum of money. This craving for an easy life without worries and needs forces people to gamble and gamble. When there is no money to gamble, people don’t stop and go into debt because once they are lucky, they can pay off all their debts. But it’s worth wondering, is this the only thing that makes people gamble, or is there something else that seems unnecessary at first glance but may be the main reason for gambling and losing?
This question is at the heart of the chapter in Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit. At the story’s center is a young girl who, as the author assures us, did not know what to do. Her name is Angie, and she is a young mother of two with a good husband who is always at work. However, on the other hand, she still decided to start gambling. The reason is not money; the author says that the girl does not live poorly, but rather the opposite. She has nothing to complain about except the boredom itself. To pass the time and spend it with an exciting company, the young girl begins to play in the casino. This world of entertainment completely captures it. So much so that she begins to spend all her free time there over time. As before, it is not about the money, because that is often why people go to the casino, namely boredom, which needs to cover up something.
It’s Angie’s fault for gambling and not being able to stop. If she wanted to, she could have found a more enjoyable way to spend her time than losing the family budget at the table. However, this feeling captivates her too much. She doesn’t get upset when she loses. On the contrary, the bitterness of defeat passes all too quickly, and there comes a moment when she sees only the possibility of victory in front of her, even though she may be defeated again. The author does an excellent job of showing the girl’s changes through the example of visiting her parents. She used to call them often and appreciate them, but now that the casino has completely taken over her free time, she has begun to spend every day there. Even those closest to her say she is not addicted to the game but her attention deficit.
The casino, noticing how much their influence on the young girl, pressures her by treating her to free food and giving her credit to play. This is done to show the good intentions of the owners of the establishment and to shade Angie even more, which she does not mind at all. On the other hand, the information also shows that she didn’t want to play in the casino; instead, it was an attraction, like magic. It’s hard to resist that place, where the atmosphere of easy life and winnings always reigns. Similarly, in Angie’s case, she couldn’t resist and succumbed to temptation, leading her to disaster. The trial with her husband and being alone for the rest of her life will be an example of how gamblers end up.
In the end, it can be noted that any gambler sooner or later concludes that all these legends about the extraordinary life of those who are just lucky when playing cards are nothing more than a myth. This story proves it again, as Angie has gone from a model girl and mother to a man who can’t tell himself no and stop gambling. Unfortunately, the problem didn’t end with this story but is gaining momentum in the era of mobile devices and accessibility.