Gambling Addiction Recovery: Lost Everything? Here's What Actually Helps
episode
RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions
36 min
2 speakers
7 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main focus of this episode on gambling addiction recovery?
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Gambling only succeeds if you fail. That's not how most products work in the world.
Psychologist Dr. Michael Zhang joins us to share evidence-based strategies for breaking the cycle of gambling addiction. How does someone handle the immediate panic of massive financial loss due to gambling? Welcome to Recoverable. I'm your host, Terry McGuire. Today, we're going to continue our discussion with Dr. Michael Zhang about gambling addictions and online searches and questions and am I an addict? How do I help somebody? They have just skyrocketed in recent years as more gambling has become legal. So, Dr. Zhang, thank you for joining us again. Thank you. We ended last week's episode talking about self exclusion, but we didn't really define it. Let's talk about one of the ways that people can reduce the risk, reduce the temptation, protect themselves a bit.
Self-exclusion is about adding that layer of friction. It's something that is offered at more of that compliance level. When you have gambling operations and then you've got regulators as well, you've got to make sure that you meet those expectations in terms of the industry. The industry usually has to offer self-exclusion as an option, which basically means it's like a process where you put your name down on an agreement that you go through with them to essentially ban yourself. So it's self-excluding, self-banning so that You're saying to them, this is my commitment that I'm not going to be entering in your venue or your online venue. And I want you to help me stay true to that, whether that happens or not.
I mean, that's debatable because I certainly know of instances where self-exclusion has worked. It's like, well, I'm here to gamble and then I'm trying to get my way around the self-exclusion, but they got me. They got me, so I couldn't do it. Mm-hmm. And I also know of other examples, including what we discussed in the last episode about, well, I actually got in and I gambled. And those cases we talked about and I won, and then they kept the money because I'm self-excluded, so they can't give me the money. But in other cases, it's I gambled and I lost, and they didn't really do anything about it. And self-exclusion didn't work in the way that I'd anticipated. But ultimately, it's about making an agreement to say, I'm not going to do this.
They have to honor that agreement. obviously they don't fully honor it and they'll say there's no way of fully being able to monitor everyone who's trying to gamble and this and that. But also when you hear about the number of instances where self-exclusion is not addressed the way that it should be, is not enforced the way that it should be, then you start wondering what's really going on here.
So that example you gave is going to a casino that you likely frequent and saying, I want to put myself on the no-fly list. What about apps?
You can do the same with apps. You can also, as I mentioned, you can do it with them directly. But again, I ask this question of whatever solution I'm looking at, what is it motivated by? And ultimately, how is it funded? And I want to make a decision. The way that I see it increasingly now is we have a real... emerging marketplace of support when it comes to options, services, programs, treatments, recovery, whatever we want to call it. There's more and more coming into this space right now. So that's a good thing.
Very good.
That's a very good thing. I mean, and I'll be asking, right? Like, How are these funded? Which of these actually have direct ties to the gambling industry? Because the ones that have ties of any sort to the gambling industry are probably the ones that don't have the best solutions for you. They probably just have things in place. you know, to appease, to appease, hey, this is, this is in theory how things should be and it should work. And if you, and they place a lot of the responsibility, just so, just so we're clear, they place a lot of the responsibility on the people who are gambling themselves.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main focus of this episode on gambling addiction recovery?
0:00–5:21
2
How does self‑exclusion work and why is it important for gamblers?
5:21–10:02
3
Can you use self‑exclusion on mobile gambling apps and how?
10:02–16:44
4
Why is gambling disorder the only behavioral addiction listed in the DSM‑5?
16:44–20:17
5
How should someone handle the immediate panic after a massive financial loss from gambling?
20:17–27:12
6
What’s the best way to tell a partner or family about gambling‑related debt?
27:12–32:51
7
Is sports betting truly a game of skill or is it still gambling?
32:51–36:27
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from RECOVERable: Mental Health and Addiction Experts Answer Your Questions
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