In Canada, online gambling has become an everyday thing for most people. Along with this, some players are on the edge of falling into gambling addiction. Some of our readers may even have already had a few symptoms of a problem gambler. However, there is a fine line between gambling for fun (or gambling professionally) and gambling addictively.
Many gamblers don’t realize or don’t want to realize that they have the addiction to casino games. They’d rather think it is a hobby, as they like playing. It’s entertaining and exciting when you win a sizable amount of money. No matter what it is, a hobby or addiction, in order to prevent evil influence from online casinos, we strive to tell you the differences between hobby and addiction. How to recognize the gambling addiction, and how to say with confidence: “online gambling is my hobby!”
You can take the gambling addiction test — click here.
Do You Enjoy Online Casinos Enough?
First, let’s discuss the hobby-type of gambling. There are two ways to gamble online and consider it as a hobby.
One way to gamble is just having fun at online casinos once a week or a month. You can even enjoy playing for fun, which means without depositing. Or you can spend an insignificant sum of money a month on Canadian casino sites. In the end, it doesn’t make a hole in your budget, and doesn’t really bother you. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. In this case, it’s commonplace to use welcome bonuses, play them through, and leave the site.
The other way to gamble without addiction is to play casino games professionally. These professional gamblers know what they are playing for — satisfaction. These guys have proficient skills and knowledge in gambling. They are aware of addiction, but they are cool-headed towards it. Professionals use different strategies to play games.
Their goal of the session is not winning money, other than practicing and getting more skilled. Though for sure, winning money is a sign of success. They feel honored to get winnings. However, professional gamblers would rather spend this money on games than withdraw them right away.
In both cases, online gambling is more a matter of entertainment than making money. This hobby doesn’t blend in with your work or family. All aspects of your life are in harmony.
When You Step Over The Line
As soon as you notice your thought heading the wrong direction, you’re falling down into the addiction. What are the thoughts? For example, you can think that you might get rich by gambling online. Or you can feel anxious about the results of your casino sessions, thus play over and over again.
Try to answer honestly: what is the reason that you play online casino games? However, even at this point, most players lie to themselves. Instead of saying that they want to win a lot of money, they would say something like this: “I enjoy playing for fun. Money isn’t the case.” But after a while, they are the ones who owe money from their friends.
That’s why there appeared gambling regulators and various anti-addiction organizations. Online casinos were persuaded to integrate different tools to help players fight addiction. But do the casinos really want to prevent the addiction? Maybe these tools aren’t efficient enough and are more of an excuse. This is hard to say. However, legal Canadian online casinos seem convincing when they offer their own gamble-addict programs.
So, Hobby or Addiction?
There are different tests and surveys conducted in order to identify the stage of gambling addiction of an individual. All of them are pretty demonstrative, however we’d like to get into details of three factors. You can try to evaluate these factors for yourself. It will open your eyes on the truth: either you have the addiction, or hobby.
You devote your time to gambling while in reality you should be doing something else.
Having addiction and doing hobbies means the same — devoting time to this activity. However, think objectively. Do you gamble because you have nothing else to do? Or you gamble because you have many things to do and problems to solve, but you keep spinning the reels just to distract yourself?
Some players open online casino games due to anxiety. But very often, casino games don’t solve everyday problems, they make things even worse.
You try to win back money that you’ve lost in casino games.
It’s okay to feel bad about losing money. Even professional gamblers feel anxious sometimes. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to win money back. In most cases, this attempt makes you lose even more. But if you do try to get your money back by playing more and more, we have bad news for you.
You gamble with money that you should have used for something more.
If you have spare money to gamble, go ahead. But if the money is supposed to pay for your apartment, or to buy a gift for your lovely sister, you should analyze what’s more important. You probably think that you will play with this money and win them back, and even over the initial amount. However, at this moment you cross the crooked step.
If you play casino games with the money that was meant for a different purpose, you have a serious symptom of a problem gambler. You should do something about it: either revise your opinions, or quit gambling.
Final Thoughts
As we said, the line between hobby and addiction is very fine. You can gamble online and honestly enjoy it without harm to your health and budget. But once having a bad casino day, you can get mentally hurt, thus causing problems in your relationship with the loved people. Hopefully, you realize that you have a gambling problem at the earliest and work on this problem. However, if you have the hobby, then we recommend that you test yourself for gambling issues from time to time.
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