Sitting at his desk during the middle of the night, this Skyline student is playing poker online. What started as an innocent hobby, has now turned into an addiction. With gambling, there are a number of rewards yet just as many risks.
Raphael Ramos started gambling four years ago during his senior year in high school. His interest in gambling started off with watching poker on ESPN. Viewing the amount of money people were winning made it seem as if it was easy money to earn.
“I would watch poker on the television and see ordinary people like myself winning a large amount of money,” Ramos said. “So I thought to myself that if they can do it, then I can do it myself too.”
Gambling is very common and dangerous as it can drastically change your life. If you have no self-control over your gambling, then it can lead to more problems.
Gambling usually starts off as a pleasurable experience. Once a person starts to borrow money, have debt, and change behavior, then the gambling has turned into more than a hobby. Many will deny their addiction and say that gambling is just a hobby. It is dangerous if no one is there to help point out their addiction because things can turn bad quickly.
“People tend to deny their addiction to gambling because they are usually ashamed,” said Leah Robinson, a counselor for the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery.
Ramos for the most part has spent around 16 hours a week gambling online. He would sometimes go to casinos to gamble but he prefers it online because you can gamble at your home rather than going out.
“For poker, I seem to do better online because you only have to click the mouse and not worry about my facial expressions and body language,” said Ramos.
“I would constantly be up $300 on a monthly basis, so I thought this was easy money and just kept on playing. My time spent on gambling continued to increase as I won. After awhile, my gains turned into losses and as I lost more, the more I played to try and win the money back.”
When you win money from gambling, it is difficult to stop because it seems so easy. Overall, Ramos is up around $200, even after the amount of time invested into gambling. For Skyline students, it would seem gambling would be a good way to earn cash while going to school as not all students work full time.
“I would usually gamble on sporting events with my friends and sometimes place bets online, but it just got to the point I felt like it was starting to affect how I was as a person,” said Rommel Conclara, a former Skyline student.
“I used to take gambling not that serious and would just make a few bets, but I started to notice I was starting to wager a greater amount and started to stress over sporting events. That was when I stopped gambling because it just wasn’t fun anymore.”
People that first start off gambling tend to believe that it is easy money and that they know everything they need to know. Many people complain of losing when they gamble but they should understand that it is what it is.
Gambling is wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome. When you gamble, you should have the understanding that you can lose the money just as quick as you can win. If you expect to gamble and not lose, then your setting yourself up for failure as anything you gamble on is taking a risk that you might not win.
“I think gambling with money that goes beyond your entertainment budget is foolish”, said Richard Hough a math professor at Skyline. “Casino games are set so that the house always wins in the long run, so the more you play, the more you will lose.”
Hough grew up playing cards and decided to gamble on mostly blackjack. He would infrequently gamble and never lost more than $20 a year. Just like other people that gamble, he turned to online poker. Hough enjoys playing more for its strategy and gamesmanship rather than for the money. Usually, people gamble and play poker for the money.
As of now, Hough and other online gamblers have been slowed down with their gambling with the new Anti-Online Gambling Law, signed last month. This law stated that placing bets over the Internet is illegal. This new law is to protect addicts from gambling and to slow down other gamblers who usually gamble online.
“I first hated the Anti-Online Gambling Law because it would stop me from placing bets and gambling online,” Ramos said. “Now that I look at it, this could have been the best thing that happened to me because my gambling would be very limited as I mainly gamble online.”
Besides this new law, there are other options to help your addiction. You can call addiction hotlines, go to web sites such as ncpgambling.org, and even attend gambling addiction meetings. All these options of helping a gambler’s addiction are all effective ways if the gambler is willing to participate.
“Gambling is fun when you don’t take it too seriously”, Ramos said. “Regardless, gambling is just like any drug and can get very addicting so people must be aware of the dangers of gambling.”
