GO ALL IN ON YOURSELF

Help break the cycle of Mzansi's big addiction to gambling

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IN A recent interview, Sibongile Simelane-Quntana, Executive Director of the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation, highlighted the growing social and economic impacts of gambling addiction across the country.

Quntana revealed that 35 percent of people looking for help for gambling addiction are unemployed and dependent on SASSA social grants.

Quntana said: “Some are actually the R350 grant recipients. People are actually unable to pay school fees, are unable to put the basic needs on the table of their families due to gambling addiction.”

Gambling problems can happen to anyone from any walk of life.

Your gambling goes from a fun, harmless diversion to an unhealthy obsession with serious consequences.

Whether you bet on sports, scratch cards, roulette, poker, or slots, in a casino, at the track, or online, a gambling problem can strain your relationships, interfere with work, and lead to financial disaster.

You may even do things you never thought you would, like running up huge debts or even stealing money to gamble.

Gambling addiction - also known as pathological gambling, compulsive gambling or gambling disorder - is an impulse-control disorder.

If you're a compulsive gambler, you can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when it has negative consequences for you or your loved ones.

You'll gamble whether you’re up or down, broke or flush, and you'll keep gambling regardless of the consequences — even when you know that the odds are against you or you can’t afford to lose.

Of course, you can also have a gambling problem without being totally out of control.