Ludomania

Ludomania, is the name given to Gambling Problems. Problem gambling is characterized by many difficulties in limiting money and/or time spent on gambling which leads to adverse consequences for the gambler, others, or for the community (wikipedia).

Who hasn't felt the need of being 21 years old just to go to Las Vegas and gamble at the casinos? Well, I have. This feeling can be either good or bad. Good because maybe I just wanna have fun and party. But on the other side, bad because maybe I want to bet all my money. Millions of americans have this problem, ludomania, and only few people recieves treatment. This people can't control their obsession with gamblin and this affect themselves, their family, and their wallets!

We don't have to go far away to Las Vegas. Here in Hermosillo we have several casinos where there is pople who spend half the day in there. That is NOT cool at all. I heard in the news, a story of a woman who had this problem. She went for the first time with her friends in her birthday and she won a big amount of money, arount 5000 pesos. So next day she went to see if she was that lucky again, but she had no success. Then next weekend she came to the casino again to see if she got he luck back, but she lost more money than last time. She kept going everyday after work, she hoped she woud win back her money, but she never won. Then she decided to work more hours, to gain more money to bet in the casino. After the 2 jobs, she went to the casino to lose her salary. Time kept passing and the women emptied her bank accounts. With no money and no time, she lost her children because she didn't paid their school and there was no food in the house, etc. When she saw that her biggest son selling drugs to gain money, her world went down and she started realizing what she was doing to her and her family's life. So she decided to have help from a psychologyst, stop going to casinos, and pay more atention to her children.

This is an example of ludomania, a problem that we as teenagers are facing. We can see this just as a game in Facebook, or just to have fun and win/lose a little amount of money with out friends, but later on, this could be a serious problem. We should be aware of the consequences gambling has and have control over it.