In recent years, researchers have been doing work to try and identify what causes gambling addiction. Like alcoholism and smoking addiction, gambling addiction can cause often life altering problems for a person if the problem goes unchecked. Most studies show that gambling problems arise because of a couple of things. Either that person has issues with competition and must be in the action, or the person has deep rooted problems with money. A less than fortunate childhood can sometimes prompt people to begin to gamble.
Compulsive gambling can be dangerous because it strips the compulsive gambler of all sense of reality. In a regular setting, they would never be alright with losing thousands of hard earned dollars. When they sit down at the poker table, however, it somehow becomes ok to lose this amount of money. This dangerous self-convincing act is what fuels gambling addiction to points where it becomes dangerous. As people lose touch with reality, they begin to lie, break relationships, and even deceive themselves. All of these things are extremely dangerous issues and can lead a person to do things that they normally would not.
Losing a big chunk of money is...