So why do people gamble?
Besides being motivated to win:
- Need for entertainment
- Need for excitement and novelty
- Need for competition
- Testing one’s skills
- Escape from reality
- Psychosocial difficulties
- Social engagement
- Feeling of importance
These are some additional factors that put us more at risk of gambling harm:
- Awareness of gambling venues & games
- Acceptability of gambling as normative
- Belief that it is a way to earn money
- Other false information and belief of fallacies
- Gender & age: Young male
- Peer’s involvement in gambling
- Parental involvement in gambling
- Fear of regret, or feeling lucky
- Availability of gambling facilities
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Watch this video to hear about someone having experienced gambling harm:
Here is also a video of a Finnish expert by experience (the video is in Finnish):