Many suicides are related to gambling. How can we deal with this problem?

Whether you are watching TV, attending a football match, or eating a meal at your local pub, it’s hard to get away from gambling. While the rise of gambling will not be unique to Australia, it’s grow to be normalized as a part of Australian culture.

For some, gambling can be a source of entertainment, but for others it can lead to serious harm.

Gambling and mental illness

Research consistently shows problem gambling they often appear next to one another other common mental illnesses and substance use disorders. We see particularly strong links between gambling disorder and nicotine addiction, alcohol use disorders, mood disorders equivalent to depression, and anxiety.

In many cases, gambling-related harm leads to poor mental health. But people experiencing mental illness they are also more likely to have gambling problems.

Gambling-related harms cover a large spectrum. For a while now, attention has been focused on individuals who develop the so-called gambling disorderwho’ve recurrent gambling problems leading to clinically significant distress and impairment of their day by day lives.

But we also need to take a look at those that are on a unique a part of the spectrum and yet still experience gambling related harm.

An individual may not have a diagnosed gambling disorder, but they could still experience problems of their lives in consequence of gambling. These may include relationship problems, financial debts and a negative impact on work or study. All of these items can contribute to poor mental health.

Gambling and suicide

Feelings equivalent to stress and isolation, possibly exacerbated by mental illness, can make some people with gambling problems feel like they don’t have any alternative.

Tests from various countries showed that amongst people treated for problem gambling, from 22% to 81% thought of suicide, and from 7% to 30% made an attempt.

Some 44% of Australian veterans experiencing gambling problems thought of suicide, and almost 20% of them made a suicide plan or attempt.

The recent Victorian investigation into gambling-related suicides assessed Victoria Coroner’s Court records from 2009–2016. Researchers found that gambling-related suicides accounted for at the least 4% of all suicides in Victoria during this period, or about 200 suicides.

Gambling-related suicides were more likely to affect men (83%) compared to the overall variety of suicide deaths in Victoria over the identical period (75%). They were rather more common amongst probably the most disadvantaged people.

The researchers note that these statistics underestimate the true variety of gambling-related suicides. This is because unlike drugs and alcohol, it now exists there is no such thing as a systematic way Gambling is taken into account a contributing factor to suicide deaths.

When we also consider the number of people that can have considered suicide or have experienced a gambling-related suicide attempt, we see that the issue is probably going much larger than these statistics indicate.

Gambling is inherently dangerous

Electronic gaming machines, more commonly known in Australia as “slots”, are the product most closely associated with harmful gambling. Evidence suggests that the machines themselves are responsible greater than half all gambling problems in Australia.

Casino table games are just as dangerous, but contribute much less to problem gambling in the final population because fewer people play them.

While gambling itself carries some risks, individual vulnerabilities can put certain people at even greater risk of harm. As well as people from mental illness, men are at greater risk gambling problems than women. People who are single or divorced are at greater risk compared to married people. People with higher levels of income and education are at approx less risk.

What can we do?

Angela Rintoul, lead writer of the Victorian studies mentioned above, published an article this week within the journal Medical Journal of Australia by which she argued that gambling-related suicides were preventable.

She suggested that health care professionals could make it a part of their routine practice to ask easy questions equivalent to “in the last 12 months, have you ever felt like you had a gambling problem?” Or “did anyone mention that you might have a gambling problem?”

Rintoul also discussed strategies governments could adopt, equivalent to a complete ban on gambling promoting and a universal account registration system that permits people to set limits on gambling-related losses.

We need to see how to reduce gambling-related suicides policy change. In June 2023, a bipartisan committee presented report with 31 recommendations to reduce harm from online gambling in Australia.

One of those recommendations was an entire ban on online gambling promoting. But the federal government he hasn’t replied yet to the report.

Advice for individuals who gamble

It is significant for individuals who resolve to gamble to concentrate on the risks. Understand how gambling and Poker machines really workand that their job is to generate income for facility owners, not to ensure players win.

If you choose to gamble, set limits on the amount of cash you are willing to lose or the period of time you’ll spend gambling. The Lower Risk Gambling Guidelines for Australians, they suggest following these three recommendations:

• gamble not more than 2% of your take home salary

• play not more than once per week

• participate in not more than two various kinds of gambling.

If you notice that you simply are fascinated with gambling more often or that it’s causing problems in any area of ​​your life, it’s crucial to seek help early. Talk to or visit your GP about the way you can get additional support Online gambling help.