Uncle Chi had been suffered from gambling problem for more than 30 years, which also seized his sweet family life. He currently lived alone. Although he experienced the damages brought by gambling, he still had hope in winning at Baccarat. When he was upset, he used gambling to uplift his mood and borrowed money to chase.
When young, Uncle Chi was involved in illegal soccer and horseracing betting. After learning Baccarat, his gambling problem became more and more serious. He recalled his memories of laughters and happy faces when he first stepped into casinos with colleagues. He then brought his wife to gamble together. The fun and winning experiences encouraged him to go to casinos alone when available. He thought he caught the way of winning through observation, e.g. betting on “bank” after many wins by “bank”, until “play” won. With the increase in salary, his credit limit also increased, in addition to promotions offered by financial companies, he could not control himself from borrowing loans to gamble.
Influence of gambling myths
As Uncle Chi had been indebted for many years due to gambling, he still owed $50,000 after his mother, wife and children had helped repay his debts for many times. His wife and children were furious and disappointed about his unstoppable gambling behaviour and indebtedness. His wife finally divorced him.
His aged mother was very worried about his situation, and most of his siblings had isolated him. The only sister who showed concerns also felt helpless in supporting Uncle Chi. Gambling had already severely impacted his psychological and mental health. He always felt frustrated about his loss in gambling, and sometimes very depressed and hopeless about his life. When condition worsened, his body became very weak, that he felt difficult to breathe, his emotion was unstable, and he even thought of committing suicide.
Treatment and change
After counselling, Uncle Chi understood the independence of every game. Counsellor further discussed his potential high-risk situations and how he could respond and react to those risks. From which, Uncle Chi realized that he was easily influenced by crowd psychology in casinos, and the game record deluded him about having the ability to find the way of winning. As a result, he was determined to stop going to casinos again, which would be his most effective prevention of relapse. Moreover, Uncle Chi realized that he had the greatest gambling urge when he received phone calls from financial companies and had a large amount of cash in hand. He then took the initiative to invite family and counsellor to remind him, in order to help him overcome his gambling addiction.
Though Uncle Chi had not yet fully recovered, he had been more alert to his gambling problem and gained control over himself. Till now, he had not borrowed loans for gambling again.
