Gambling Behavior

Abstract

People who never gamble or who limit themselves to an occasional football bet or lottery ticket have a difficult time understanding the millions of Americans who bet and inevitably lose large amounts of money they often cannot afford. Common sense should tell us that casinos are not built by giving away money and that the more people play at games of chance the less likely they are to come out ahead. Yet Americans continue to spend billions of dollars each year gambling. Although the numbers are difficult to estimate, there may be hundreds of thousands of Americans with compulsive gambling problems.