Assignment

The effects of gambling on a person’s habits, character, and ultimate well-being are often devastating. These effects are also measurable, thus giving prima facie credibility to Aristotle’s views on habits and their connection to the formation of virtue. To see this, consider the four phases of compulsive gambling described by the Arizona Council on Compulsive Gambling. The first phase, the winning phase, is characterized by winning more often than losing. It may start with one big initial win. In this phase, the gambler slowly risks larger and larger amounts of money and gambles increasingly often. He is beginning to get addicted to the activity of gambling, and this decreases the amount of time he spends on other activities (e.g., time spent with family or friends or on working or studying). The gambler next transitions to the losing phase when he begins to lose more than he wins. In this phase, the gambler starts to need money, first to cover losses and second to continue gambling. He also needs to cover his tracks, so that other individuals do not try to stop him as he loses larger and larger amounts of money. This is when he begins to lie. He borrows money that he cannot pay back. Because of the time spent gambling, the steady loss of money, and the increased lying, the gambler’s family life and friendships begin to deteriorate. In the next phase, the desperation phase, the gambler’s entire life has become centered upon gambling, and depression may set in. The gambler has completely lost control over his actions – gambling now controls him, rather than the other way around. The addiction has become too strong to overcome. As people stop believing the gambler’s lies, he may then be forced to obtain money illegally, perhaps telling himself that these are loans that he intends to pay back. The gambler has thus progressed to the stage of lying to himself, in addition to lying to others. In the last phase, called the hopeless phase, the gambler gives up. If he has committed crimes to obtain money, he may have gotten caught. He may even commit suicide.

In rare cases, gamblers will decide to seek help, most often because friends or family have intervened. It needs to be pointed out, however, that the recovery rate for compulsive gamblers is slim and, in addition, recovery usually takes years. Many setbacks can be expected. Once a person has become a compulsive gambler, it is extremely hard to return to being the person one once was.