Under COVID-19, many human activities are suspended, public entertainment places are closed down. Football legends are almost fully cut off worldwide.
The targets for gambler to bet are less and less, no matter football, horse racing, boxing, bar ...
How do the psychiatric addictive gambler coping with their addiction under COVID-19?
In psychiatry, psycho therapy or behavioral modification is always used. Is COVID-19 helping these addictive gambler to run out of their obsession?
This condition which we live in it now is good for dealing with addiction.
I think surely it could be helpful in general, but we have to make a distinction between type of Gambling (online vs terrestrial) and its severity.
In these days I dealt with different type of patients. A large part of Terrestrial gamblers has not gambled anymore since the lockdown started. However some of them are still feeling some kind of craving thus meaning that this period could be only a temporary pause in the course of pathology.
On the other hand I dealt also with online gamblers who are reporting that their conditions are not ameliorated by the lockdown.
I think that this phenomenon need to be investigated more accurately to find some new strategies to treat Gambling properly.
I agree with dr Zita, with whom I collaborate often in gambling projects; gamblers on land basis terms could find in italian lockdown a good help in termes of abstinence and rehabs (mainly Blaszczynski tipe 1 or 2) but some of them could shift on online gambling, depending of age and sex and previuos online gambling experience.
since my specific topic is gender and gambling, focusing on Women) I can tell that in Itay most women don't seem to shift on oline gambling, mostly because of their age ( often over 55 . till 75/78!) they seem to be conforted by absence of gambling venues availaibility; a minority, with serious comorbidity, shows an increase of anxiety and depression, that they can't manage anymore using gambling as coping mechanism).We shoulddefinitly investigate about online gambling offer, which is now targeting especially women, as my collegues in nothern european countries confirm.
file:///C:/Users/Asus/Desktop/Gambling%20Disorders%20in%20Women_%20An%20International%20Female%20Perspective%20on%20Tr.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47814630
Thanks Fulvia for the update on the European conditions. Would look forward to see related publications
Thanks Sunny. I would be very interested in knowing something more about your situation in China. In relation to lockdown measures in Wuhan for example and gamblers reactions to this. Especially in Women. Bests
In Hong Kong, currently popular legal physical (non-online) gambling would be horse-racing football and mark-six (a kind of lucky draw for numbers). Of course, there are many more different ones online.
However, the responsible organization (Hong Kong Jockey Club) closed down all the branches since COVID-19. There is a short period in between that it was re-opened, and many gamblers grasped the time to go in to refill or retrieval their accounts' money.
Unluckily, under social distancing rule, race course is banned for entry even for horse owners.
As a citizen, I can feel how broken hearts these horse racing gamblers are. And with time of few months, I feel that horse racing is falling out of colour.
Besides, football legends all over the world is closing as well. And bars for alcohol are all closed down by law too.
Of course, there is also Majong. Yet, shops providing these are also closed.
That's why I feel that people may shift their attention to others under COVID-19.
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