Problems Gambling Among The Elderly

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Is gambling an issue that should be taken cared of altogether? Not at all, it can be fun when done in moderation and people can actually benefit from it. However, the issue comes in when the casinos begin to take advantage of its customers, especially the ones that may be easy to lure. A primary target that is beginning to seem more evident as time passes is the elderly and what makes this concerning is that many do not even notice that they are being manipulated. Gambling amongst the elderly is an issue that no longer can be ignored due to how they are easy targets, it is far too easy for them to lose money, people who deny the existence of this dilemma and that the elderly end up gambling more than they can afford. The elderly have become …show more content…

David Surface wrote an interesting article, “Problems Gambling in Older Adults”, that speaks on a study that was conducted in Wayne State University that revealed that older people may gamble for reasons that are outside of gambling entirely (Problems Gambling In par. 2). While most people gambling for the sole purpose of winning some money, many elderly show signs that they might gamble for the purpose of being distracted from struggles they may have. Just being around other people might be enough for them to want to throw their money away, almost as compensation for what is going on with their life. Furthermore, Senior Centers have activities such as bingo night that is gambling in disguise but they just go with the flow and are losing blindly because the name is not gambling but ‘bingo night’. Distractions and disguising have proven enough that seniors can easily lose money, some not even realizing that it is happening. However, some people believe otherwise when it comes to the elderly gambling …show more content…

Not knowing what to do with money and having too much free time may prove to be a bigger problem than imagined. “The Casino Trap”, by John Rosengren details the story of an elderly couple that lost an absurd amount of money: “In one year, he lost about $50,000, nearly the equivalent of his annual salary as a manager in a textile company (Rosengren par. 1).” In comparison to how much he earned, losing $50,00 dollars is insanely high, but what can one do when they spend several years stacking up money and not knowing what to do with it? An even scarier statistic provided by psychiatric professor David Olsen shows that 1 in 11 adults over the age of 65 bet more than they can afford to lose in the previous year (Olsen par. 8). Considering that a senior is more likely to have money saved up compared to someone who is in their 20’s, they have more to lose, and it gets to a point where they lose track of how much has been lost and go far beyond their budget. After several cases of seniors gambling way more than what they can afford, there now needs to be intervention before more cases

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