Gambling addictions 'most costly form of dependency'

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by Change | 5 Feb 2009

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A group has claimed a gambling addiction is the most expensive form of dependency, in both financial and livelihood terms.

gambling addictions are the most expensive form of dependency which people can develop, a German organisation asserts.

Ilona Fuechtenschniede, chairwoman of the country's gambling addiction Association, claims the condition often ends seriously and has the highest level of suicides, Deutsche Presse Agentur reports.

The group identifies gaming machines as having the most serious risk of creating a dependency in people, as these are accessible everywhere from video arcades to fish-and-chip stalls.

Ms Fuechtenschniede tells the news provider the habit can quickly move from being problematic to an addiction, although "not everyone who gambles away a few hundred euros is an addict".

Frederic Soum, a psychotherapist and director of SwissGambleCare in Boesingen, claims a gambling addiction becomes the only thing that matters to someone with a dependency.

He states: "All other aspects of life - for example social contacts, physical activities and further education - are ignored as secondary."

In other news, Dr Emanuel Moran, a specialist advisor on pathological gambling at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, recently wrote in the Times that fruit machines are learning devices which lead people to develop gambling addiction problems.

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