Cut slot machines

ASSOCIATION of Psychiatrists of T&T (APTT) secretary Dr Varma Deyalsingh has called on government to curb the proliferation of slot machines in bars and restaurants, as this has the potential to destroy family life by encouraging gambling.

Deyalsingh was responding to a court case involving a Couva woman who faked her kidnapping after she used the family’s savings of $30,000, to fund her gambling habit. She was charged with wasting police time and will be sentenced on June 11.

Deyalsingh said psychiatrists have recently recognised gambling as an addiction similar to drug addiction.

Gambling (also known as ludomania) was previously classified as a compulsion, but in the latest version of the DSM-5 (a manual of psychiatric diagnoses), it has been put in the same class as chemical addictions such as cocaine.

“Whereas experts used to think of addiction as dependency on a chemical, they now define it as repeatedly pursuing a rewarding experience despite serious repercussions. That experience could be the high of cocaine or heroin or the thrill of doubling one’s money at the casino.

“The past idea was that you need to ingest a drug that changes neurochemistry in the brain to get addicted, but we now know that just about anything we do alters the brain,” he said. Gambling slot machines has become the norm at rum shops throughout the country as there was a perceptible link between gambling and alcohol use.

“So while one had to deal with only substance abuse, we now have gambling to deal with,” he said, adding that there is a growing trend to encourage women from Latin American countries to be in bars as a further attraction.

“Long gone are the days when wives had to just deal with their husbands going to the bar for alcohol; now they can lose them to gambling and Latin women,” Deyalsingh said.

The mushrooming of gambling slots at bars and restaurants is evidence of heavy patronage, as people were becoming addicted to the games.

“Government must understand it is an addiction we are dealing with.”

Gambling has destroyed many lives, he said, leaving people without enough money to provide for their families. “We cannot afford another social ill to permeate our society and government needs to step in to stop this addictive threat.”