How to Protect Yourself from Gambling While Playing Slots

There was a time when playing slots meant that you had to go to a bar or a casino. It was one good deterrent especially if you lived far from these places. But today, gambling is within the reach of your fingertips. Playing games like the ones developed by Microgaming Slots has never been so easy. And because of the ease of access, many people find themselves hooked into it, at the expense of playing with real money and losing a lot of it. So how do you protect yourself from gambling while playing slots?

Understand Gambling Addiction

Pathological gambling is a condition where a person has an irresistible compulsion to gamble. It is considered a mental disorder and people who suffer from it face terrible consequences. You can lose your family, your property, and your job.

People who are addicted to it will play despite knowing that they cannot afford the money they used to bet. It also does not matter if they are winning or losing. The addiction comes from the fact that the brain changes over time as a person plays. And it works in the same way that it does for drug addicts.

There is a circuit in the brain that connects memory, pleasure, and motivation. When we participate in activities that give us pleasure, keep us safe, or pass our genes, this circuit releases a chemical called dopamine. It is this chemical that causes a euphoric feeling that makes us want to do the activity again and again.

Know That Gamblers Never Win

Slots are fun. All the games are designed with bright lights and enticing offers. Online casinos capitalize on this knowing that it is entertaining. In fact, many online casinos offer play-for-fun features. Anyone can play the slot machines without the need to register or use cash. Little do they know that this is a marketing tactic to hook you into playing with real money.

Casinos employ fair gaming. All the results of the slots are randomly generated. They are also heavily regulated. The problem is that the payout schemes are always stacked against a player. After all, a casino is a business. There is no such thing as a winning method. All gamblers lose in the end.

Take a three-reel slot as an example. If each real has 5 faces, that is a total of 15 faces for all the three reels and you need to match three. Let us say that each reel has a grape, apple, banana, candy bar, and strawberry. Your odds of getting an apple on the first real is 1 out of 5. Same goes with real number 2 and real number 3. If you do the math, your odds of matching three apples on the three reels look like this:

1/5 X 1/5 X 1/5 = 1 out of 125, which translates to 0.8%. For every 100 times you bet that nickel or dime, you can only win 0.8% of the time.  

Prevent Gambling Addiction

It is within your control to prevent addiction. And this is the only way you can protect yourself from gambling while playing slots.

The first thing you need to do all the time is to delay the decision to play with real money. Stay calm and focus on a goal—staying away from gambling. Whenever you feel the urge to start playing, take deep breaths and try to distract yourself from the thought. Talk to somebody. Or go back to work. Take a shower if you must.

Next, you must limit your access to money. Give your money to someone you can trust. If you have credit or debit cards, put them in a container with water and freeze them, you can thaw them later if you have a purchase to make. Make sure that the numbers are not visible to the eye when you freeze them.

Do something fun. Most gamblers start out their journey to addiction because of being bored. Find a hobby that makes you happy. Look for activities that you find pleasurable. Connect with friends and join clubs.

You also need to avoid stress or learn how to cope with it. Many gamblers found their way to physical and online casinos because they are tired. They are either burned out at work or at home and gambling relieves them.  They fail to realize that this addiction will just lead to a more stressful life.

Conclusion

Prevention is always better than cure. Before you spiral down the road to gambling addiction, you must take into consideration how this will ruin your life. If you are beginning to find pleasure in unpaid slot games, always be in control and prevent yourself from playing with real money. If you ever begin to feel the urge to play with real money, remind yourself that gamblers always lose and that the pleasure associated with it is temporary. Real happiness comes from within you, your friends, and your family.