Pathological Gambling

Introduction: Thou Shall Not Gamble? A Biblical Perspective of the Psychological Disorder of Pathological Gambling The nature of gambling is not a new phenomenon in the twenty-first century. A historical context of the history of gambling begins before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The history of humankind notes that the birth of gambling began 4,000 years ago. In Larry L. Ashley’s and Karmen K. Boehlke’s article titled, Pathological Gambling: A General Overview, illustrates the historical traces of gambling from the country of China to the United States of America. For the most part, the birth of gambling began over 4,000 years ago in China- Before the birth of Christ (Ashley and Boehlke, 2012, p. 27). During the gradual height of the
Moreover, from a Christian perspective, the nature of gambling is an act based on his or her own chance. Thus, if gambling becomes a path towards self-destruction of one’s own life, it is reasonable to link self-destructive behaviors and gambling as a pathological addiction. Understanding the thrills of having a chance at winning captures the amusement of gamblers alike. However, what happens if gamblers become too amused and prefer gambling as unhealthy alternative lifestyle to cope with various stresses of
First, when defining the medical definition of Pathological Gambling, Ruth J. Van Holst’s, Wim van den Brink’s, Dick J. Veltman’s, and Anna E. Gourdrian’s article titled, Brain imaging studies in Pathological Gambling, observes that the psychological disorder occurs typically when gamblers compulsive to the method of entertainment (Gambling). Pathological Gambling is defined as a compulsive behavior of gambling, which negatively interferes with personal and work relationships (Holst et. al., 2010, p. 418). Furthermore, the psychological disorder of Pathological Gambling categorizes as an impulse control disorder. In detail, van Holst et. al. (2010) observes that, “PG is often regarded as a behavioral or nonchemical addiction because of its genetic, endophenotypic, and phenotypic resemblances to substance dependence” (p. 418). As classified as a nonchemical condition, neuroimaging identifies how addictive behaviors of gambling compulsively reveals how the psychological disorder affects the brain function- Without conflicting with neurotoxic substances (van Holst et. al., 2010, p.