Gaming machines in adult gaming centres, as they are called in the UK, or arcades in other countries, and the internet are the two most familiar outlets for women with gambling problems, according to psychotherapist Liz Karter.
Karter has written a book, Women and Problem Gamblers, and concludes that addiction among women has its roots other than in the “buzz” which men experience.
In an interview, Karter explains her reasons for coming to this conclusion. While men go for the adrenaline-pumping reaction of gambling, women become involved to “numb themselves” for a number of personal reasons, often domestic violence.
Karter is also keen to emphasise that, in the UK at least, the industry has a “clean bill of health” in terms of its attitudes towards gambling addiction and the supportive measures it has in place, but believes that advertising is a major impediment to recovering addicts.
Karter has been a specialist in gambling addiction therapy for 10 years and has been concentrating on addiction among women for the past five years. She runs her own women’s clinics in the UK and is a regular speaker at industry forums on the subject.
The full interview with Liz Karter appears in the next issue of InterGaming.
Liz Karter’s book, Women and Problem Gambling, may be purchased through www.routledgementalhealth.com and until December 31, 2013, the use of the special InterGaming discount code of PCO13 will result in a 20 per cent discount.
A link to the book can be found here.
