Today, I sat amongst a group of people and listened to them as they shared a story that indirectly reflects how terrible the spate of gambling addiction is. It became evident to me that this addiction transcends demographics such as age, marital status, ethnicity, and religious beliefs, but appears to be more prevalent among males.
The prevalence is not surprising to me being among males, there are high number of male gamblers than the females. For in a gathering of 10 gamblers you may rarely see a single female gambler in that circle that's just a simple example to the extend the males populate the total figure, which is expected that the high rate of addiction should come from the gender with the highest number that gambles.
In this group a person shared a story of how a married reached out to her for medical assistance to support his wife terminal illness treatment. Instead of providing his wife's account details as requested, he offered his own. Concerned that the funds might be misused, particularly for gambling, the person offering assistance insisted on the wife's account details. However, the conversation ended there, with no further response from the man.
he stranger offering aid had no prior acquaintance with the husband. Why then was there apprehension that the funds might fuel gambling rather than support the wife's medical needs?
This short story reflects the current reality we live in.
In this case I sense the stranger who offers to give a financial assistance to their plight must have got an information about the man's gambling behaviour before now and that is what's making her taking precautionary measures by ensuring the money goes directly into the man's wife account than to his as he could be tempted to divert that money into gambling to satisfy his uncontrollable gambling urge.
This story from the op brings to light how evil addiction to anything in general can be and for those of us who are still in control we should strive with all conscientiousness never to fall victim of addiction of any kind. I have heard and seen gamblers who are famished but prefers to use the only money at their disposal to stake a game order that using it to get something to eat to quench their hunger. It's no joke, gambling addiction is real.