You will agree with me that society and the environment can have a great influence on the lifestyle of every individual, you often can find yourself doing, or being involved in that activity that almost everyone is involved with in that your locale as a result of influence. Now considering someone who is a gambling addict, is there any possibility of him/her becoming better if they are relocated to another environment or society where people around are not involved in gambling?
Can someone still develop the habit of gambling and become an addict even though no one around gambles?
I believe that a change of environment can definitely have an effect on gambling addiction. How exactly? I have no idea.
Lets talk about a different kind of environment for comparison:
With pressure fluctuations during hot to cold weather-changes, your brain goes on a kind of neuronal electrical overload because the sudden drop in air pressure causes chemical changes in your brain and that causes neurons to fire off electrical impulses at a higher frequency. All that overload in electrical impulses causes irritation of the brain. you get a headache. Now you are irritable and prone to bad decisions during gambling.
However as I am no neuroscientist, thats as much as I can tell you what happens to your brain during physical environmental change. However I am certain that even if social pressure is not actual physical pressure, it does probably have some of the same physical effects on your brain.
If it's about getting rid of gambling addiction, then I would use every opportunity to cure this disease (and gambling addiction is a disease).
Perhaps, in some cases, a change of residence can be effective. For example, if the player lives in a northern country where it is always cold, dark, and the harsh winter lasts for many months. There are a lot of such countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Canada, etc.
The harsh climate of these countries and the lack of sunlight can provoke depression, as well as contribute to the development of gambling addiction. Moving to a sunny country (like Italy or Spain) might solve the problem. The beautiful nature of Tuscany is made for romantic walks.
If the player walks more in the fresh air and admires the beautiful landscapes, then perhaps the painful craving for gambling will disappear from him.