Every year, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) spend millions of BAM in betting shops, which best shows the extent of the problem of betting, in particular gambling practiced by thousands of citizens in the country, including a large number of young people.
Sanela Pekic, an expert associate for addiction prevention programs at the Association for the Prevention of Addiction NARKO-NE, pointed out that research clearly shows that BiH has a very serious problem with gambling and betting:
”What is really worrying is that we are the leader in terms of the number of inhabitants when it comes to the number of betting shops. What is also worrying is the fact that a survey conducted in 2015 showed that at least half of the population in BiH used to bet. Most often it was a lottery, and then sports betting. The fact that every third inhabitant of BiH aged 15 to 25 regularly visited betting shops is also worrying. Further, there are an estimated 50.000 pathological gamblers in BiH. So these are all indicators that in BiH, unfortunately, this problem is very big and that we need to deal with it in a systematic way.”
More reasons why people choose to gamble
Pekic points out that there are several reasons why people decide to gamble, that is, to go to betting shops: ”The way of life itself, a very high level of stress, poverty, unemployment, are all reasons why someone is trying to find a way out or seemingly escape from the situation in which he finds himself. Regardless of the fact that minors should not do it, because it is legally forbidden to go to betting shops and gamble, the research we conducted in 2016 shows that young people aged 13 to 17 had the experience of betting in a prevalence of almost 40 percent. More than 50 percent of the parents of these respondents knew that they go to betting shops, specifically to gamble, but they silently approved it, which is also an indicator that we adults do not consider gambling a problem and consider it as a harmless way to spend free time.”
Very few people are aware of the problem of gambling
Pekic notes that very few people are aware that they have problems with pathological gambling: ”Also when they accept that they have a problem, they very rarely turn to professional help because they think they can overcome the problem on their own. However, it is important to emphasize that gambling addiction is different from addiction to alcohol and other psychoactive substances. To overcome this problem it is necessary to seek professional help, and solving pathological gambling is a process that takes a very long time. It certainly takes more attempts, it is necessary to change the complete way of life and it is important that the person has the support of family and loved ones.”
The Association for the Prevention of Addiction NARKO-NE will start implementing a betting and gambling prevention program called “Who actually wins?” in March this year. This program will be the first comprehensive and evaluated program of universal prevention of youth gambling, based on scientific facts and the results of foreign and domestic research. The program was developed within the project “Youth Gambling in Croatia”, which has been implemented since 2010 in Croatia.
Club of Treated Gambling Addicts
In Mostar, there is a Club of Treated Gambling Addicts, which has been run by prof. Marko Romic, the specialist in traumatic psychology. Romic believes that there are several reasons why people visit betting shops and why they gamble: “One of the reasons is that all these people do not have a better and smarter way to use their time because if they used their time well, they would then work in their jobs for a decent salary and they would be satisfied. Also, young people who do not work, who study, or are unemployed do not have enough quality content, are not offered quality content, and above all do not have developed habits to search for quality ways to use free time and then out of curiosity and boredom begin with betting, first for the one convertible mark, two, and then with a certain number of people relatively quickly it develops into problematic and addictive gambling.
Different socio-economic groups
Romic stressed that among the people who gamble, there are people from different socio-economic groups: ”There are no rules. There are people who used to be very rich, there are people who are very poor, there are people who are very respectable such as doctors, engineers, directors, there are average people, men, women. Pathological gambling does not choose its victims.”
E. Dz.
Source: Federalna
