In medical terms gambling addiction is termed as ludomania. This implies a person needs to gamble despite knowing the harmful consequences. Gambling addiction is a behavior which can affect most of the major aspects of life, for example it can affect you psychologically, physically and hamper your social life. Sometimes gambling addiction is referred as a hidden illness as you cannot see any physical symptoms. According to the American Psychological Association, addictive gambling is a mental health disorder and those affected have no control over it. Gambling addiction is a disease which is chronic and progressive. This means a person gets more and more addicted towards it every time he or she gets the opportunity to gamble. According to a survey about 4 percent of the American population has a gambling addiction.

According to Dr. Richard Rosenthal there are three criteria for a person to be listed down as a pathological gambler or a person affect with gambling addiction. An intolerable feeling or state, which is a person feeling helpless for no reason. Depression can be a reason; a person might get depressed due to problems at work place, problems with family, etc. Another criterion is when a person develops a high capacity for self-deception. When a gambler falls under these criteria, he is affected with gambling addiction. Gambling addiction is however classified into two types, action gambling and escape gambling.

Action gambling means a person is addicted to take risks, people falling under this category want to play with other gamblers, and they want to prove themselves as a winner in front of everyone. They want to identify themselves and create an image, they will continue gambling until and unless they reach the position. Escape gambling is where a person gambles because of the reason that they are affected with some personal matters. The person is having problems with emotional aspects in life or the person is not comfortable with life. People having escape gambling addiction usually play alone or they like to sit alone, they are rather found playing black jack or at slot machines. Escape gamblers just avoid human contact. It is found that men are more addicted towards action gambling and women are addicted towards escape gambling. It is also found that young people tend to have gambling addiction rather than adults. Teens are generally 3 times more likely to fall under gambling addiction. This is completely reversed in reference to other addictions where problems among adults are more prevalent than children.

Gambling addiction is a mental disorder having no impulse in controlling it but it is diagnosable and treatable. A very effective way to get treated is by the help of hypnosis. Hypnosis has a very high rate of success in healing people from gambling addiction. You can download mp3 versions available on the Internet. As soon as you are over with all the sessions of hypnosis you will no more be losing money at the casinos. You will be a winner and will set an example in front of everyone on how fast and easily you could get rid of gambling addiction.

Louisiana is known across the country for its great food, music and festivals. Louisiana is also known for its gambling. People come from across the South to enjoy the food in casino restaurants and to gamble on riverboats. While the Mississippi Gulf Coast has numerous casinos, almost all forms of gambling are illegal in neighboring Texas and Arkansas. This article provides a brief summary of gambling activities that are legal in Louisiana and those that are not.

Gambling in Louisiana is defined as “the intentional conducting, or directly assisting in the conducting, as a business of any game, context, lottery, or contrivance whereby a person risks the loss of anything of value in order to realize a profit.”

LEGAL GAMBLING IN LOUISIANA

Age restrictions: To participate in the state lottery or horse track betting you must be 18 years old. To gamble in a casino or on a video poker machine, you must be 21.

Casinos and Racetracks: Riverboat casinos are legal in Louisiana. “Riverboat” refers to anything floating in the water, which results in many riverboats consisting of large structures on anchored barges near the shore. A land-based casino is licensed by the state in the City of New Orleans and on Indian tribal land. Betting on horse races are legal but dog racing is illegal.

State lottery: The Louisiana Lottery began in 1991 and lottery proceeds are legislatively earmarked for improving Louisiana’s educational system. The Louisiana lottery includes numbers drawing, Power-ball, and scratch off tickets.

Video poker: Casinos and racetracks in the state have video poker machines, as do a number of restaurants, gas stations, bars and truck stops. In Louisiana, if a business has a liquor license, this license allows you to have up to three video gaming machines. Truck stops can operate more video poker machines depending on the amount of fuel they sell.

Social Gambling and Charitable Gambling: Social gambling (for recreational purposes and not for business purposes) such as pool games, personal bets or betting on sports is legal in Louisiana as long as nobody takes a “cut” or fee from managing the transaction (other than awards to the rightful winner). Certain gambling activities such as raffles, bingo and keno which are directly associated with charitable fund-raising for non-profit organizations is legal.

Commercial cruise ships in international waters: Gambling on commercial cruise ships that travel internationally (beyond 12 miles offshore) is legal.

Taxes: Any establishment that gives a one-time gambling award of $600 or more is required to report the winning, along with the recipient’s social security number, to the IRS and Louisiana Department of Revenue. Residents are required to report gambling revenue as taxable income on their federal and state tax returns.

ILLEGAL GAMBLING IN LOUISIANA

Dogfighting and gambling related to dogfighting: La. R.S. 14:102.5 makes it illegal to own, possess, keep or train a dog for the purpose of dogfighting or to possess any paraphernalia used in training dogs to fight. Violation for a first conviction results in a fine of up to $1000 and/or not more than one year imprisonment. A subsequent conviction results in a fine of up to $3000 and/or imprisonment of not more than three years.

Cockfighting and gambling related to cockfighting: La. R.S. 14:102.23 makes it unlawful for any person to organize or conduct any commercial or private cockfight where it is reasonably foreseeable that chickens would be injured. It is also unlawful to possess, train or purchase any chicken for cockfighting purposes. A first offense conviction results in a fine of up to $1000 and/or 6 months imprisonment. A second offense conviction results in a fine of up to $2000 and/or one year imprisonment. A third offense conviction results in a fine of up to $2000 and/or three years imprisonment.

State may seize property connected with illegal gambling: The state may seize any property connected with illegal gambling and upon conviction may sell the confiscated property at public auction.

Computer gambling: Gambling by computer is prohibited in Louisiana. Computer gambling is the conducting as a business of any game, context, lottery or other activity whereby a person risks the loss of anything of value in order to realize a profit when accessing the internet. A conviction results in a fine of $500 and/or up to 6 months imprisonment.

Gambling in public: Unauthorized gambling in public is specifically prohibited by statute. Violation results in a fine of $500 and/or up to 6 months imprisonment.

Underage gambling: It is unlawful for anyone under the age of 21 to play video poker devices or to gamble in a casino. It is unlawful for anyone under the age of 18 to participate in the state lottery or in horse track betting. Violations result in a fine of $500 and/or up to six months imprisonment.

While most people enjoy casino gambling, sports betting, lottery and bingo playing for the fun and excitement it provides, others may experience gambling as an addictive and distractive habit. Statistics show that while 85 percent of the adult population in the US enjoys some type of gambling every year, between 2 and 3 percent of will develop a gambling problem and 1 percent of them are diagnosed as pathological gamblers.

Where can you draw the line between harmless gambling to problem gambling? How can you tell if you or your friend are compulsive gamblers? Here you can find answers to these questions and other questions regarding problem gambling and gambling addiction.

What is the Meaning of Problem Gambling?

Problem gambling or compulsive gambling is defined as an uncontrollable urge to gamble despite the destructive effect of gambling on the gamblers life and despite feelings of guilt and remorse. Problem gambling tends to have a negative effect on the gamblers financial state, relationships and daily life. Severe cases of problem gambling can be defined as pathological gambling.

Am I a Compulsive Gambler?

1) Do you gamble until your last penny runs out?

2) Do you gamble to win back your former losses or debts?

3) Did you ever had to borrow money to continue gamble?

4) Did your gambling habit ever made you lie to your friends or family?

5) Did you ever skip work or other obligation to gamble?

6) Do you tend to gamble to forget about your personal problems or to celebrate happy occasions?

7) Does gambling have a negative affect on your daily life or relationships?

If you have answered yes on at least one of the questions listed above, then you have a problem.

Can Anyone Become a Compulsive Gambler?

Theoretically, yes. Any gambler can develop gambling problem regardless to the type of gambling he is occupied with, the amount of money and time he is spending on gambling. Researches show that slot machines that can be found in bars and convenient stores are the most addictive type of gambling activity, while lottery draws and bingo games are located on the other end of the scale. Gambling addiction is an emotional problem; its symptoms, causes and treatments are similar to any other form of addiction.

How Can I treat Gambling Addiction?

1) Group Therapy:

Gamblers Anonymous offers a 12 step self help program similar to the one offered to alcohol addicts in Alcoholics Anonymous. Group therapy also offers gambling addicts advice and support from professional counselors and other gambling addicts in different phases of their recovery process. Gambler Anonymous centers are available in more than 1,200 locations statewide.

2) Individual Therapy:

Cognitive or behavior therapy can help gambling addicts to identify their unaware thinking and acting patterns, which led them to gamble compulsively, and to replace them with controllable and healthier ways of thinking.

3) Psychiatric Medication:

It has recently been proven that antidepressant medications from the family of SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can be affective in treatment of gambling addicts.

Competitor Price Monitoring is a software put into use that helps in collecting a large amount of data and optimizing marketing, merchandising and pricing in a way that is brings you the maximum amount of profits. In a market where competition is extreme and unavoidable, this tool is essential as it can significantly help in taking strategic decisions and finding out what works the best for your business. It is ethical since it only uses information that is open for the public to see.

Finding your Competitors

Price Monitoring software require you to submit the websites that you wish to monitor, following which it does all the required work. The first step, however, is to find out who exactly is your competition. This will determine the strategies that you’ll need to work on. One can do so with the use of social media by making a list or pool of every potential firm or company that might come close to your company’s revenue and profit, and rule them out one by one. This depends on your product as well as the level of competition.

Identifying Strategy

You need to determine how you would be pricing your own goods – i.e., either your focus will be on the market as a whole, or individual customers. It is essential to mix and match them all in a way that suits your needs and demands the best. Price Monitoring depends on the same as it helps in determining how others pricing would be affecting yours and to what extent.

Choosing the Right Software

It is very important to find just the right software, the one which fits your business the best. This would be helpful in web scraping and thus extracting information from all over the net as much as possible. These software help in increasing efficiency, reducing the time taken to complete a certain amount of work as well as lessening the scope of human error that occurs several times. Although all of the work can be done manually, choosing the right software will undoubtedly reduce the work load.

Benefits

Monitoring the price regularly can help a business understand the market as well as apply the best tactic that would be suitable for the given conditions. Moreover, these techniques do not cost much, which is beneficial for individual and small companies. Knowing the price of your competitors can give you an edge over them putting you in a much better position. According to these you can decide how you wish to decrease or increase price for profit maximization.