Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan was a live broadcast guest on TGRT Haber. Tarhan made striking evaluations regarding the topic of “Gambling Addiction.” Emphasizing that susceptibility to gambling addiction is linked to dopamine levels in the brain, Tarhan stated that the presence of addiction in the family further increases the risk. Tarhan stated that the easy accessibility and allure of social media put young people at a greater risk for cyber gambling and games of chance.
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan made evaluations regarding the topic of “Gambling Addiction.”
“If it exists in the family, young people can fall into risk more easily”
Emphasizing that susceptibility to gambling addiction is linked to dopamine levels in the brain, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that the presence of addiction in the family further increases the risk. Tarhan said; “Games played with money such as gambling, betting, scratch cards, and stock market, especially pose a risk for young people. If there is someone in the family who plays such games, young people can fall into this risk more easily. They become a group. Another group cannot manage the dopamine in their brains. These individuals are genetically sensitive. Their brain's dopamine enzyme level is high; they become dopamine addicts. They are prone not only to gambling but to all addictions. For example, some people play a little every day and never become addicted, but if some have this predisposition, they start and cannot stop themselves. Some candidate genes related to this have been identified. We are investigating whether there is a genetic predisposition in treatment-resistant addicts regarding those genes.”
Uncontrolled social media use poses a significant risk…
Stating that the easy accessibility and allure of social media put young people at a greater risk for cyber gambling and games of chance, Tarhan said; “Social media has a great impact. The easy accessibility of social media, its low cost, and being available 24/7 pose a risk. Young people have been at greater risk since Covid. The attractiveness, allure of social media, and playing anonymously push young people towards this. These games of chance are mostly in the form of cyber gambling. Legally limiting and controlling it is very difficult. Uncontrolled social media use poses a significant risk. If young people use social media uncontrollably, all young people are in the risk group…”
“Gambling leads to pleasure expectation”
Stating that young people can become more prone to gambling addiction due to weak family ties and the negative influence of social media, Tarhan emphasized that this situation can negatively affect individuals' daily lives. Tarhan said; “If there are no social boundaries or social norms within the family, gambling provides pleasure very easily because playing gambling leads to a pleasure expectation in the person. After gambling, the person wants to play again to win back the money they lost. They even start lying to the extent of claiming they won money from gambling even when they haven't. They think there is no problem with themselves. They say, ‘I am in control.’ These individuals' daily lives begin to deteriorate. They start abandoning school, lessons, and their daily lives because of this. Social media is currently the biggest risk area for playing games of chance. If family ties are weak, if not everything can be discussed within the family, if there are friends who set a bad example for the child, such children are also in the risk group. Therefore, if the danger for a child 20-30 years ago was one, now it has increased to five. If mothers previously allocated half an hour for their children, they should now allocate one hour to establish healthy and positive communication.”
“Modernism drives young people towards a pleasure-oriented life philosophy”
Stating that modernism, by exalting a pleasure-oriented understanding of life, leads young people to seek quick gratification and makes them more prone to consumer culture, Tarhan said; “Modernism created a hedonistic life philosophy. That is, it made the pursuit of pleasure an ego ideal. It exalted living in pleasure. Modern life changed concepts like good-bad, valuable-worthless, right-wrong by saying, 'what you like is good, what you don't like is bad.' This is known as the pleasure principle in psychology. The selection of the pleasure principle to such an extent as a life goal has made young people much more fragile in terms of quick gratification. That is, older people could be more controlled according to the culture they inherited. They could say no. Previously, family ties were stronger. If someone turned to gambling, it was immediately noticed, and the whole environment would take precautions, offer advice, and set a limit. Currently, family ties have weakened. Social media, not families, is now responsible for cultural transmission. This has also changed truths. Because young people glorify pleasure, they glorify wealth. Wealth and lust become their life's purpose. In such situations, they fall into pleasure traps more easily. There is a consumer economy and entertainment industry that triggers these feelings in young people. There is cultural imperialism. We are voluntarily exploited by this cultural imperialism. Young people have become voluntary victims of imperialism.”
The role of dopamine in gambling addiction…
Talking about the causes of gambling addiction, Tarhan said; “Most of the time, it is a search for excitement. Most of the time, it is the pursuit of pleasure. Sometimes, they gamble as a stress reduction technique. When something upsets them, they say, 'Gambling helps me,' and they go and play. If the person wants, there is treatment. In treatment, if the people they live with, the family, are aware of this issue, we involve the family in the treatment. In these individuals, the brain craves more dopamine. These people try to satisfy that pleasure molecule with gambling. We teach them to satisfy the brain's dopamine need by spreading it over time. This exists in all addictions. That is, the human brain is activated more by unexpected rewards than by expected rewards. Expected rewards are the monthly salary. An unexpected reward comes from somewhere you never expected. Since these addictive substances activate the brain's areas related to unexpected rewards, they produce several times more pleasure, and if a person glorifies that pleasure, they make it the reason for living to obtain it.”