Internet gambling is a fairly common activity that many people have engaged in, but as harmless as it may seem, it does pose a threat in some ways. To the average person, internet gambling hardly even registers in their lives, but to a gambling addict, internet gambling is a destructive trap to fall into. All the appeal that gambling has held over people for centuries is now at any internet user’s fingertips through the click of a mouse. This addictive activity has an incredible hold over many people’s lives, and can be recognized in some distinctive traits.

When internet gambling has negative consequences on a person’s life, it has become an addiction. This is the consequence that is seen the most readily. All internet gambling costs money or some kind of wager, but when a person becomes addicted to it, the money starts flowing far too quickly. It is not long before the individual cannot pay their bills and their finances are depleted. This is one way that an internet gambling addiction can become destructive.

Internet gambling can be very detrimental on relationships. It is hard for a person to retain their respect for another once they uncover their addiction, unless the addict is willing to work to defeat their addiction. Because most people go through denial over their addiction, they push their friends and relatives further and further away by going deeper and deeper into their addiction. Not all relationships can recover from the pain that addiction causes. If an addict wants to keep their relationships, it is best they work on defeating their addiction.

And lastly, a person’s health can begin to suffer because of their internet gambling addiction. The constant sitting that online gambling requires becomes hard on the body when it is endured for many hours over many days. Not only is a person constantly sedentary when they are gambling online, but the time they invest into gambling eats up their time to do much of anything else, including exercise. This deteriorates a person’s health at a rapid rate, causing weight gain, muscle loss and reduced function of the body’s systems.