Is it better to smoke and drink, or to push coins into gambling machines?
A puritan would say that out of these possibilities the best one is to eat yogurt and to jog in the park. Nevertheless many people have different ideas how to spend their leisure time. Last year Czechs gambled Kč 130 billion—and that only for “official” games. New technologies bring new possibilities, though, and unlike “classic” gambling, video gambling is not subject to municipal regulations. Gambling laws give ordinary citizens the right to choose for themselves whether or not they want to gamble. But a harmless hobby can easily develop into addiction. Psychiatrists in contact with addicted gamblers say that for a certain period it is easier for addicts to hide a gambling addiction from family and friends than it would be with alcoholism or drug addiction. “These addicts run into debt, taking their families with them, and because of the fast development of technology they get virtually no chance to recover,” said Klára Soutenská, who helps addicted people with money from a special E
