Virtual Reality to Help Fight Gambling Addiction?

As virtual reality continues to be one of the most prominent technologies in the gambling business, researchers have gained fundamental knowledge that it may be the ideal treatment for gambling addiction. Virtual reality casinos give a flawlessly replicated atmosphere that can assist gamblers in overcoming addiction. The gadget is still in development, and several features are being added to make it more engaging.

In order to maximize their gambling experience in Poland, gamblers must begin with virtual reality gambling in online casinos. Using virtual reality (VR) gadgets like as smart glasses, headphones, and goggles, Polish gamblers may have a realistic experience playing poker, keno online, and baccarat.

Utilizing Virtual Reality for Gambling

Virtual reality allows gamblers to mimic real-world surroundings with the essential components. This technology system provides additional realism-enhancing features to internet games. There is a stunning indication that, when this technology is completed, it will be able to generate more than simply art by aiding in physical therapy and curing the gambling addiction.

In addition to the online gambling sector, other industries have discovered the excellence of virtual reality. There is a possibility that it may be utilized by both military and medical personnel in the future.

In the past, a great deal of study has been conducted on this technology. Even laboratories at the University of Quebec have made significant contributions to the study of virtual reality technology. If there is an additional trending use for VR, it is using its capabilities to treat gambling addiction.

According to Jacek Michalski, a specialist in guest post subjects, several professionals from all over the world have significantly advanced this technology. Stephen Bouchard, the well-known proprietor of the Cyberpsychology laboratory, has had a great deal of success in curing the gambling addiction. The path of utilizing virtual reality to heal gambling addiction without repercussions.

For instance, someone who is addicted to stimulants will have difficulty rejecting it. Even throughout the treatment option, the physician may have to speak with patients again without knowing how they would react to stimulants. In addition, they cannot just place a stimulus in front of the patient to observe their response since this would violate the treatment protocol.

With VR technology, however, it is feasible to monitor a patient’s behavior while stimulating them with a variety of stimulants. Then they will know whether or not the treatment is walking. VR will provide therapists with a one-of-a-kind tool for giving the most effective treatment to patients.

If therapists are able to test their patients’ addiction to virtual reality technology, they will be able to determine if their patients will return to their old habits or choose a new path. It will allow therapists to finally discover how individuals react to their programs.

In a simulated setting, the therapist can let the patient participate in an unrestricted gambling environment.

Only then will they be able to assess whether or not the patient is able to resist the desire to gamble continuously. Once they begin playing, the therapist will be unable to restrain them if they give in to temptation. However, with this examination, the therapist will be able to determine the patient’s demands and regulate them carefully in the future.

The pace at which people become addicted to gambling increases daily. However, VR games can be used to cure this problem.

The Technology of Virtual Reality can Cure Gambling Addiction

The man traverses the street on his route to the pub. Before entering, he withdraws cash from the ATM adjacent to the entrance. Inside, almost exclusively, middle-aged men drink and smoke as the displays of video lottery machines illuminate their faces. The man contemplates joining them while he sits at the pub. He dismounts the barstool, places his money in the slot, and presses the button. Five rows of rotating and settling light symbols. Each row has two cherry clusters; however, only two are aligned. He attempts again. He becomes furious and utters an expletive. Again. He attempts to strike the machine but only strikes the air.

The man is not actually gambling; rather, he is an addict receiving treatment through an innovative virtual reality exercise. Stéphane Bouchard, creator of the Cyberpsychology Laboratory at Université du Québec en Outaouais, remarked, “When we remove the goggles, their reactions are all so shocking.” Then they recognize that if they respond so violently in virtual reality, they would likely react much more strongly in real-world conditions, meaning they are not prepared to return to the casino.

Bouchard has spent eighteen years investigating therapeutic VR. As a professional psychologist specializing in anxiety disorders, he discovered that virtual reality offered an accessible and ethical tool to help patients confront their concerns. In a secure setting, he was able to stimulate patients’ fears while helping them retrain the portion of the brain that processes emotions. Over time, he began employing the technology to combat addiction as well. By inducing the cravings that arise when a person is near the substance or activity to which they are addicted, he is able to work with them when their thinking is governed by emotion rather than rationality.

“If a patient is addicted to cocaine, I can talk to him or her for hours, but what truly counts is how he or she handles the issue when cocaine is there,” said Bouchard. “The best thing I could do in therapy would be to actually give the patient cocaine, but that is obviously not feasible.”

In contrast, he may induce this emotional state without requiring the patient to take an illicit substance when it comes to gambling and other addictive behaviours. “I must accompany them into the gambling situation. However, therapists are unwilling to do so because they believe it would be like “sleeping with the devil.”

Digital demons, on the other hand, are not seen as negatively. While the concept of real-life casino therapy makes many patients and therapists anxious, there is less to fear with a simple, pause-able video game. Additionally, it is easy to regulate the atmosphere and intensity. If a mental health practitioner accompanies a vulnerable gambling addict in recovery to Caesar’s Palace or a sex addict in recovery to a brothel, the sensory overload might cause them to relapse immediately after the therapy session.

Bouchard’s VR Researches

In Bouchard’s VR workout, the participants are eased into the water. If the therapist thinks that a patient with a gambling addiction is ready for the VR program, the simulation begins outside the bar. The patient determines whether or not they are prepared to withdraw cash from an ATM. The therapist requests that the patient rate their urges on a scale from one to one hundred. If they remain low, the patient continues. They are bar patrons. Then, we proceed to the video lottery machine. At each stage, the therapist assesses whether the patient should quit and asks questions such as, “What can you do to prevent yourself from gambling?” What are the odds that you will truly enjoy yourself? Is it reasonable to believe that you can beat the odds this time?

The therapist attempts to pinpoint the precise point at which the patient feels the need yet can still resist it. Then, according to Bouchard, therapists can achieve breakthroughs.

The immersive programs were built by programmers, graphic artists, animators, sound specialists, and computer engineers at Bouchard’s laboratory in Gatineau, Quebec; one is a pub with games, and the other is a full casino. They met with therapists to create a storyline for the simulation and visited a nearby casino and bar for ideas. They are also permitted to record noises for inclusion in virtual places. The resultant VR software is presently available for purchase by other researchers.

However, this procedure is still at the stage of the study. In February, Bouchard and his team published an article titled “Using Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Gambling Disorder: The Development of a New Tool for Cognitive Behavior Therapy” in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The article included three studies demonstrating that VR can assist patients when used under the supervision of a therapist.

Using Scrabble as a control, the first research compares VR-induced appetites to genuine gambling desires. It was shown that VR immersion might, in fact, generate a higher urge in gambling addicts than in non-gamblers. And this urge is as intense for addicts as it is when they play a real video lottery game. This answered possibly the most important issue for this sort of therapy: Does virtual reality treatment for gambling addiction work when there is no real money at stake?

In fact, it was so effective that some individuals began to mimic their gambling behaviours. The researchers saw a participant placing his hands in his rear jeans pockets. When questioned by the researchers, he said that every time he gambled, he would first withdraw $100 and place one $50 bill in one pocket and one $50 bill in the other – a futile attempt at self-control. “Several gamblers put on the goggles and warn you it won’t function because it’s not a genuine machine,” said Bouchard. “As soon as they enter the virtual casino, they swear about machines and getting money, and then they play a machine.” They become enraged and lose their minds.”

The second study focused on the necessity of a treatment procedure for this type of VR therapy, and the third study demonstrated that VR therapy does not result in long-lasting, uncontrolled desires. “We don’t want to cause too many desires or adverse effects,” added Bouchard. “It is somewhat the therapist’s fault if, after a therapy session, the patient goes out and gambles their money and then commits themselves”

Now that researchers have verified that the treatment is safe and effective, they have initiated randomized control trials at an outpatient clinic for problem gamblers. It will not be a magic cure, but it will be a new tool that will assist therapists in treating an addiction linked to a greater rate of suicide attempts than any other addictive condition. In around three years, Bouchard anticipates that mental health experts will be able to apply this strategy to their therapy.

Real non-therapeutic virtual casinos will likely be considerably more popular and accessible by then. A British company, Juniper Research, forecasted in an October analysis that VR gambling wagers will expand from $58.5 million to $520 million by 2021, an increase of 800 percent over five years. Now, rather than playing Texas Hold’em on your computer, you can put on Oculus Rift or HTC Vive goggles and be transported to the poker table.

Conclusion

As virtual reality continues to be one of the most prominent technologies in the gambling business, researchers have gained fundamental knowledge that it may be the ideal treatment for gambling addiction.