Andrés, a 48-year-old business administrator, knows that nobody wins in the world of gambling.
With psychiatric therapies he briefly kept the gambling addiction that he has suffered from since he was 18 years old at bay.
But the pandemic, with its mandatory confinements and the annoying feeling of confinement, disrupted part of what was built.
The barrage of virtual casino advertising multiplied on his computer screen and soon became his passport back to perdition.
He fell into the frenzy, hitherto unknown to him, of virtual games.
One night he wasted eight hours in a digital arcade with "300 or 400 different machines."
Like the ones he was looking for as soon as he stepped on the green and red carpet of physical casinos.
He spent “considerable” sums of money and finished off with alcohol at dawn, in his study, while Carolina, his wife, tried to “reluctantly sleep” in the room.
"The problem came the next day," recalls Andrés.
It is very possible that, like him, thousands of Colombians have fallen, or relapsed, into compulsive behaviors with online gambling during the health crisis.
Today doctors do not have figures, but they do have perceptions supported by the arrival of new patients.
Colombia does not have explanatory data, nor public health surveys that allow tracking the habits or problems of gambling among the population.
However, there are economic figures, which show the great performance of the betting and gambling sector in recent years, to the point of becoming a not inconsiderable pillar within the Gross Domestic Product (1.2 percentage points).
Psychiatrists and economists repeat: "Something is happening."
Psychiatrist Ana María Bueno, a specialist in addictions, explains that one of the problems with gambling addiction is that it takes a lot of experience to diagnose it.
"The health system in Colombia is not yet prepared to channel this type of problem and that is why it is often invisible," she explained to EL PAÍS.
The Department of Psychology of the National University published in 2018 the closest thing to a study on this matter.
A non-random sample of 5,858 students from different universities in the 32 departmental capitals showed that 19% of those interviewed would have serious gambling addiction problems, while 13.7% represented some risk of developing the pathology.
Although the work, which included technical students, covered a limited population, the results were very similar to those of other larger surveys carried out in other countries, according to its authors.
The psychiatrist Gustavo Perdomo says that for some years now, mental health specialists have faced the irruption of unprecedented lines in the field of addictions: "Every time we find ourselves with more problems of addiction to social networks, to exercise (vigorexia ), to work.
And this is where the pathological game also enters”.
Andrés, who is now rehabilitated, explains that, in addition to individual therapies, he has participated in various support groups, where all addictions are treated together: "No program handles compulsive gambling alone, nor aspects of the disease in isolation. ", account.
But the economic strength of the online gaming industry and the irreversible landing of digital roulette should serve to spark a deeper debate, says Dr. Perdomo.
The undesirable risks generated by excesses in a casino, Dr. Bueno points out, are very similar to those that could develop from excessive consumption of tobacco, marijuana, brandy or hamburgers, for example.
From the gambling industry, the debate is usually weathered with the argument that the wealth they generate is channeled in the form of taxes for education or health.
A reality as certain as it is paradoxical, they claim from health circles.
That is why today, for many, efforts should be focused on regulating digital advertising.
A mission, in the opinion of the doctor in Economics Juan Pablo Posada, very complicated to carry out if one takes into account that the discussion is still raw.
A front that worries a soccer fan like Andrés.
He recalls that television is one of the webs of the riskiest virtual bets to trap children and adolescents who follow the leagues and matches around the world.
“The child first sees the bookmaker's logo on the screen,” he explains, “then he sees it or searches for it on the Internet.
He sees that one of the sponsors is the Kid Valderrama.
That is a gigantic problem!”
And it is that Posada, a professor at EAFIT in Medellín, remembers that the consequences of addiction are not only individual: "this affects your family, it affects your community."
That is why he draws attention to the results of his doctoral dissertation, which focused on the impact of advertising in Colombia: "If we take into account the effectiveness that the guidelines aimed at changing social attitudes or behaviors have had in our country, which appeal to to identity, who use shared symbols, and we understand the social costs of betting, we are facing a very serious problem”.
It is enough to take a look at the sponsors of several of the big Colombian soccer teams to verify that the vast majority have the financial support of some virtual casino.
For this reason, for Posada, the young population with medium or low income is the most vulnerable: “It is no secret to anyone that this is the target group.
They seek to reach young people, because they are looking for gamblers with a certain technological capacity, and if you see the advertisements you will always find middle-class people watching a game in front of the television”.
The experience in consulting the psychiatrist Bueno, however, suggests that all social classes and ages are exposed.
That is why she prefers to take other factors with tweezers while more solid data is known.
She assures, for example, that the correlation between addiction and unbridled hunger to earn easy money is not obvious: “A child can already be hooked on a video game.
Even though he is not receiving a metal reward, he receives feedback in the form of new games, figurines, or more lives.”
It's a way, she concludes, "to predispose the brain to the reward mechanism that leads to addiction."
It is clear that the silence on the streets and the need to hibernate to protect themselves from the coronavirus was detrimental in cases like Andrés': “Economic problems, the stressors of being with families all day, undoubtedly increased the rates of anxiety and depression ”, indicates Dr. Perdomo.
“Online gaming was the solution for many.
It saved them exposure."
An amalgam of negative factors, he says, for those people vulnerable to falling into this type of poisonous spiral for the brain and soul.
“In a casino,” reflects Perdomo, “a client who has spent many hours, or who is spending a lot of money, or who has had too many drinks is easy to identify.
But in a virtual casino, who is going to suggest that maybe he take a break because he is playing a lot, or because he has been online for a long time?
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