Gambling is when you stake something of value on the outcome of a game that involves chance. This could be betting on a football team or buying a scratchcard. If you win, you get money. If you lose, you lose the money you bet. Gambling is also when you use skill to try and beat the odds, for example by shooting basketballs into a net. But if you’re too focused on the short term rewards, your gambling can become problematic.

Problematic gambling changes the way your brain works. The reward pathway gets hijacked by dopamine. You start to think that gambling is the only way to feel good, and it becomes harder to stop. In fact, the risk of losing control is higher for those with mental health issues such as depression, stress or substance abuse.

If you’re struggling with a gambling addiction, there are many ways to seek help. The first step is to strengthen your support network. Spend time with friends who don’t gamble, join a book club or sports team, enroll in a course or volunteer for a good cause. You can also join a peer support group such as Gamblers Anonymous, which is based on Alcoholics Anonymous and has over 12 million members worldwide.

Research suggests that there may be biological factors at play in pathological gambling, such as differences in brain regions that process reward information, control impulses and weigh risk. But the vast majority of people who gamble do so for social, emotional and psychological reasons.