Some casino and betting gamblers are moving to a new addiction - investing in cryptocurrencies. The trend they already know abroad has been confirmed by several domestic addictologists and psychologists. According to them, this is also due to anti-epidemic measures that caused betting offices to close and many sports had to stop.
Psychologists and addictologists talk about a new form of addiction to investing in cryptocurrencies. While until recently people with addictions to investing in cryptocurrencies did not turn to the counseling center at all, this May there have been three people with this problem.
According to experts, dependence on investment, which includes the pathological purchase of cryptocurrencies, has similar attributes as, for example, dependence on slot machines. "It's a tempting way to get money that contains adrenaline and the excitement of how the money is valued," explains Zdeňka Danhoferová from the Gambling Counseling Center of the Vysočina Region. According to her, the problem concerns men much more than women and rather younger ones.
In the Czech Republic, this is a phenomenon that has not been discussed yet, but some countries have been treating this addiction for a long time. In Scotland, for example, there is a clinic specializing directly in the treatment of virtual currency addiction, as the British Evening Standard wrote in 2018.