In medicine it is called Gambling Disorder and is recognized as a mental disorder. It is not just about a „bad habit" or a lack of willpower, but about a condition that affects the brain's mechanisms for reward, impulse control and decision-making.

The most common signs are:

• A constant need to wager ever larger sums of money.
• Failed attempts to stop gambling.
• Thinking about gambling for a large part of the day.
• Gambling to make up for previous losses.
• Lying to family or friends about the money spent.
• Financial problems, debts or selling property because of gambling.
• Damaged family, work or social relationships.

Not everyone who buys a betting slip or plays the casino is an addict. The difference is whether the person can stop when they want to and whether gambling starts to control their life.

If the state really wants to fight gambling addiction, then it does not need cosmetic changes and a make-over of the law, but brave and substantive measures. Gambling is recognized as an addiction that destroys families, creates debts, causes poverty and leaves lasting consequences for mental health.

That is why the real question is not whether the casino will be 200, 500 or 1,000 metres from the school, but why it is in a populated place at all. While slot machines and betting shops are at every step, available to every citizen, especially to the young, the state cannot seriously claim that it is waging a fight against addiction.

The new law leaves the impression of administrative make-up that does not solve the essential problem. If there is genuine political will, what is needed is the gradual complete relocation of casinos and betting shops out of populated areas, strict control of their operation and a significant limitation of their availability.

Society must not profit from a disease that destroys citizens. The more addicts there are, the more the gambling industry earns. That is a conflict no responsible state may ignore.

If gambling is a disease, then the place for casinos is not in the centre of cities and next to schools, but outside the everyday life of citizens. Everything else is just make-up, not a solution.