Junkyard are you actually behaviourist? That is interesting – what is your job then?

Stop it being cool. –
It isn’t.

Maybe cool isn’t the right word then. Having it as part of mainstream advertising makes it feel normal in some way. Doing it isn’t anything special or any sort of problem and for a lot of folks they can take it or leave it. But for others it is up there with other sorts of addiction in its ability to destroy lives.

It’s a good question though as to when we need to be saved from ourselves and is that the state acting as nanny or society (whatever that is) deciding to protect itself from another predator picking off the weakest

Maybe cool isn’t the right word then

Lot’s of “cool” people work in the “creative” industry. It is basically an industry designed to exploit your emotions to extract money from you.
I have been a compulsive spender (not terminally and always had the ability to dig myself out), but it is only in my mid 30’s I started to realise that I was constantly chasing images and dreams put in my head by advertisers. I am pretty well educated, but obviously stupid in that respect.
Even now I have to check myself and think – if I spend this £500 will my life be any better?
I mentioned the need for education before, I think it applies to advertising more than anything. Let them sell to us, but arm us with the ability to discern.

Whether that is true or not does not mean that gambling victims do not deserve help, protection, and sympathy.

Agree totally.

But suggesting that’s its due to “addictive personality” seems a little bit too close to victim blaming to me.

Like, it was inevitable that a particular person would self destruct eventually, due to their personality, so nothing could help.

But suggesting that’s its due to “addictive personality” seems a little bit too close to victim blaming to me.

Ahh I see.

Yes they are. Most of the folk dumb enough to play them do so in the hope of winning big, but with a 70% payout they are not a pure game of chance and “fixed” in the house’s favour.

Don’t worry, I won’t be playing them as I understand how statistics and probability work (and I’m not a mug…).

but with a 70% payout they are not a pure game of chance and “fixed” in the house’s favour.

Sigh. Who TF said a -EV game was a “game of chance”. Your reading comprehension is terrible.

I put £1 in a slot machine in about ’92 and won £100 without knowing what the hell was going on. I’ve never gambled since, so I’ll always be up now. Moving on from being glib, the stories you hear of desperation and folk losing money they can ill afford to are heart breaking.

Find the whole industry sickening. The amount of advertising on sky sports for example is quite saddening. The most worrying type of gambling I see more & more of is the phone apps. I’ve sat with work colleagues glued to their phones getting live updates on odds, cash out options, offers to increase the stake etc etc. Recon it will be a real problem in a few years if it isn’t already.

My old boss used to phone app gamble. He was a moody bastard at the best of times, seldom did it improve his demeanour. He was a bellend though. Went to the US, used Spotify roaming for three weeks, was surprised when his phone bill was hundreds of pounds.

Gambling is a tax on the dim witted

Two Stories… both brief

I used to sub-manage a pub and got a formal written warning from the brewery as some of the regulars complained that I would constantly be winning on the fruit machines and must have been fixing them. What I was actually doing was watching them play during the day and making a mental note if they were up or down generally. If they were significantly down I would put a couple of quid in and more often than not would win…. purely based on the odds of paying out.

The second story involves a free sign up bonus to an online casino. £10 free, no deposit. Played a bit, won a bit, lost a bit, down to last 50p. Doubled up on Blackjack a few times and then roulette. Moved onto the slots as I couldn’t withdraw the money until I’d played something like 500 times the £10. S0d it, just play at £10 a spin!..kept winning (well often). Upped it to £50 a spin. 😯 At one point I had over £3k in the bank, but it wasn’t really my money as it was the free bet stakes. Went down to about £900 all playing for what I thought was tokens.
Thought I’d check to see if I could withdraw. I could. Small print says can only with draw £50 of free bet winning, but only after I paid £10 into the account to activate a paypal withdrawal. Fine. One spin and a £70 win. Lets see how much I could withdraw. It let me withdraw over £900!! All paid and spent now! Now if only I’d withdrawn at £2k…. oh well. Was never my money… well it was..
They keep emailing me with all these extra new offers as a high stakes player etc.. bonus etc..
Ive resisted. Ive closed by account, changed the password to something random.. I’ll never go back… but it is tempting…..that’s why I changed all my details, I’m sure I could reactivate the account if I really wanted to, but trying to make it as difficult as possible. Its scary. If I’d know I was gambling that amount every 5 seconds I would have bottled it.
Never again.

Many years ago I worked in a casino and one of the most unpleasant things (there were many) about that job was taking money from people who clearly couldn’t afford it.

Not been in a casino since I stopped working in one over 20 years ago.

There needs to be a national self exclusion program, with actual real-life criminal penalties for companies that allow people to gamble once they’ve put themselves on it.