This sick hobby (warning--quitting gambling rant)

[AussieDave]

whhooossshh someones been taking psychology class a little to seriously

Or pass that joint over this way

[reda]

hi well i do spend more than i should but it is so hard when you win a couple of good jackpots. i won a 11,000 and a 8,444.00 jackpot and i didnt use a bonus so i got all of it. since the jackpots i probably put 5,000 or more back into the casinos , i am still ahead but i dont want to waste all the winings. i am a compulsive gambler. but hitting big jackpots makes you just want to gamble more. somedays however i do take breaks and watch t.v or ride my bike and also household chores still have to be done. but i still sit on the comp approx 3 hours a day. it is really an addiction that you have to take control of. im still working on it.

I am also a compulsive gambler. I have to admit that when casinos started to lock my accounts because of the new law I felt pretty good. It felt like someone was going to stop me because I knew I couldn't stop myself. I received an inheritance this past January and I wasn't working. Obviously I was able to stay home and gamble ALOT. Needless to say, I blew through half the money by gambling. When the money was gone and I needed to get a job I found that the urge to gamble was quite diminished. I think it was because I now had a job in a big company where I was involved with a lot of people and I had a lot of stimulation in my life. I think sitting in front of a computer keeps you from a "real" life. I feel I am being satisfied by other thing now such as making money, a career, and even some romance. This post is really directed towards those of us who really do have a problem. Please understand I mean no offense to those who can deposit $20 and play for an hour and then STOP. I cannot do this. If I have the funds available I will gamble until it is gone. I do not enjoy playing for "fun money" if I know I can't play for real someday. It just doesn't cut it. Maybe some of us have to go cold turkey but maybe if you have alot of things to "fill" you up in life, the gambling could become just something you do occassionaly. I don't know if this helps but it's the best advice I can give. God Bless, Debbie

[xstud]

You know I feel the same way I think that gambling in this day and age is all about self-control. I feel that it can take over your life and at times it has taken over mine, when I turned 17 snuck into a casino and won $140.00 off of 20.00 I was hooked. Then I discovered online gaming and I think that the best possible thing that can happen is legislation that makes it more difficult to fund gambling accounts. I love gambling online and have 2 huge wins, but I have had far many more losses.

At times I have funded my account gambled, lost 500.00 and do it again. The scary point for me reached when I almost got evicted from my apartment due to gambling too much. I think that the hardest thing in life is admitting you have a problem. The second hardest thing is when one exciting thing in life is seeing those reels spin, hitting that bonus round or seeing your blackjack crush a dealer 20. I feel like gambling isn't fun anymore especially online, too many worries... too many times the dealer "bangs 21" or too many times it takes 100 spins to hit a bonus, one thing we all have to remember is that gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry and they make money from people who have problems and people that don't.

A friend of mine who used to be a blackjack dealer once told me best... If it wasn't for greed casinos would be bankrupt. The average individual is ahead at some point during their gaming experience, if they even just cashed out that 50.00 and walked away within months the losses would be enormus.

Gambling has ruined my life at times and created excitement at others... what you have to do is exhibit control and if you have none I am a firm believer of not getting yourself into those type of situations... shut off pc, go fishing, do things that you love to get your mind off of gambling. Or go to vegas 1 time a year... get it out of your system...have something to look forward to. it's better than staring at a screen watching your bank balance dwindle.

Hope this helps

Brody Hagen

[Simmo!]

You are right xstud. It is about self control but unfortunately not everyone is blessed with that facet. That's why I think regulation is so important in that it allows money to be taken out and put back into education and programmes to assist. It's not going to work for everyone, but a problem gambler will very likley find some way to gamble again eventually, even if one avenue is shut off.

[gfkostas]

You are right xstud. It is about self control but unfortunately not everyone is blessed with that facet. That's why I think regulation is so important in that it allows money to be taken out and put back into education and programmes to assist. It's not going to work for everyone, but a problem gambler will very likley find some way to gamble again eventually, even if one avenue is shut off.

But is legislation the answer even partially?
We may observe how throughout history, society has tried to "treat" social problems by legislative action, war-fare, market manipulation, laws, and prohibitions only to see these problems persist or recur despite treatment. Although governments are myopic, to the sensitive observer it eventually becomes obvious that conditions of social conflict won't dissapear until the underlying origins have been exposed and "healed".
We should aim our efforts in healing and not treating the problem called addictive gambling.
The difference between treating and healing is that in the former, the context remains the same, whereas in the latter, the clinical response is elicited by a change of context as to bring about an absolute removal of the cause of the condition rather than mere recovery from its symptons.
It's one thing to prescribe an anti-hypertensive medication for high blood pressure and it's quite another to expand the patient's context of life so that he stops being angry and repressive all together. Same goes for gambling.
Legislation and law enforcement personel deal with content and they are therefore costly to the society as well as ineffective.

whhooossshh someones been taking psychology class a little to seriously

Truth is I never had any

[WAYLANDER]

gfkostas

Your post's are giving me a headache !

Flippin Ell........... i'm off for Pie and Chips


WAYLANDER

[gfkostas]

gfkostas

Your post's are giving me a headache !

Flippin Ell........... i'm off for Pie and Chips

[MrVan]

Although governments are myopic, to the sensitive observer it eventually becomes obvious that conditions of social conflict won't dissapear until the underlying origins have been exposed and "healed".
We should aim our efforts in healing and not treating the problem called addictive gambling.
The difference between treating and healing is that in the former, the context remains the same, whereas in the latter, the clinical response is elicited by a change of context as to bring about an absolute removal of the cause of the condition rather than mere recovery from its symptoms.

Hey I wrote a paper on that exact topic last year for a class. It was called "Fix the Cause, Not the Problem". I definitely agree, except I feel that the only way to fix the cause starts with disciplining children and controlling their experiences (wow that sounds evil). Had I been forced to clean my room and do more chores as a child I think I would be much more responsible now. On the other hand, the anti-procrastination session i had to take in school in the gifted and talented program (and other classes/teachings of the sort) did nothing for me, and maybe even made me procrastinate more. Life can't be learned with words, only through experience, and experience starts the second you enter this world.

Haha so basically I blame my parents. (just kidding)

[Darem1]

Well, I might as well put in my two cents. First, congrats to Amatrine on the new job. I have been working in a "mens' field" for many years.
May you have many many productive years and good health from now on!
To MrVan I say run, don't walk to your counselor's office and switch your major to mathematics. Mathematics is the basis for EVERYTHING. I truly believe that our universe is based on some type of divine mathematical matrix. Some day this will be proven, but not in my lifetime. I also have to confess that I have enjoyed online gambling too much, even with the disposable income, and am glad that I no longer gamble online. Some days I get close to opening an Instadebit account but I don't do it because I can't gamble at the casino where I actually won quite a bit (cashing out was another matter) so I don't want to p*ss away money anymore. That being said, I still gamble, but at the "local" Native American casino. Went Sunday. Hubby puts in $20, gets it up to $58 (nickel slots), cashes out, buys a paper and goes outside to wait for me. I put in $100, get it up to almost $300, play it all back here and there. I know he came out ahead, but I had a great time. This is sick. I could have made a quick $200! Or even $100 ahead if I played back only $100. Reading what I just wrote I cannot believe that I have one ounce of intelligence. Thank God I don't have other bad habits or I would be in a real mess. Yet I think about all the fun I had online, especially when I would win........

[Westland Bowl]

I knew a looong time ago that gambling was a losing proposition in the long run for a large majority of people. I can never ever count on ME being the one to win the million dollar slot jackpot when the odds are so great.

So I never ever stepped into a casino until a co-worker wanted someone to go with him to Tunica MS when we had an assignment in Memphis TN. I wanted to experience the casino atmosphere so I set a limit of $35 to lose then I would quit.

We went to Sam's Town and played slots to begin with. I was up a considerable amount of dirty quarters then we went to the buffet. Afterwards, my luck changed and lost all my winnings and the $35. Yes, I did quit and never spent another dime there but just stolled around to experience the rest of the casino. I saw a lady who had the slots aisle to herself and was spending $20 a spin. She was attended to personnally by a butler-looking guy to fetch drinks, cigs, whatever. My co-worker didn't win anything at craps.

I never thought again about gambling until I came across a blurb about the martingale progression. I thought, "Wow, that seems like a good plan....just how often do you lose 7 or 8 blackjack hands in a row?" (ok, I just now picked myself off the floor laughing at my naive thinking I had back then.) That got me into online gambling through the money management angle. I did ok for about a week and then weird hands would come out and bam, the martingale busted me. I couldn't believe it! I had so many questions going through my mind......"If these were random cards, shouldn't I have a mix of wins and losses?", "How is it that I get 10 or more losses in a row? Does that happen in a real casino?", etc. I've gotten enough 20 hands beaten by the dealer's 21 to quit online gambling for a year.

Last year, in the fall, I returned to online gambling to try it again. But nothing changed. The "randomness" question was burning into my mind this time, especially after experiencing 18 losing hands in a row at Lasseters. I felt that there is an inherent flaw in online gambling in that we don't SEE the cards but we are to trust the casinos that they aren't changing the card values after we make our bets. I was about to quit online gambling again if I couldn't trust that the cards were random.

After doing a bit of researching on this issue, I came across the Cipher software that visually shows the results of your blackjack hands. Per his instructions scattered across several gambling forums, I could see patterns to the results of the blackjack hands and therefore an edge is obtained through recognizing this. Hence I'm still here a year later.

I can't say I'm in profit after all of this. The software mentioned above certainly helps me to get an edge and win but, dang, it's the damn greed that makes me take bigger risks than I should. I always thought that I'm not a greedy person.....because I never ACTIVELY short-changed anyone else or did manipulative schemes to pull people's money for my sake. Nor did I lusted or coveted after anyone else's money. But greed is deceptive.....it can hide behind the facade that "you are just following your system's rules which calls for this size of a bet." In other words, you justify your greed by blindly following your system.

I actually lost $1193 one time simply because I wanted to reach a nice round $1200 in my bankroll....I was greedy for that $7. Many times I have recovered from steep losses to only continue to play and suffer steeper losses....I should have just accepted that the session is just not going to go my way and take a small loss on it.

Anyway, without an edge, I would not be gambling, period. With an edge, you have to recognize greed and know your limits.