Keep up the good work. I hope nobody takes offense to me commenting on kimss being a casino manager, but if there is anything I can do to help you get over your problem gambling issues let me know. I do know that by telling people about it, it is a humbling thing for anybody to do and it truly does help to get over these issues and to master them. The same can be said about smoking, if you have a problem but want to quit and don't tell anybody then sometimes you set yourself up for failure. It is cliche but admitting it is a big first step and is half the battle.
Congrats to kimss and my advice would be to remove the casinos completely from your system. Playing for free money or no the no deposit bonuses are nice but you are really tempting yourself. The analogy to me would be quitting smoking but having a pack of cigarettes in front of you, you can look at them but if you are trying to quit having them doesn't help knowing you could have just one.
My tips for overcoming an online gambling addiction would be to:
1. Remove all software on your computer, request to all sites you want to be removed/banned (not all will do this unfortunately), close payment processors if you use them.
2. Block all gaming websites that you visit, whether they are flash or if it's a site you have to download the software from. Just stop it! For most windows users I recommend you block them at the system level rather than trying to do it through the browser which is easy to reconfigure and override, personally I don't find them as effective. Here is a link on how to do it manually, the bad part is you have to type out each gaming site individually but if you have a problem it is time well spent. But hope one would add the proper sites and not go to a new site to get around it. That's the equivalent of going to another store for cigarettes. Visit
If anybody needs help on this let me know. I have used this myself to block out sites that I would visit 5 times a day or more but had nothing to do with work lol.
3. Start a blog about it and tell your friends about it so they can give you words of encouragement while allowing YOU to hold yourself personally responsible for your actions. On a side note someone who also might have a problem could find your blog and you would be helping them too
I could probably give a list of 20 more tips but I think those 3 are the best ones and are simple enough. I'll leave one more tip which is to write down on a piece of paper some of your goals about quitting and leave it near the computer so you can see it at all times. Or if you do start a blog have your homepage link to your blog.
I know the thread was about Rival free vs real play but I had to post on this. Always here to help.
John Wright