Gambling?

Old 05-14-2013, 08:22 PM
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Gambling?

Alcohol was my main problem, but I also had this "secondary issue" that also affected my lifestyle. Anyone ever dealt with a gambling problem? It certainly goes hand-in-hand and I haven't really heard it discussed much. I definitely had a problem. It was addressed in my treatment facility - we had speakers with all kinds of addiction. The speaker's story:

His parents owned a small bank in a small town. He would close the bank every night. Eventually his problem was so bad, that he stole from this bank. $10,000 in cash, he took it to the casino. He figured he could double it, return the 10K to the bank before morning and nobody would be the wiser.

You can imagine how that turned out. In my opinion the depression levels you reach with gambling addiction are unrivaled. It's a place I definitely don't want to be again...

(mods: not trying to make things hard, delete if this isn't a place for this subject)
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Old 05-14-2013, 11:27 PM
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Not gambling but if I ever started I wouldn't be shocked if I did become addicted. My addiction takes so many forms outside of drugs its not funny. I got addicted to free books for my kindle. It's fine to post this topic.
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Old 05-15-2013, 03:14 AM
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Mr. Fandy has an ongoing gambling addiction....his love of handicapping and the ponies has manifested into 3 mortgages on a little condo he bought in 1982, huge penalties to the IRS for early withdrawal of his retirement 401k, squandered money left to him by his father who worked hard all his life and acquired substantial assets, and he drives a 14 year old car....i kicked him out 3 years ago, i was so sick of it, i could never be sober living with him.....the frustration of his time spent handicapping and sitting at the track or local OTB drove me crazy....it was like having a giant child to care for....he did nothing around the house while i went to work every day.
Never again......(sorry for the rant...i am happy to play the nickel slots once a year at a casino)
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Old 05-15-2013, 03:33 AM
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I have gambled prodigiously for the past 10 years. Surprisingly, it has not been a problem despite my predisposition to addiction.

From 2003- 2007 it was daily via the internet. Poker, blackjack and sports betting. I was also actively promoting internet gambling through multiple websites. During this time I made about $60K through both gambling and promoting.

Since then I have closed all but one of my websites as they became unprofitable. There was a US law passed in late 2006 (UIGEA) that has made it very difficult for US players to participate in internet gambling. It's possible, but such a hassle most won't do it.

I haven't played poker for real money online in about 3 years. Or blackjack. I make $10 bets on baseball just about every night. I have money stuck at a couple of online sportsbooks that I can't get out, so I twiddle around with some small bets for amusement.

I never got 'the rush' from gambling that gambling addicts describe. I get nervous as can be when I have a large open bet, so I am very cautious. A big stack of chips in the pot doesn't look like 'just chips' to me. It looks like a car payment.

My rush comes from beating the gambling establishments for a little bit at a time. Many of them would make promotional offers to attract new clients that were sufficiently lucrative to put the odds in your favor if you knew how to execute it properly. I did.
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Old 05-15-2013, 07:34 AM
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Originally Posted by Nonsensical View Post
I make $10 bets on baseball just about every night.
Yeah, that was me for sure. These days I have closed my account but understand where you're coming from with the payout systems, bonuses, etc. "beating the house" and all that jazz, I get it.

My issue was that those $10 bets became $100 bets when I was a drunk. I remember betting $700 on a Red Sox game a few years ago, I was bored and it was a Tuesday night...why not make things more interesting? Of course I passed out drunk on my couch before the game ended, but woke up in the 9th to see the Red Sox win and I got very lucky.

As gamblers, we like to remember the wins, tell everyone we are ahead...example: I just told you about winning $700 bucks on the Red Sox game, didn't I? What a gamble-holic won't say is that I lost over 2K the next week on various bets.

Unless you are extremely diciplined (and we are NOT), gambling is probably not a good idea for an addict/alcoholic.
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Old 05-15-2013, 09:52 AM
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Originally Posted by bigsombrero View Post
...gambling is probably not a good idea for an addict/alcoholic.
I agree. From what I have read there is a strong correlation between substance addiction and gambling addiction. My personal experience was atypical in that regard.

If you look around at internet gambling websites, nearly all of them stress the fun and excitement of gambling. Very few discuss odds, probabilities, bankroll management, etc. Too boring, I suppose. It's all about getting in on the action.

Not only are discussions of math and betting discipline boring, they tend to be unprofitable. As a promoter, I was paid to find losers. They don't state it directly, but when you are paid based on a percentage of net player losses, they are not incentivizing the promoters to find winners. They wanted me to bring in losers. The more losers I found the higher my commissions. 20% for a few losers, 45% for a hundred losers. It's a cynical industry, IMO.
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Old 05-15-2013, 10:09 AM
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Nonsensical. I don't want to be judgemental at all here but are you sure you are being helpful? Someone's asking for help with an addiction and you're saying that it's possible to risk very large sums on gambling regularly yet you were apparently not addicted. Not sure you really be saying that in this context.
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Old 05-15-2013, 10:10 AM
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Oh boy! Getting drunk, and heading to the Casino! How many times have I done it? 100's of times over the years.

How much money have I lost in my life playing Blackjack? I imagine it is around 50 to 70 thousand over a period of 20 some odd years since I discovered Casino Blackjack.

Whats funny is, I have never had the urge to go, or went to the Casino when I was sober. So, I am sure that if I never drink again, I will never again loose any money at the Blackjack table.

It's a two`fer!
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Old 05-15-2013, 10:22 AM
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My Granddad did it when he was alive.

Drank, gambled, lost something massive like the house my dad lived in, they all had to do a midnight flit as the people he was involved with were bad.

My Dad has never, ever drunk for fear of turning out like his father.
My Dad has very few photographs or special things from his childhood.
They all got left behind when they had to do a runner out of the house he had lost.

It once happened on christmas eve...he lost my Dads house.

I had another friend.
A doctor.
He narrowly avoided being struck off and sent to prison because he only stole from his staff and not patients.

He lost everything - his home, his marriage, his kids, his career, his reputation. It was all over the newspapers.
At one point he was sleeping in his car.
I have no idea where he is now.
He has disappeared off the face of the earth.

Seems like most addictions have the same rock bottoms Big.

YEF
(your european friend)
xx
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Old 05-15-2013, 10:41 AM
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Originally Posted by endlesspatience View Post
Nonsensical. I don't want to be judgemental at all here but are you sure you are being helpful? Someone's asking for help with an addiction and you're saying that it's possible to risk very large sums on gambling regularly yet you were apparently not addicted. Not sure you really be saying that in this context.
Whether or not my contributions are helpful is up to the individual reader. I was just adding to the discussion. I didn't mention anything about regularly risking large sums of money (unless $10 is a large sum of money). I said I get nervous when I have a large open bet. Maybe I should have made it more clear by saying "making large bets makes me nervous, so I avoid doing it."
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Old 05-15-2013, 12:10 PM
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I hear you Nons.

I know how it works too Nons, my friend was a Vegas sharp (aren't they all) and we worked together for a while to beat the system in many ways. Deposit free on Tuesdays and get a 50% bonus on deposits over $300. Only withdraw on Mondays each month because you aren't charged extra. Take advantage of free rolls and ask for free money transfers. When betting, use a "system", there are several I can outline for you right now if you want, there's a nice "underdog system" for MLB that tends to payout pretty well. I know all the sportsbooks, the Costa Rican ones tend to be dominating these days, and ETC, ETC, ETC!!!

Just because you & I know how to gamble like winners does not make it any less of a problem!!! The fact that we know these things does not suggest that we've "beaten" anything - it just says that we have experience and we have been wrapped up in it. I think getting away from it totally is the best idea, really...the best that could happen is very small in comparison to the worst that can happen!

When I was in treatment last summer during the Olympics there was a guy who snuck his smart phone in just so he could gamble. I think he had $100 bucks on a handball game between Malaysia and Pakistan. Something like that...that's a problem, a very visible one, but there are many more issues that can be just as problematic in smaller ways.
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Old 05-15-2013, 12:31 PM
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Anyone who is having a problem with it should definitely walk away. If you have a substance addiction you should not start gambling.

I love to discuss gambling, but I think I'll leave it at that.
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