Adverts on facebook and spotify, after stopping gambling and putting all blocks in place, after years they still bombard me with adverts, when will be seen seen as not a potential customer.....

Hello @adam123,

I've just posted this as a response on your Recovery Diary, adding it here too for anyone else who joins this discussion. Here is an article from GambleAware that explains some ways to limit gambling ads on social media.

https://www.begambleaware.org/safer-gambling/social-media/

All the best,

Elizabeth
Forum Admin

Gambling advertising should be banned and I would like to hear any counter position why that shouldnt be so.

Its harmful and fundamentally misleading. They are pushing a random event with all the odds stacked against you. I saw an advert recently which simply stated maximum prize for minimum stake...not even a maybe or the real odds of that which are horrendous

All the risk is with the punter because the operation is run by organisations doing fine calculations based on a large and mitigated risk fund. They are not risking essential money and based on a spreadsheet they would shut down long before the lows we experience

The amount of advertising is a disgrace...its scandalous as these people cash in on the misery of others.

You see I dont believe we are the acceptable casualties of an activity which is entertaining or fun

I know its a lot more sinister than that because people are being mislead and hooked on something extremely dangerous.

It acts like a drug addiction but the whole scam relies on blaming me as a greedy oddball who had to take it too far  andcouldnt have fun like "all the others"....a very naughty boy!

Its so mainstream now that the addiction problem is going exponential.

The power of the expectation drug and learned behaviour is immense. I know it creates addicts very quickly and  countless people like me took ages to come to terms with what was really happening.

I know its not all out fault and I disagree with anybody that says its all my fault. I take the responsibility to recover but I firmly believe we should have been protected from this...and we were not.

All we can do is keep complaining about the advertising. Like cigarette advertising it should have been banned long ago

Best wishes to everyone on the forum 

I keep getting gambling texts all the time even though I have gamstop I dont know where theyve got my details from but it shouldnt be legal for them to keep texting encouraging

 I just ignore them but yes I also get the fb and internet ads when u just want to forget about it it doesnt help

I think you can upgrade Spotify to remove ads - if not delete the app. Do you really need it? As for Facebook, I recommend deleting it, due to the fact that it is 99% of the time nothing more than a data collector. You not gambling is far more important than listening to the same song over and over again or scrolling through FB for hours on end.

I spent twenty-five years as a gambling addict. I am now in recovery. I don't watch TV and I don't have any social media accounts.