Should it be easier to exclude yourself from all online gambling sites?

Erm I'm sorry but most people here have lots of views and as always I'm not looking for a spat but I believe most people are not up their own "backsides'. There are a lot of great people who use this forum and if you disagree just ignore?

Thanks for taking the time to reply phil72 but quite clearly you've skipped the whole point and just come in at the end. I never said there wasn't good people who are here . There's lots of good people here. But a lot are forced into a single way of thinking.

It's because we all keep saying it's my free will that know one wants to do anything about it . We're hit with a constant wall of advertising shops litter our streets you can't even read a paper without having it shoved in your face , even a chocolate bar has win 10 grand by texting a number. it's not aimed at little Betty who sticks 50p on the national once a year it's designed to pull back those who wish to escape its clutches.

I'm very aware of lots of things about the deviance of the gambling industry.

I guess it's down to the individual on here as to where they want to lay the blame for what's happened in their live's , I've been here just over 18 months now and I'm of the same opinion now as I was back then in that it was all me , sure the industry will do whatever it takes to keep you gambling , just as will the drinking and the fast food industry , all businesses are out for profit and that's not going to change , gambling cost's money , fast food will make you fat and and we all know what alcohol can do , the point is Moderation is the key to any of these .

Alcohol has never been an issue with me and I'll take it or leave it , as a Diabetic I tend to not eat much fast food these day's but thst's not to say what I chose to eat as a youngster hasn't influenced that fact but gambling has alway's been my nemesis the thing I most struggled to deal with but I wasn't an addict when I started and I happily walked in cash in hand and blew the lot with no gun at my head and to be honest I've never paid that much attention to advertising so I can't blame that either , I was alway's hooked on Fobt's and when I'd walk in to a bookie's and the cashier would would offer free this , free that or enter this competion It never appealed to me , I alway's felt as with life " Nothing's for free " so I'd alway's decline thier offer's so I could get on with what I wanted to do , Play the machine '.

Many people can Smoke, drink and eat in moderation and many can just enjoy a twice yearly bet and it doesn't become a problem , thankfully mine has only been about the Gambling and the one I've had to come to terms with and get a grip on and for me Offer's and advertising really don't enter in to it at all ,unfortunately it's my vice in life and that's just the way it is :((

The One thing I've noticed since being here is Particularly in the early stages of stopping , how many look at all the external forces involved in why they gambled , I know why I gambled and that's because it got me away from " Normal life " and filled a "void " but that's ok as it served a purpose back then , the problem I had was stopping that cycle and once I had chosen to stop then filling that void with something more productive and In my opinion if you can focus on those thing's instead of being in the mindset of " Poor little me " look what the gambling industry's done to me " you'll stand a more than good chance of stopping for good , addict's as I have been well informed alway's look for the path of least resistance , so I guess if you can deny responsibility for an action , that then becomes an easy way out ?, but could equally suck you right back again by denying any blame ? .

As alway's " My choice to Gamble " "My choice to not " .

Have a great day all :))

Nice post Alan

Let me just make my post a little clearer . I haven't gambled in a long time so I'm not here looking to play pass the blame to anyone.

Yes all the gambling I did was under my very own stead. It was more pointing out the under arm tactics in play in the name of "help" ing those in need those who need it the most are given very little help the government puts a mere 100 million into counselling when the revenue received is north of 10 billion ? Yet the cousins In addiction i.e. Drinking and drugs swallow countless billions in various therapies and treatment centres.

Drugs alcohol what ever aren't pushed in people's faces even smoking has gone into plain packets and advertising is prohibited, so why is gambling allowed a free for all when it's as deadly as the others ? Why is there so little help to the vulnerable people who need it , why is it passed off as not as worthy as it's cousins?

I respect you Alan I always have so I'll sign off the debate with this x

I totally get what your saying and In principle agree with your point , Unfortunately I believe as Compulsive Gamblers we operate underneath the Radar so to speak , it's like the " Cloak of Invisibility " , You walk into town at whatever hour and you could see an individual and think , " He's drunk , on drug's or even just Fat " but to most extent " How do you identify a Gambler just by looking at them " ? and maybe that's some of the problem as to why this addiction is not as widly recognised more, in that it goes undetected for so long ? , unless youv'e been affected first hand by our addiction then for most people it goes unnoticed as there's no actual physical signs to go on ? , If I could hide it from those closest to me for so long then that pretty much proves my point , Ignorance is bliss ?.

Maybe if as Cg's we were staggering around in some sort of state in a precinct , then an outside body would do more to deal with the problem ?.

Cheer's Alfie x:))

It's our personal responsibility and that's first and foremost.

If you're focusing on 'the industry' but are either still gambling/dry gambling or recently stopped, then there's a real chance that your ire is really a means of avoidance.

You see it here a lot. Attack the industry as it's easier than looking inwards.

That said, the industry is a scandal. The industry operates effectively as a tax - with poorer people talking the hit, generally.

People who say it's only about individual choice are either naive or are highly... individualistic.

People don't act rationally, as we cgs know better than most.

Let's not discourage smoking. It's individual choice.

Let's not ensure there's healthy school dinners. It's personal choice to eat it (in fact let's just cut free school dinners).

Let's not bother with universal health care. Each individual can sort their own care out.

Let's just let everyone do what the f**k they want. Survival of the fittest. I'm alright jack.

When I vote in the upcoming GE, I'll do so, intending my choice of government will take decisions which benefit society. Not only my narrow self-interest.

Heavy regulation of the industry is essential and a no brained when the damage caused is so apparent. The wild - West days must end.

Individualism is really a ruse to allow wealth to be concentrated in the hands of the few.

Regulation and taxation are now dirty words. These tools allow for societal progression - schools, the NHS, tackling climate change. Corporations hate regulation and tax cos it gets in the way of rampant profit making.

The really big con is making 'ordinary folk' believe that individualism/deregulation serves them. Making people pawns.

Some admirable points of view.

But will go with that it is our own personal choice/ responsibility I wonder, with the people who says the ' industry ' should take some responsibility, have done anything about it, i.e. made a stand in any form or just bleat about the unfairness in things...

This may come across as a negative view point and if every one had similar thoughts there would be no saints or martyrdom... But, at least for me I will go with the stance of ' selfish in addiction, selfish in recovery ' as it's futile for me in changing how the world revolves and corruption is one of the main things that make the world revolves....... hands up on my ignorance of a simple man

Yes it should be easier, although i did find K9 blocking software very good at blocking all sites and if someone else sets the password then it is even better. I did find it a bit of a pain when i could go to certain streaming sites for sport when the sites were also blocked by K9 but better than losing thousands in the online casinos. Banning yourself from sites one by one can be empowering if you have the drive to quit. The initial blocks are good to stop access to gambling but we may need to go further to fully quit through GA or counselling maybe. Just keep on trying everything to quit i guess but easier online blocking would be nice i think, certainly in the early days of confusion and trying to win money back which is never going to happen.