What did you's do with money if you won

Of course there's professional gambalers.

Professional means main source of income

So say a person has no other income but what they win gambaling there regarded as professional.

Most poker players are either staked of sponsored
And are regarded as professional as its there main source of income.

Professional doesn't mean they have fool proof ways of winning it just means its their chosen profession.

Personally I think a belief in the existence of prolonged successful 'professional' gambling is delusional but this thread has got to be a hard read for those struggling to avoid triggers. Surprised admin is allowing it to stand.

This a debate we need to have in the debates section.

I think one or two new members have got confused that the debates in this section can be offbeat and contentious. I dont blame them because it may seem that people are talking just about winning.

I relate to the point about rounding up...Oh I will just get to....? and stop then.... I was the same and how addicted is that...almost like I will choose what Im going to win....lt pretentious and delusional like the machine was going to keep going until it rounds it up nicely for me. Ive lost everything with crazy thoughts like that in my head

Also the rounding down thing...oh I will just take thirty of that and keep gambling until down to £150 for example...then oh another fifty and so on. Some sort of justification of being sensible ......its the addiction talking and I didnt really want to stop playing.

Although I was escaping I think I had some crazy notion in my head that I will just win a small amount and the machines are there for me to do that. It like part of my thought process was oh its got to pay me something (because I deserve it) You know something like it will pay me a tenner or so in a couple of drops and I will walk out. 100 quid down shortly afterwards and Im stood there like a zombie in some sort of cold sweat trance

I do get very twitchy when people mention professional machine players as Im tempted to say no such thing.

However I am a compulsive gambler. Its not for me. I couldnt control it and it was ruining my life

Best wishes to everyone on the forum

If people find what's written in this thread triggering they should probably steer clear of the debates and discussions section period.

It's a sign of how Britain has become as a whole.
Everyone to scared to say anything in case it upsets the next person.
Can we not use freedom of speech on a forum?
When did we all become overly sensitive?

Agreed Deano. Surely most things on this forum would be a trigger if that's the case...

I'm talking about the amounts being bandied about as examples. That sort of talk has been a no-no before but then again consistency has never been the forum's strongest point. Doesn't bother me personally though. I'm happy enough to crack on 🙂

Back to the point about gambling being everywhere and people literally lining up to throw money away on lottery tickets. That's a direct result of the iniquitous deregulation which took place under the Bliar government which has allowed the creeping normalisation of gambling and all that it brings with it. I do worry about the generation that's growing up surrounded by the idea that it's fun and normal being thrown at them everywhere they look. Ticking timebomb IMO and it's not like it would be impossible to shove the genie back in the bottle. The political will to do it just isn't there.

Lethe point taken
I didn't read the post in question
Maybe stating what one was making at the top of there game isn't best for the forum.

Saying that I think maybe he was just trying to get across his point

There is no skill involved in buying lottery tickets though or did I get the wrong end of the stick at a post?!! I won't say which 🙂

Not much skill in any game of chance, Phil.

Even sports 'research' is pointless given the number of match fixing or drugs scandals regularly coming to light.

Agreed. Last year my friend put £100 on a 5-1 horse in a 7 furlong race - the horse that won it by about 6/7 lengths was 66-1!

Lethe wrote:

I'm talking about the amounts being bandied about as examples. That sort of talk has been a no-no before but then again consistency has never been the forum's strongest point. Doesn't bother me personally though. I'm happy enough to crack on 🙂

Back to the point about gambling being everywhere and people literally lining up to throw money away on lottery tickets. That's a direct result of the iniquitous deregulation which took place under the Bliar government which has allowed the creeping normalisation of gambling and all that it brings with it. I do worry about the generation that's growing up surrounded by the idea that it's fun and normal being thrown at them everywhere they look. Ticking timebomb IMO and it's not like it would be impossible to shove the genie back in the bottle. The political will to do it just isn't there.

I do agree that certain examples being banded about used to wind me up but I am more calm with it now. I try not to talk about winning but have to accept that some people get reinforced when it happens and compulsive gamblers just hand it back. I have to accept it will feature in stories to highlight losing it all again and chasing

Im not calling anybody personally but there was a thread recently about a massive amount of shares and whether he should cash them in that got me a touch twitchy. How can I explain it...a mix of Im doing really rather well but I have a gambling problem. Doing well and a gambling problem dont go together

Now thats almost certainly my hang up and Im strong enough in the direction Im going. People have to word the stories as they like to. It doesnt mean that they have less of a problem than I did but Im always on the look out for wind up merchants. 🙂

Its a great forum and its about discussion. its an addiction which ruins peoiple and all the confusion that goes with it. There is bound to be some disagreement or things we wish were worded better.

I dont always word things well and am always up for debate and people putting me right.

I was watching a non bbc channel and it was just constant gambling advertising...this programme is sponsored by.......through to adverts for every place going

I fear its leading to the problem going exponential. If they ban gambling under a legal age when does it suddenly become acceptable to flood "adult" society with gambling dens.

Its just not right.

This is a good debate (although we may have wandered off-thread a little bit!)

Firstly, Mixer, you're pretty spot on, combination of 'tells', identifying cycles and the odd bit of insider knowledge is the basis of the 'professional' AWP player. I use the inverted commas as, as one poster rightly pointed out, if it is you only source of income, you are a professional (I just don't really like the term when it comes to gambling, hence the commas).

Emily, thanks for your support, I like healthy debate and have no objection to differing opinions (a debate's a bit rubbish without them). I do have an issue with people questioning my own existance, YES I have a gambling problem (I didn't end up on the GC site by chance!) but I have a good few years of professional gambling under my belt so I can say, categorically, that there IS such a thing. CW, I appreciate your cynicism given your experience with gambling, but there are a (very) small percentage who make a living from it (in fact, I remember seeing a documentary once about a sports gambling syndicate who set up as a limited company and ran it like a business...I'll see if I can find it on YouTube). Is it helpful to mention this on a forum for CG's, probably not, BUT I think that burying our heads in the sand and denying the existance of one group because we are in another, is equally unhelpful.

A professional FOBT player is not something, in my opinion, you will ever see (unless there are programming glitches that can be exploited but, unlike AWPs, these will be updated VERY quickly).

As for the triggers, there is gambling EVERYWHERE. I started another debate topic about exactly this and why I chose (what I called) 'active' abstaination which, whilst unproven, involved going about your daily life without avoiding temptation but, instead, 'actively' giving up (treating each day as a new challenge, adding to a GF savings pot, keeping a diary etc). There is no denying that exclusions, closing accounts, restricting access to cash etc. works for many people but, in 2017, it is, I believe, impossible to remove all access to gambling. What's the alternative? Never use a computer, never goto the pub, never watch sport or even walk around town?

Anyway, love this thread and, agree or disagree, whilst we're on here we're not gambling so everybody wins!

I mean when I win I would go out and buy something he's where the problem is ... everything I like you have to order from the internet ! So bang the cash is in my hand , I mean I could be good and not give it back for a day or 2 but eventually after a few days like so many other people it would be back in there pockets ! The problem then is I would think of that money as a lose when in actual fact I haven't lost anything I've simply purchased someThing but I would then proceed to chase back the money ending in giving them more 🙁

Saadly if I ever won anything it would be used to pay some urgent bills and buy essentials. My gambling problem lasted one year and the most i ever won in one go was £500 so nothing flash, not exactly what the dreams are made of. so patheitic really.