"Just don't do it!"

I was watching an episode of the Simpsons today where Marge develops a slot machine addiction. I remember being in Vegas myself about ten years ago and one of the pit-bosses told me that they pump baby powder through the air conditioning in the "one-arm bandits" area, because it's mostly old women who sit there with their bucket of quarters for hours on end, and the smell of baby powder makes them bet like! He also told me they intentionally have no windows in any of the casinos so the "user" becomes disorientated and loses track of time. In that moment I knew I was a mug punter, being manipulated by brains far superior to mine.

I've been a long time reader of this forum, but I finally feel the need to post having just watched an advert for a famous Bingo site that prides itself on its "mumsnet" all good fun pillow-fight, festival vibe. "We are about responsible gambling, so if it starts to become about anything else maybe take yourself out of the game for a while!"

"For a while!" Ha! - the implication is we make a deliberately addictive product, like tobacco, but hell if YOU are so weak you become addicted then IT'S YOUR FAULT, so spend a few days away from the site, then come back when you've sorted yourself out. Haha! Victim blaming/Gaslighting to the nnth degree!

Anyway, Marge Simpson became addicted to slots, and Homer finally dragged her out the casino and said "We can't afford the therapy - JUST DON'T DO IT ANYMORE!"

So pure, so real. Accurate. Just don't do it! For me, I have the control to NOT place that first online casino bet online, but once I do, I genuinely have no control until every last source of credit is denied to me. I don't understand it. Sure it's the dopamine hit of near misses, the chase, the zoning-out for a few sacred hours from real life pain. I get it.

However, having read around this forum for a while, it's clear Gambling doesn't live in isolation as an addiction - it's co-morbid with mental health issues. It's not about attention-seeking, it's about a deep need to feel validated - gambling is a manifestation of a much deeper issue, the need to win, the belief that if we ever won enough we could do all the things for the people we love and show them how we were correct all along by persisting and not giving up.

For what it's worth, my two-penneth, is THIS is what makes gambling the most insidious addiction of all - because you actually stand a fair chance of winning everything back and making everything right. But of course we can't stop, so it's meaningless.

We are inculcated as kids to never give up, to chase our dreams - so dangerous with gambling, because when we stop chasing, we are literally giving up, which is so unnatural like admitting defeat!

At least with a smack addiction or booze addiction it's a self-serving buzz, but with gambling there is a small chance we could actually sort everything out for people we love. THAT'S what makes it so nasty. 

So, my point is, as Homer said to Marge - "We can't afford the therapy, JUST DON'T DO IT!" The regular posters here seem to be divided into two discreet camps of those who are compulsive gamblers because they are addicted to it; and those who have real mental health issues and are using gambling/Gamcare as a way to self-medicate their suffering. Both are of course as valid as each other, however one is a primary problem, the other is a secondary issue to their primary problem which isn't gambling.

Anyone dig what I'm trying to say here?