MAKE THE BOOKIES SUFFER

Ok... I may have over reacted a bit and not taken people's opinions on this very well. I'm sorry for that especially to you (half life) obviously as you can all see I am a recovering compulsive gambler aswell so we are all in this boat together. All I wanted to say is that the original title of the thread and what it was trying to achieve was not ok. Everyone's opinion counts and I'm sorry for throwing a tad of a tantrum.

Stay safe people

Gaz

Jeez ! , I came off here at 18.47 just logged back on and it's still going on ?.

Why not just wrap it up now and agree to disagree , those that want to accept the responsibility as their own can choose that and those that see thee gambling establishments as the problem can go for that option ? , I'm sure our combined knowledge of gambling addiction would be put to better use in the newbies section , just a thought ?.

Best wishes everyone

This thread entered my mind today when i drove past the bookies lol when id normally be in there like a shot before, had a little chuckle to myself knowing he wasnt getting any of my hard earned.

SwordFish wrote:

The reason I suggested it be deleted is because believe it or not it is people's livelihoods like myself who has a family to pay for and I've got people like you saying you loathe it.

Just an opinion

Im not letting this go actually. You would have to extend this argument to sellers of anything destructive and addictive.

You dont seem to understand that they are peddling something addictive and which can be bet on every few seconds. I disagree with you and Alan135 because you are arguing in a literal sense and youve got no depth. Blaming the punter entirely is disingenous and plain wrong!

You are not looking at this deeply enough. The source and how they tempt and advertise is the main problem.

WE KNOW that every gambler has to accept some responsiblity. Im saying they are not entirely to blame for how the addiction is formed. You are looking at it from a very black and white..... dont do it perspective. There are whole books full of the psychology of human nature and gambling

Yes its a case of walking away with willpower. If only it was that easy. The deadly thing about gambling is that it creates the feeling that it will all be resolved on the next spin or next bet.

So I entirely disagree that its 100% responsiblity on the part of the punter. I didnt create the temptation and you seem to be absolving the gambling industy of all responsibility.

Without personal attacks I dont believe betting office staff can be excused as just doing their jobs. Saints and angels they are not so lets have a reality check please.

Thats my opinion. I am entitled to it and I dont like any excuses for the day to day activity of an industry that damages lives

Ok JD , So now it's clear that you believe the industry is to blame , personally for me I'm to blame and Life's far to short for me to look for a non existent scapegoat or carry on with a discussion that for me won't change what I am !.

Thank you for your input and I wish you well .

Joy divider- IAM letting this go! It's not worth my time

SwordFish wrote:

It's us that choose to lose our money, or families money. The betting industry employs thousands of people who have families to provide for. I envy people who bet for fun. Stop blaming others and let's take responsibility for our own actions. I for one would be out of a job!

SwordFish wrote:

Joy divider you are wrong I am a manager of a bookmakers and can assure you I treat my customers with utmost respect just like any other retail industry. I do not want my profits to come from problem gamblers! Obviously if you read my diary I am a problem gambler so I know how it feels! Believe it or not, some customers actually do use the betting shops for a leisurely activity and boy... Do I envy them. Please do not tar all members of staff who work in bookies with the same brush. As Alan said.. Do people blame McDonald's etc for making them fat?? People need to stop blaming others and take responsibility for their own actions!

I registered into this forum as a new member simply because of this thread. I appreciate threads of this kind and hope to see more like this on Gamcare.

SwordFish - you work for the gambling industry, citing you have your own gambling problem which is irrelevant for this thread, but you seem to be keen on and pushing for the deletion of this thread simply because it's going against the industry you work for.

You seem to "envy" people who bet for fun, and yet I don't know anyone who sees gambling as entertainment when it comes to losing money, so some people spend $10 on a ticket and can't afford or don't want to spend more and it gives them high ... but some people, especially those who want to take a step forward and try to "make money" out of gambling find themselves suffering years and years, they suffer, their families suffer... all because of the industry you work for and currently trying to protect on a gambling addiction forum, which is one of the very few resources that gambling addicts have.

And yet I can't understand, based on your words, what is there to "envy" people who "bet for fun" (even though each one of them is subject and can become an addict - what you failed to mention or consider with that enviousness) ... and on top of all - what is there to "envy" people who take other people's money - what good does it bring to society?!

What good comes out of the gambling industry? You mentioned the industry employs thousands of people ... but these people work for an industry that is preying on the weak and taking money from people for no gain whatsoever, the losers get nothing in return, nothing whatsoever.

It's like this industry is the 1% wanting the 99% to bet ... with sports betting for instance, person A bets on team A, person B bets on team B, the industry takes commission out of it, they want the poor people to bet, the bettors take each other's money and the industry takes their commission by having the odds given in a way that they will take commission out of it - something like the "Hunger Games" - what good comes from it? can you tell me what good is coming out of it? because I don't see any good coming out of it whatsoever.

So somebody like Joydivider comes here and speaks the truth - and that's bothering you?! That's a reason to delete a thread, because it's bothering you?! Well, the gambling industry does bother me as well, so can I remove it? no, but there is absolutely no need whatsoever to remove this thread or delete it - this thread is good and serving for a good purpose ...

Just like the gambling industry is not good for anything but it's there - let this thread be in its place as well accordingly ... and don't worry, with the power that industry has, this thread is meaningless for the industry, if I were you I wouldn't worry about 1 thread and definitely not advocating or pushing to delete it.

Hi there DWG , I don't work for the gambling industry so I'm not biased in any way , I'm also of the opinion that I and I alone am responsible for choosing to gamble , a choice that I made because gambling gave me pleasure , I enjoyed the enviroment of casinos and horse race meetings and would gladly have carried on gambling had I not come to the conclusion that I'd ( that's me by the way ) had allowed it become uncontrolable , I then made a decision to stop gambling ( again my decision ) which I did august of last year .

Throughout my gambling carreer , I was never under any illusion that the odds were in my favour and that statisticly I had no chance of winning in the long term but hey that was the cost of my entertainment and I accepted it fully .

I assume from your post that your story may be different from mine , maybe you were marched at gunpoint to place your first bet against your will ? or perhaps like me you were a willing participant but unlike myself looks to deflect the blame a business designed to make money , profit and supply you with the fix you so craved ?.onto

I understand your frustration regarding the industry but they are a business , who do provide work for many thousand of people in many different ways , in order to do this they must , like any other business make profit .

Hanging on to anger and looking to deflect blame will not help with recovery , I wish you well with your's .

You registered onto this forum because of this thread? You do not have a gambling problem? You just want an argument? You will not get one as I said before not worth my time

ALAN 135 wrote:

Hi there DWG , I don't work for the gambling industry so I'm not biased in any way , I'm also of the opinion that I and I alone am responsible for choosing to gamble , a choice that I made because gambling gave me pleasure , I enjoyed the enviroment of casinos and horse race meetings and would gladly have carried on gambling had I not come to the conclusion that I'd ( that's me by the way ) had allowed it become uncontrolable , I then made a decision to stop gambling ( again my decision ) which I did august of last year .

Throughout my gambling carreer , I was never under any illusion that the odds were in my favour and that statisticly I had no chance of winning in the long term but hey that was the cost of my entertainment and I accepted it fully .

I assume from your post that your story may be different from mine , maybe you were marched at gunpoint to place your first bet against your will ? or perhaps like me you were a willing participant but unlike myself looks to deflect the blame a business designed to make money , profit and supply you with the fix you so craved ?.onto

I understand your frustration regarding the industry but they are a business , who do provide work for many thousand of people in many different ways , in order to do this they must , like any other business make profit .

Hanging on to anger and looking to deflect blame will not help with recovery , I wish you well with your's .

Alan,

Firstly I don't know if what you're telling me is 100% true, since it seems like bookmakers or people who work in the gambling industry come specifically to threads like this and all of a sudden it's bothering them that such thread exists and they are asking for the thread to be deleted - this is the main reason I registered to raise my voice against it.

Regarding your claim that the gambling industry "provide(s) work for many thousand of people in many different ways" - that is a ridiculous claim. Personally, I wouldn't feel sorry for anyone who drops out out this industry and if this industry had not existed then people would have concentrated on much better things in life other than wasting their time, their energy and their lives at the casinos, sport books etc.

Likewise, I do not appreciate your tone calling me a person who is frustrated from gambling or from the industry - not sure about you guys but I'm doing pretty well in life, I do have a property I own outright in London, I have money and I choose not to spend it on gambling, but nevertheless I despise this industry because of what it did to several people I know, completely ruined their lives and shattered families.

Gambling is not a business ... a normal business gives something to society ... The alcohol industry for instance does provides drinks which can be used moderately for celebrations, you pay for a drink, you get something for your money .... but the tobacco industry on the other hand is similar to the gambling industry ... whilst smoking is bad for you and there is lots of regulation (not allowed to smoke in public places etc.) - the gambling industry as someone mentioned in this thread is deregulated.

The gambling industry is designed to make people lose money, it's designed to make people addicted, and it's designed to take money from people without giving any value for the money whatsoever.

A gambler is a person that doesn't contribut anything to society, there is absolutely nothing that the gambling industry contributes to society ... in fact, they do create "not for profit" organizations like Gamcare (funded by them) or other organizations that are supposedly should help society ... but their funded organizations claim the number of % of addicted gamblers is very small, they claim gambling is entertainment and such organizations not only don't help addicts but only put them in a vicious cycle and that is what gambling is about - it's putting people in vicious cycles.

So I am not sure how you are trying to recover, Alan, and I'm not sure who you really are and if you're really a genuine gambling addict who needs help (I doubt it) but even if you really are - the fact you are blaming me for "hanging on to anger" and "looking to deflect blame" - don't categorize me as the evil person here, I did not create this industry that has ruined so many people's lives.

The fact your life or your family's lives hasn't been ruined by gambling (yet...) doesn't imply that gambling is okay or that gambling is something you need to approve.

I do not approve of gambling, I am against it 100% in any form whatsoever.

I am against selling dreams to people.

I am against defrauding people and cheating them, directly or indirectly.

I am against having companies that use the best minds in the world in order to create more and more addictions, go and bet on the Euro 2016, go and bet on the NBA Playoffs, dang ... even the ESPN website now is showing the odds on the NBA Finals ... since when the ESPN, a supposedly unbiased and neutral website is injecting odds into the game previews?

Is it legal? Yes ...

But it's the same way you find this thread annoying for you - but it's legal, this thread has tons of good points.

The fact it creates a clash should only prove to you the big issues society has with gambling. You won't find many discussions like this about McDonald's - yes, they sell junk food, but they sell something, you do get value for the money ... you don't have to eat it everyday .... but gambling gives you absolutely no value whatsoever .... only broken families, broken people and sad and lonely society ....

PS I'm not living in the UK and I can suggest to people to move away from this country as their only means of getting rid of gambling - there are other places in the world that are not full of bookmaker shops on every corner. What the UK has reached is completely disgusting if you ask me.

How the hell can you ask how Alan expects to recover? He is a very respected member of this site. Who do you think you are?

I have flagged your response to Alan as abusive. You bring nothing to this forum. I suggest you leave

""A gambler is a person who contributes nothing to society ""
How f*****g dare you insinuate that I ...as a gambler ( not for nearly 5 mnths ) contribute nothing to society
I run my own pub...work a second job...am now open honest and caring to all who I meet in what ever walk I take....I assist people when and if I can...however I can....so don't you dare come on here saying that we are all non contributors because we are gamblers. ...I'm not interested in the other debates on your posting....well maybe will just say that at least the staff employed by the gambling industry are at least working to contribute to society....you are just a ""donkey mole "

Well done loxxie. Well said

Hi again DWG , thank you for your kind response , I've just come back on and seen it , apologies for not getting back sooner but I had to google the language you were speaking ( Google told me it appears to be B) and to be honest there seems little point in me responding to you , you serve no purpose on this site and I'm not quite sure what you usually do on your other bored Friday afternoons but maybe you need to return from where you came , this site has functioned perfectly well up to now without your vast knowledge and input and I'm sure will continue to do so , your right when you say " You don't know me " I'm actually a Pig farmer from the outer Hebrides and spend much of my life smelling S.... , so yours is nothing new to me .

Best wishes to you and your enchanting family .