Refunds, financial hardship, social responsibility.

Hi Peterette,

Thank you for your post. You raise a number of questions in your sentence and I will do my best to respond to you. What you might want to bear in mind is that you are posting this on a recovery forum, not on an forum of the gambling industry. So the response to your question will be from the perspective of a recovery forum, too.

Firstly, social responsibility is predominantly a legal term to describe processes which businesses, such as the gambling industry are obliged to implement to run their business in a fashion which legislators decide is appropriate in society. As I understand, issuing refunds to customers, because of financial hardship is not such a business responsibility. People in financial hardship may have access to other support, such as social services, housing benefit etc.

I understand that you may be referring to a moral responsibility. And on the surface, it sounds quite catchy. So, if a gambling company does not refund, you could say that they are "bad" in the face of misery, that they "do not have a heart".

Let's assume, all gambling companies felt very responsible, "good", "full of heart" and refunded big losing customers with a problem who are in financial hardship.

What would that look like? Firstly, to apply such a policy fairly, they may have to be companies with large departments who were able to do "means testing", such as social services, where customers would have to declare assets, income, household spending etc.

Secondly, they would have to be clinically trained to determine whether someone has a gambling problem.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, they would do all this in the knowledge that none of this might be helpful to the person in financial hardship. The refund might just be taken to the bookies next door.

The nature of a gambling problem, as you know, is the urge to continue gambling, to spend available money on gambling as a priority. And a refund does not address this problem. Recovery does.

And recovery entails taking personal responsibility for getting better. Taking advantage of support, like emotional support from people around, if that is available and of professional support.

The "refund" you can gain in recovery is confidence, a sense of pride in yourself, a sense of future, improved relationships and a sense of worth, amongst others. And in many cases, people are also able to stabilise their financial circumstances as a result.

It's not an easy journey, but one which can easily out-value a refund by a gambling company.

I hope that this makes sense to you and that this answers your questions.

Kind wishes

Gabriele

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I am well aware of the benefits of recovery from addictions. However, as I am sure you know, half an hour of relapse and madness on a gaming site can leave people and whole families devastated.

I hardly think it needs a trained professional or an army of staff to recognise such behaviour. My partner has lost thousands in a few hours and it is ruining our whole family. Anyone can see this is an illness and not normal rational behaviour.

Therefore I feel that I asked a fair question which deserved a slightly less glib answer.

I don't think the answer was glib

its just the same as going in a bar getting drunk

throwing up then demanding a refund .

it aint going to happen , this is gambling , not being sold a faulty tumble dryer .

if you are your partner has a problem with gambling , then its your problem . there are people on hear who have been their done that etc , who may be able to help you turn your life around . the casinos are not your friend , its just lip service , you just a punter , a mug punter if you loose ,