I have a gambling problem and I need help.
Quote: GWAEI never understoof why someone would have 1 or 2 drinks. Alcohol mostly doesnt taste that great. I am either going to have 6-12 beers or no beers.
That's why I don't drink a lot. It mostly doesn't taste good.
Really good quality beer, ice cold, hot day. Yes, about 1/2 beer.
Really fine port wine after dinner, yes, small glass.
Large weak Bombay Sapphire and tonic, yes, one.
Nice tall captain and coke or Cuba libra, yes, one.
Bailey's double of ice, yes, one.
Otherwise, meh. Will never appreciate scotch, even though most of my family does. Maybe a brandy. No whiskey, vodka, bourbon, martini, tequila, etc. Bleah. Just fwiw.
You haven't seen Djatc after 1 or 2.Quote: GWAEI never understoof why someone would have 1 or 2 drinks. Alcohol mostly doesnt taste that great. I am either going to have 6-12 beers or no beers.
Quote: AxelWolfYou haven't seen Djatc after 1 or 2.
<enter Miata joke here>
Extended family gatherings usually means that I am having at least 2 before I arrive, for example.
Quote: RigondeauxYep. Plus there's no upside to just having gambling under control.
But there really is nothing good at all about going off once a week and "only" losing 10% of your income, and "only" losing one evening a week of your short time, sitting alone in front of a machine or at a craps table and setting your money on fire.
If you are doing it socially and are having legitimate fun, then I don't see why using your entertainment budget for gambling is a problem. Plenty of people will spend a night a week going out and having dinner and a movie once a week and spending $5,200 a year (for two) on the experience. Someone who loves to golf might spend 2 days a week on the golf course and spend $6,000 a year. I don't see gambling as anything different on a purely time/financial scale.
I have seen this most with people trying to quit smoking. Going "cold turkey" sometimes works--my dad did it successfully--but it sometimes fails, too. I think that many difficult tasks are best done in increments. Cut down some. Then cut down some more.
The thing is, presenting someone with a daunting task decreases the likelihood that they'll even begin it. I remember going hiking in Yosemite and looking at the valley rim, my destination, 3,000 feet above me and thinking, "no friggin' way." So I got myself going by pretending my actual destination was that tree up there, or that switchback just ahead, and not thinking about the trip in its entirety.
Dieting is like that, too. It doesn't work to yank your overweight friend away from his extra-large pizza and dragoon him into the cauliflower, kale, and chalk dust diet. If you try to impose absolute abstinence on an addict, that more often that not creates resentment, and backfires.
I just had a can of arctic ale. I'm proud that my purchase supports the Bilberry industry in several Scandinavian countries and rewards young Europeans for taking a GAP YEAR in Scandinavia. I see no reason to support Budweiser but a healthful beer that improves eyesight and cardiac functioning is a joy in itself.
Quote: boymimboBut there really is nothing good at all about going off once a week and "only" losing 10% of your income, and "only" losing one evening a week of your short time, sitting alone in front of a machine or at a craps table and setting your money on fire.
Quote: boymimboIf you are doing it socially and are having legitimate fun, then I don't see why using your entertainment budget for gambling is a problem. Plenty of people will spend a night a week going out and having dinner and a movie once a week and spending $5,200 a year (for two) on the experience. Someone who loves to golf might spend 2 days a week on the golf course and spend $6,000 a year. I don't see gambling as anything different on a purely time/financial scale.
EvenBob once observed that, if you look around a casino, you won't see a lot of people having fun and, having worked in a couple, I tend to agree.
Some people really do have fun. My observation is that sports is the most fun. Men, in particular, love to talk and argue about sports and try to come up with theories of who will win, even though 99% of what they say is nonsense. If you bet small, you really do get a lot of bang for your buck. It amounts to nothing more than a dumb distraction, but there can be a social element and so forth.
Poker is somewhat similar, though I've noticed winning players are often bored and losing players are often angry, frustrated or depressed (and winning players spend a lot of time feeling this way too).
Table games and machines are so much more passive, if you are not an AP. I do have fun playing machines, knowing that I'm making money. I guess the games themselves are fun, when they aren't hurting you. And, if you play them infrequently enough, you have a reasonable shot at a winning year, or even lifetime.
But once a week or more for me seems to clearly be a bad habit. You're gonna lose a lot of money and time over they years. Like I said, it is not the end of the world. I have bad habits, as do most of us.
I don't think it's enriching, in the way eating out or seeing a movie can be. You're unlikely to be spending time with friends and family. Movies can be art or, at least, part of our collective culture. Food too. You can also try food from other cultures, which can be a fun part of travel. Same with movies, really. But even if you just go see a super hero movie and eat at Denny's once a week with your SO, you're spending time together, getting out and circulating.
Also, it depends a lot where you are in life. Most of the people who I knew as regs in the casino were sad, lonely or needed a distraction from difficult home lives. Back to sports books, if you ever go sit and one and pay attention to the true regs, it's much the same. This is an alternative to their real lives. Fair enough. I've been there.
OP is a young college kid. Maybe one day he'll be 45 with a wife he's sick of and a dead end job, but he's not there yet. He could be saving up that money for a trip to Europe or Asia that he'll remember for the rest of his life. He could be spending that time getting a professional certification. Or, I'm guessing maybe he doesn't have great social skills. He could tackle that problem so he can make the most of his youth.
Ultimately, I see no reason to ASPIRE to have a bad habit. He wants to tackle his gambling problem. Kill it dead. The fact that a gambling habit is not as bad as an addiction is hardly an argument to TRY for a lower level of success. Never mind the risk of relapsing or spiraling out of control.
Quote: RSAfter time, the urge to gamble/drink/etc. begins to fade away. After the urge is nearly completely gone, I could see at that point transitioning back into a recreational drinker/gambler/etc. and be perfectly fine with 1 or 2 drinks without the urge to drink more, or be able to go to the casino with $100 and play for an hour or whatever then call it quits, without the urge to win back losses or continue the winning spree. Although, once the urge is essentially gone and possibly transitioning back into drinking/gambling...you'd be getting into some something potentially dangerous.....could cause a complete relapse and go straight back to where you were a few years ago.
I once dealt a long evening of Three Card Poker at a place I was working at to a man who seemed compelled to play it all night. He told me quite a story....
He said that - as he was playing and re-buying back in frequently - he was in Gamblers' Anonymous for 17 years, and one fine spring day in April earlier that year, he walk into a strip casino on a compulsion and played Three Card Poker and won big, including hitting the progressive. Boom, $14,000 or something to that effect. It came back full force. I dealt to him in the fall, around September, remember it well.
He kept buying back in, anxious to get to the next hand, all night long. It was a little creepy to deal to him, though a dealer cannot back anyone off. He wanted to play, and was drinking only soda, perfectly social and friendly, so he plays, fine. It was "next hand, next hand, next hand," all night long. Had to stay a bit over my shift time, too. Looking back, I just shake my head....
Recovering alcoholics I've known credit joining AA* and abstinence; the usual AA group will push it hard [this may vary]. But what I've noticed is the ones that stay sober get into playing the role of helping others get sober. This is quite a commitment including being available 24/7 - someone doing that really undergoes a transformation. Yet it's the abstinence they seem to credit. It does make sense, of course, that an abstaining counselor, one who can say 'I've been there' - is going to make the best impression.
I've also noted a lot of the professional crowd goes on about "the 12 steps". But I've never met anyone who said they went to AA and gave any credit to the 12 steps - not in the sense that the organization figured out the perfect process, taking an exact number of steps.
*I've dragged people there
Quote: jjjoooggg
Hawaii has a casino. LOL.
Really? What casino? Which island?
As far as I know, Hawaii has neither casinos nor any other type of legal gambling (lottery, etc.)
My alma mater in Portland is pioneering a program to counsel / treat folks, typically teens and young men, who have an addiction to gaming / video games, usually the ones that you play online against others such as "Call of Duty."
The article points out what seems common sense: the dynamics of gaming addiction and gambling addiction are quite similar, and treatment modalities are / will likely be similar as well; it's a new field.
There is concern about getting funding for treatment; gambling addiction treatment is paid for by the state, but gaming addiction isn't.
So if little Johnny is online gaming 17 hours a day, there is help available, but ma and pa will have to dig deep into their gambling bankroll to pay for it.
Wicked world.
Can you please post a link? I may be interested in volunteering or contributing somehow (I live nearby). I've read dozens of papers on the topic and one thing that frequently seems to jump out at me as a game designer is that many clinicians don't really understand the games they're studying. So you end up with a cross sectional study of "slot machine players" even though slots vary significantly in outcome distribution, etc. In other words, the control isn't what they think it is.Quote: MrVI just finished reading an article which relates nicely to this issue.
My alma mater in Portland is pioneering a program to counsel / treat folks, typically teens and young men, who have an addiction to gaming / video games, usually the ones that you play online against others such as "Call of Duty."
The article points out what seems common sense: the dynamics of gaming addiction and gambling addiction are quite similar, and treatment modalities are / will likely be similar as well; it's a new field.
Quote: MathExtremistCan you please post a link? I may be interested in volunteering or contributing somehow (I live nearby). I've read dozens of papers on the topic and one thing that frequently seems to jump out at me as a game designer is that many clinicians don't really understand the games they're studying. So you end up with a cross sectional study of "slot machine players" even though slots vary significantly in outcome distribution, etc. In other words, the control isn't what they think it is.
+ 100
Quote: MathExtremistCan you please post a link? I may be interested in volunteering or contributing somehow (I live nearby). I've read dozens of papers on the topic and one thing that frequently seems to jump out at me as a game designer is that many clinicians don't really understand the games they're studying. So you end up with a cross sectional study of "slot machine players" even though slots vary significantly in outcome distribution, etc. In other words, the control isn't what they think it is.
That would be outstanding of you, ME. I hope you do get involved, maybe even as a paid SME. It certainly needs to be looked into.
Lewis&Clark, The Chronicle Magazine, Portland, Oregon, Fall 2016, pp 22-23
For more information, visit: go.lclark.edu/graduate/community-counseling
When I made this thread months ago, I felt the cold hard reality of being at the bottom of the proverbial "bell curve". It doesn't matter how "good" a bet is; if you are in that bottom 15% of the theoretical statistical distribution, things are going to feel like hell (even more so if you are playing negative expectation games, i.e. Craps). It was a lesson every gambler learns.
And I got that promotion at my job ;)
Going forward, I'm playing in only AP situations, save the aforementioned exceptions. I've found a new awareness and respect for volatility. Gambling will only be a hobby because should another huge cold streak arise, I can always walk away being that my job is my primary source of income.
Believe it or not, I actually came back at the end of 2016 and won back all of my losses playing AP VP. It was a beautiful reprieve, and haven't given it back playing negative expectation games. 2017 has treated my very well so far too. I'm prepared for the downswings when it inevitably happens.
Don't let yourself get caught in a web of bad compulsive behavior.
Quote: Dyvan13
I'm coming here to the WOV forums because I know I need help and I know I am among people who understand gambling
The people here cannot help you other than to recommend that you get professional help. They are not professionals in the field of addiction counseling which is what you need. Because they know something about gambling doesn't mean that they can help you. I hope you realize how serious your problem is. My cousin, a middle class person, a high school teacher, spent the last 6 years of his life in a homeless shelter because of his gambling addiction. You need to contact professionals immediately. It's your life.
Are you promoting your own web sites? If so, please don't as that is considered spam.
Quote: DavegamerIt is hard to tell the definite set of reasons why people get addicted to anything. Sometimes the outside factors can stimulate the addiction. But mostly the personal psychological features make the person responsive to the gambling influence. I worked like a casino dealer for 7 years and recently wrote y own research about casino addiction on [LINK REDACTED BY MOD] and I hope it will help a lot of people o solve this problem. Like any other thrilling pastime, gambling can be addictive. Some of them are looking for a new way of entertaining and testing their luck. Others want to earn some money, placing bets and winning rewards. Some more experienced players unite these features and make gambling their hobby.
[spam link redacted]
It is a good job and a good article with useful information and I think it can help a lot of people, who need such help! Isn't it?
Quote: OnceDearHi Dave.
Are you promoting your own web sites? If so, please don't as that is considered spam.
Goodbye, spammer Dave.Quote: DavegamerQuote: DavegamerIt is hard to tell the definite set of reasons why people get addicted to anything. Sometimes the outside factors can stimulate the addiction. But mostly the personal psychological features make the person responsive to the gambling influence. I worked like a casino dealer for 7 years and recently wrote y own research about casino addiction on [LINK REDACTED BY MOD] and I hope it will help a lot of people o solve this problem. Like any other thrilling pastime, gambling can be addictive. Some of them are looking for a new way of entertaining and testing their luck. Others want to earn some money, placing bets and winning rewards. Some more experienced players unite these features and make gambling their hobby.
[redacted]
Dave, It's your blog, where that article gives helpful anti-gambling advice... But the rest of the site is affiliate linked casino promotion. Nice try Dave. Goodbye.Quote: DavegamerI am not sure that it is spam.
It is a good job and a good article with useful information and I think it can help a lot of people, who need such help! Isn't it?
