Have just finished paul mersons book on gambling,horrible addiction from the sounds of it,said out of the 3 addictions he had,gambling drink and drugs,gambling is the most destructive Not heard anything concrete about Adam smith but if the rumours are true,I hope he gets the help he needs
Merson, Peter Shilton and many others keep very quiet about the fact that were paid huge sums by Bookmakers to advertise their products. Happy to take the Bookmaker's loot when it suited them.
Fantastic summary. The “he clearly loves boxing” posts always make me cringe. Who gives a shite… He’s a chief salesman, nothing else. People who get embroiled in drink, drugs and gambling always want to blame external structural factors and eschew responsibility. These people have a huge degree of agency over drink, drugs and gambling. Some people never want to take responsibility for anything.
Gambling is the worst out of the 3 because you can’t really see/feel the affects. You don’t have comedowns or hangovers and when using online banking you’ve never had the money in your hand. I was bad with roulette machines for a few years in my early 20’s. Only myself to blame though, loved the adrenaline of waiting to see where it was going to land. Worked next door to a bookies and would be in every dinner without fail. Sometimes I’d lose 200 quid a day, sometimes I’d win a few hundred... realised there was more to life when I had to pull out of a lads weekend away because I’d blown all my money and was embarrassed to say why I couldn’t come. I’m a few years clean now but it was by luck. Bookies put a 2 quid per spin limit on their machines which means there’s no adrenaline as I can’t really win big off 2 quid and I got a family member to self-exclude me from every single betting app. There’s literally not a betting app I can sign up to now. Hope Adam Smith gets a grip on it.
Those machines should be illegal as a complete disgrace as people cannot win on programmed games of little chance. Bookmaking is taking bets on sports but these greedy bandits made a fortune on the crack cocaine of gambling. I know a few pro gamblers who bet make a living betting on racing, football, golf, cricket and boxing on Betting Exchanges. They do go to casinos for a drink and watch sport but never play any of the shyte in these places either.
Went in an empty casino in Ayia Napa once and my number came in but the cashier was some Cypriot mafia type bloke who just threw my chip off the table and gave me a ‘what you gonna do about it’ look. Safe to say I just walked out.
Also no limit to how much you can gamble, if you have the money. Whereas only certain amount of drugs or drink you can consume.
There is no limit until you have lost everything that you are capable of losing - for some that is also sadly followed by the loss of life.
Betting companies are parasites, I remember when I was in the midst of a gambling addiction, I would hide money from my wife in a personal account I've had since a teenager and gamble it away. Hardest thing I could do was to close all my accounts as I convinced myself that I would get to the point one day where I could have a flutter here and there and it wouldn't do any harm. If there was a space of a few days where I didn't use the online casino's my email inbox would be filled with offers of free spins, boosts etc. The equivalent of a drug dealer offering a free hit to get you back hooked. As was previously said in this thread, a lot of the times when it gets too much, sadly someone ends up taking their own life, leaving their families to pick up the miserable baton. I'm not one for stopping people's fun but betting companies and video slot machines need heavily regulating.
