I've read recently re the culpability of the industry and turning a blind eye to addicts. Back in 2017, only a few months into my addiction, I was using one such site online - was starting to lose alot and I did, in the back of my mind, know that I had a problem. They suspended my account and I had to chat to their support team for some awkward questions about if I thought I was in control, and if I could afford how I was funding my account.
Needless to saw I lied, and the account was reactivated. Later, after more losses, they closed my account. The motto of the story is that they can try and protect us but can only go so far.
Well this is the crunch HertsC.
I have seen no real duty of care in action beyond the lip service and posters they are FORCED to print
Im telling you that leaflets in the corner, stop when the fun stops, limit messages and 30 second cooling off screens are useless in the face of this addiction.
I was an addict. Of course I wasnt going to set limits. If I briefly did I just reversed them immediately they ran out. I lost all control very early on. I kidded myself for the first 10 minutes that I was in control but that was just pure delusion.
Nobody came over to me when they could see £1000 going in short periods of time. Nobody suggested I leave or get help. Its clearly a delusional illness and very few people have that sort of money to throw.
The catch 22 is they make big money from people who cant walk away. They dont really make money from people who have a couple of goes and walk out.
Machines reached a programming level that should not be legal. They hit all the triggers and they know the triggers we have. Feeling ripped off by a bonus feature that doesnt pay out is a known trigger to keep going to get back at them.
When you analyse them its cheating from the first spin...false activity like winning sounds for getting back less than the stake....Thats a LOSS...bonus features that can actually pay the lowest possible spin amount like 20p!!...so the lab rats like me chase the bonus which isnt actually a bonus.
High roller stakes that dont increase the chance by all that much. Its all a devious scheme to take our money fast.
Its a direct analogy to a drug dealer saying take care now when the fun stops....Its a direct conflict of interests if the dealer wants you hooked for profit.
It was my drug of choice and they kept pushing it. I remember the sheepish faces of the staff...they knew i was an addict. THEY KNEW THAT I KNEW,THAT THEY KNEW I WAS AN ADDICT and thats why they had little banter for me but just looked embarrassed when I did approach the counter. They were trained to give me another coffee and blag me with banter.
I was killing myself. Tens of thousands down I could have been driving a car now and at least renting somewhere much better. Im not.
My life is much better now and I have a large rainy day fund. Gambling dens on the high street might as well put up a sign saying drug addicts welcome.
Its that serious and its more than a national scandal of monumental proportions.
Best wishes to everyone on the forum
Well yes I pretty much agree with what has been said. The messages that come up on machines are a complete waste of time for a gambling addict. You just wait for the 10 or 30 seconds and then click the message away and then carry on gambling until you run out of funds. I have never ever had a human being come up to me in a book makers to suggest anything at all, they rely completely on an automated system that doesn't help the addicted gambler.
The only times iv'e had a member of staff come up to me is when iv'e been in a bookmakers that am excluded from. On those rare occasions that its happened I thanked them... cos that had been a moment of good practice and i appreciate that for some staff it must take a bit of courage to approach a gambler and ask them to leave. Iv'e also seen a lot of terrible practice... where the staff really couldn't give a d**n whether you are exclude or not.
As for online. In the short period of time I was gambling online before I registered with gamstop I was never challenged in anyway other than the occasional message that came along telling me how long i had been gambling for and maybe how much i had deposited. I mean how does that help an addicted gambler?? The gambler knows that they have been at it for hours, a message on a screen makes no difference to nothing. The only times that i got any support was when i approached them usually to self-exclude.
There is only one firm out of the many that I used that I consider really showed a duty of care towards me. They had measures in place such as showing you how much you'd spent. Setting up limits. Talking to you about how long you'd been online and how much you'd spent since you'd been in that session.
I stopped using them because I am an addict and didn't want to be reminded. I guess if everyone showed the care they did, it would've probably removed the fun factor that kept me engaged and running on that hamster wheel.
I don't get triggered by the firm that had all of them measures in place. I respect they are a business, they want people to have fun and gamble responsibly. I genuinely believe that.
I do get angry at the adverts from firms that don't promote gambling responsibly and just rinsed my when I wasn't well. Just because I have a problem with it doesn't mean other people shouldn't be allowed to do it.
That is all.
Drama.
I know what you are saying Llama but I used to get messages on the screen all the time showing the horrendous amount I had put in. This firm you mention would have had to be pretty special to enforce proper blocks.
Ive never seen anyone do it properly because I just ignored all their automated half hearted attempts. Perhaps someone coming over and actually caring would have worked but they were the most two faced uncaring people in my local gambling dens.
Lets face it....... all the staff give a monkeys about is getting through the month and getting some pay...the staff dont really want us winning when they are on not much more than minimum wage. The owners dont want us winning either
The horrendous and patronising banter still makes me cringe...shame on them for pretending to be friends of the most addicted people."never mind (name)" have a brew...cant buy the mrs a present or go on holiday now. Mrs had enough..never mind get yourself a fancy woman" blah blah patronising blah
I didnt really want to be reminded and they never enforced limits in any effective way. Anyone watching or filming me could see I was an addict.
Why would they do anything when it affects profit,
Short of a ban it needs heavy regulation...away from town centres..signing in......strict set limits based on income or statistics. Dont ask me what to do about Online...thats a huge can of worms which should never have been given the green light
I dont go with your last lines that we are in effect the acceptable face of the addiction and shouldnt spoil the activity of others.
Thats what they want to do... put the blame on us for being naughty and out of control...all our fault sort of thing.
I think the whole thing is a lot more sinister than that and its clearly designed to be highly addictive. The problem is going exponential
Best wishes to you all
They have a duty to collect your money as an addict. All the care and stuff they tell everyone is just cosmetics for the outside world. For them, the real payday is the addict. Why do you think there are account managers calling you up giving you bonuses and other perks? VIPs are the whales for them. It works like that from Macau to Vegas to online. I have had several account managers so I know.
The message here though should not be about the obligation of the casinos or bookies but your own. Because after these years I know now that the only person who can help you is YOU. You are the only person who can stand up and step off. No one else. There are tools out there you can use but it is you who must make the decisions. No one else and we want to be taken care of. We want someone to come and lift us out of that place or yell at us and tell us to do something different but. No one is coming. No one can tell you anything
Only you. So it is time to take responsibility now.
Good luck!
They have a duty to collect your money as an addict. All the care and stuff they tell everyone is just cosmetics for the outside world. For them, the real payday is the addict. Why do you think there are account managers calling you up giving you bonuses and other perks? VIPs are the whales for them. It works like that from Macau to Vegas to online. I have had several account managers so I know.
The message here though should not be about the obligation of the casinos or bookies but your own. Because after these years I know now that the only person who can help you is YOU. You are the only person who can stand up and step off. No one else. There are tools out there you can use but it is you who must make the decisions. No one else and we want to be taken care of. We want someone to come and lift us out of that place or yell at us and tell us to do something different but. No one is coming. No one can tell you anything
Only you. So it is time to take responsibility now.
Good luck!
100% agree, no one is going to fix this for anyone but ourselves. The help is out there but it still comes down to us.
I shudder at how I played along with the online casinos and their pretending to care about any of their customers. The phone calls to me after I had made several huge deposits (each one of them more than most people earn in a month) over a period several hours of constant gambling on the same game. Are you happy with your level of gambling Mr XXX they would ask me. Yes, thanks, I would say, desperately trying not to break down in tears in case they suspended my account. That is good, they would say, don't forget you can set limits or a time out if you would like, knowing of course as an addict I never would.
I hold myself completely responsible for all my actions whilst gambling, no one held a gun to my head and made me gamble. What does upset me the most though is the way gambling is still allowed to be advertised and portrayed as this fun and harmless activity to everyone of all ages continuously. It just feels like everyone from the gambling industry, politicians, the media, the general public (every time I hear a conversation about gambling at a work or out with friends, someone knows someone with a problem) understands it is a serious problem with potentially lethal outcomes, yet we just carry on introducing fairly meaningless schemes and campaigns. Gamstop is good but the rest is fairly pointless. Feels like asking the local drug dealer to play nicely. If it is all about free choice then why do we have laws preventing advertising of tobacco or class A class drugs? Blah. I will get off my soapbox.
I guess strict limits on how much you could deposit, perhaps with a requirement for proof of income, would help.
The ban on credit cards is a big step forward in the online space - if i'd not been able to max out 5 credit cards on sites then my debt wouldnt have been so large. But then I could have withdrawn cash from them at the ATM and loaded the cash to my current account with the same outcome, though at least there would have been a daily withdrawl to rein it in.
Maybe the banks need to step in and say that they wont allow gambling transactions over a certain amount - difficult to get agreement on.
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