Gambling addiction

[Kona]

Read up about 12 step programs. Most of them are complete bullshit nowadays.

Then reason they have been successful (the numbers are actually shockingly low) is because they are the only option out there. Those people would have probably quit whatever it is anyway.

Read about the 13th step. Number one, that's when a senior member withers rips off new people for money, rapes them, or does some hint generally bad. The thirteenth step happening to an alcoholic is more likely than them getting sober. When you factor in the amount of people required by courts to go there, that number is understandable. If a violent criminal mentions alcohol in any way at all, a judge will throw mandatory AA into their probation. Crazy.

The other side to the 13th step goes back to bill w. The whole premise of AA is that without it, you are going to die. Tragedy is on the way.

When they used to build hanging gallows they had twelve steps up, and the last one was the hanging itself. So 12 steps up, but if you fail the last step is death.

They created another addiction, AA itself. Watch out dudes.

Aloha!

 

[medicine man:]

Read up about 12 step programs. Most of them are complete bullshit nowadays.

Then reason they have been successful (the numbers are actually shockingly low) is because they are the only option out there. Those people would have probably quit whatever it is anyway.

Read about the 13th step. Number one, that's when a senior member withers rips off new people for money, rapes them, or does some hint generally bad. The thirteenth step happening to an alcoholic is more likely than them getting sober. When you factor in the amount of people required by courts to go there, that number is understandable. If a violent criminal mentions alcohol in any way at all, a judge will throw mandatory AA into their probation. Crazy.

The other side to the 13th step goes back to bill w. The whole premise of AA is that without it, you are going to die. Tragedy is on the way.

When they used to build hanging gallows they had twelve steps up, and the last one was the hanging itself. So 12 steps up, but if you fail the last step is death.

They created another addiction, AA itself. Watch out dudes.

Aloha!

i concur with almost EVERYTHING you wrote, KONA. out of DOZENS of people who have been to VARIOUS AA programs (NA and such included) i've met a total of ONE who has MADE IT due to the program.

 

[Kid Twist]

Much more distractions and bad inputs from the outside likely make AA programs less likely to succeed in recent years compared to day, 25-30 years ago.

 

[mikado]

I am becoming slowly addicted to betting. At a point I was getting 50 euros a day (1/30 of my month salary) so I was looking forward to double my salary. The thing is that I am actually quite good at predicting matches. The problem is that when I get it right, most of the time I did not bet a lot. When I gamble more is where I lose most often.

Right now I am barely at +0, and I will make sure I never go below that.

 

[Troller]

There´s too many factors. This is like speculating in stocks. There are so many factors you can´t predict everything.

A lunatic in Florida was going to bomb Target supermarkets just to buy the stock cheaper. You could have made all the technical analysis you wanted. How could you predict this?

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/af06e3c...8b4af6f3/ss_feds:-florida-man-planned-to.html

This is for sports gambling.

Casino is just for pure suckers. Or geniuses who can count cards.

 

[rafaeld]

By the way Dostoyesky was also a gambler, he would go to a casino and loose all of his money purposly so he could write again. That's how he forced himself to be creative again.

:mindblown3:

 

[medicine man:]

What about the stock market?

I don't know if that's a good idea. It's no different than the casino.

it's not a good idea - the op needs to get OFF the adrenaline roller-coaster - and switching to "methadone" ain't gonna work long-term - but stock market is SO NOT like a casino. ever heard of michael burry?

 

[asdfk]

Michael Burry is the 0.01%. He made a fortune by making bets that assume everyone else is wrong. OP is more likely to belong to "everyone else" then being the new Michael Bury, and he should kick his gambling habit before he tries to disprove this.

I know more people who lost a lot of money in the stock market then through betting. And I spent many hours in casinos and private games.

Not saying Op shouldn't invest. But if he does, let it be for the right reasons.

 

[medicine man:]

Michael Burry is the 0.01%. He made a fortune by making bets that assume everyone else is wrong. OP is more likely to belong to "everyone else" then being the new Michael Bury, and he should kick his gambling habit before he tries to disprove this.

I know more people who lost a lot of money in the stock market then through betting. And I spent many hours in casinos and private games.

Not saying Op shouldn't invest. But if he does, let it be for the right reasons.

i agree that burry is TOP-NOTCH - or i wouldn't mention him - but i don't feel like he was making "bets". he actually saw the TRUTH of housing market crash and cashed in on it. there was no "betting" involved.

i'm also positive that the op should stay away from trading. i brought up michael burry to counteract the common "survivorship bias" refrain.

 

[mogsy]

Hi,

Similar to yourself I used to play online blackjack but also everything else, mostly lost of course in the long run and had a few larger losses I could have done without.

The gambling industry is big and they know how to attract people to play and of course the games are designed to get people coming back, some people are more likely to come back more than others, of course society then call these people for better or worse addicts. Another perspective could be that these addicts are people who like the thrill of winning and like to take risks to gain wealth and improve their lives, as man created money it can be far to easy to go from spending £1 on a fruit machine to losing £2k in a night without any immediate consequence to your life, this is what makes it hard to stop.

I would forget the stock market if your looking for a short term thrill unless you have the capital and want to do it full time as things like day trading can destroy your funds if your inexperienced, especially with low amounts as you can often get caught up in fees.

What I would suggest is shifting your focus and the energy that you put into gambling, into something else like a business, if your losing your money every month and living paycheck to paycheck. Here is a simple example, how about this month you invest all your money that you would have gambled into some products that you can try to sell for a profit, its a gamble if your just getting started but that is why your here!

The buying and reselling is just one thing you can start but what I have found from people who have been addicted to gambling, is that they often have a drive if pushed in the right direction can change that energy into something positive.

Hope this helps, if you become rich from this let me know

 

[mogsy]

Michael Burry is the 0.01%. He made a fortune by making bets that assume everyone else is wrong. OP is more likely to belong to "everyone else" then being the new Michael Bury, and he should kick his gambling habit before he tries to disprove this.

I know more people who lost a lot of money in the stock market then through betting. And I spent many hours in casinos and private games.

Not saying Op shouldn't invest. But if he does, let it be for the right reasons.

Yes exactly right, he was in a position to make those bets which the average joe will not be in.

If you have a large amount of money to invest, have experience in the field, contacts and know how everything works then a calculated bet/invest can work out, but for everyone else it is a gamble.

 

[Rossi]

How do you guys gamble on online? I see some people playing blackjack or poker online. In the end, computer give you the hands. How do you know that there's no cheating?

 

[Sidney Crosby]

I lost 4k on a hockey bet, haven't gambled much since and that was over 5 years ago. I learned a lesson, although I must admit I do like gambling. I plan to gamble a bit in the future but only a couple times a year.

 

[Off The Reservation]

I get this strong troll / been here before indication. In two days OP goes from "addicted" to agreeing to quit cold turkey, and will replace it with "game." Ok good luck then...

OP says he spends all his checks down to zero on gambling. So from this we can infer he is living off someone else such as parents. The actions make the value of the work zero. So maybe you don't owe the cage any money but you repudiate your own value and throw away the fruit of your work. This is not adrenaline.

Real gambling addicts as far as i understand it are addicted to losing, not to some "adrenaline." If you are an adrenaline junkie I'll see you down at the track or the luge, to drive not to gamble.

This observation about gamblers wanting to lose was first made by James Dines in the book Mass Psychology.

http://www.financialsense.com/node/7493

Here is another article:

http://www.whywesuffer.com/problem-gamblers-are-addicted-to-losing/

 

[Curunír]

My vice used to be online poker (NL Texas Holdem) but I didn't really call it gambling back then. Back in the heyday around 2006-2008 it was honestly like printing money. Easy $$$. Anyway, as the competition got more fierce my bankroll management slowly went out the window. I started losing a lot chasing those big paydays that used to come easily. Long story short I managed to get pretty much my whole identity caught up in this idea of becoming a professional online poker player. Several of my friends ended up dropping out of college to pursue this dream with disastrous results. When it was good it was good but the downswings were brutal. Definitely possible to be profitable over the long term if your disciplined, but the stress was eating me alive not to mention fueling all my other vices like partying. Drink away a big loss, celebrate a big win, etc. No way to live. It takes a special kind of person to succeed in that world and to be able to grind it out day after day without imploding. Even among the most disciplined players, the addictive nature of the sport along with the allure of the big win will cause almost everyone to self destruct and go bankrupt in the end.

The only people I have ever known to be successful longterm in poker are those who are being staked by investors. Playing with someone else's money takes a lot of stress out of the equation and adds a layer of accountability which helps one practice discipline and proper bankroll management. Although, in order to get to the point where someone will stake you is a long road in and of itself and often involves quite a lot of luck.

One thing you should know about playing blackjack, roulette, and slots on the online casinos is that it is quite literally lighting your money on fire. It used to be a well known fact among the online grinders in the poker community that the casino games were heavily rigged. Despite what the sites will tell you these games are not random chance like they'd have you believe. Most of them have carefully engineered algorithms designed to cheat/screw you out of your money. Due to the lack of regulations in the online industry there is simply no accountability and thus no reason for them to practice integrity. I remember back when Party Poker was still around I decided to play the black tables and all was good for a while, slowly winning money. As soon as I decided to up the stakes, BAM the worst bad luck streak ever. If I remember right, the odds were less than 1% of having a losing streak that bad by chance alone but somehow in a matter of about 15 minutes I managed to burn through over $2000 on $100 and $200 bets. That was a wakeup call.

At least in online poker you could be pretty certain in most cases that the house wasn't screwing you. They just took their little cut out of every pot and were satisfied with that. Even then you still had the problems of bots infiltrating the games every now and then, or rogue staff who had cheating software that allowed them to see other players cards. In addition, you had the fact that some of these sites would just randomly ban players and steal their money without any notice or justifiable explanation. Even Full Tilt which was well regarded in the online community turned out to have a giant shady pyramid scheme going on behind the scenes, and a lot of people got screwed back in 2011 when Black Friday happened.

Online gaming really is like the wild west man so tread carefully. If after all this you still find you must gamble, do yourself a favor and go to a real life brick and mortar casino to hit the blackjack table. At least then you can be guaranteed you are getting a fair shake even though you will probably still end up losing.

Amazing post, I can relate with all you said about poker.

I've been gambling since I was 13, now in my 30's.

Played a lot of poker, break even player live (2-5 NL), terrible player online.

Lost thousands of hours, also played heavily blackjack and roulette, but kind of had good streaks, so I did not lose too much, more in poker.

My question to you: Do you still play poker sometimes?

Can one renounce to poker definitely?

It's such a tough game to beat.

 

[kavi]

I have a bit of a poker 'problem' too. Been playing almost three years and very much a losing player (though things are improving and I am frequently up but just find it hard to leave the table and then tend to tilt it off). Biggest issue is that I am trying to start a business atm and that cash is so important as I need to sign a shop lease and need working capital. I have just about enough to d what I need to do for my business barring any major problems. I have just told myself to see Poker as an expensive hobby and for now probs just play like once a month for 100bbs on 1-2. I find it is much more enjoyable that way where you do not have the pressure to win.

 

[WhatTheFuck]

...

Amazing post, I can relate with all you said about poker.

I've been gambling since I was 13, now in my 30's.

Played a lot of poker, break even player live (2-5 NL), terrible player online.

Lost thousands of hours, also played heavily blackjack and roulette, but kind of had good streaks, so I did not lose too much, more in poker.

My question to you: Do you still play poker sometimes?

Can one renounce to poker definitely?

It's such a tough game to beat.

Since I got offline I still play home games occasionally, but that's more for fun than anything. I'm talking like .25c/.50c games. I don't really play anything higher than that because I can't stomach the losses anymore. Losing more than a hundred dollars in a game makes me sick these days.

I did have a brief return to online poker a few years back when I moved to New Zealand and could get on Pokerstars again. What I found was that the competition has gotten ridiculous. Without the American players, the market has been flooded with third world grinders that take the low stakes games incredibly seriously and have really raised the bar. I didn't even fuck with the higher stakes games. I also don't think I was playing at the same level I used to being out of practice, but man I was getting crushed.

I still love poker though and doubt I'll ever give it up entirely.

Every once in a while I'll get a craving to play some tourneys and throw $50 on Bovada to fuck around with for a few days in some low stakes mtt's, but I don't expect much out of it. Honestly, I don't even trust that their games are legit since I can't see the player names it's ripe for corruption and cheating...but I have to say I am positive on that site overall, both in poker and sports betting and they've always payed me out. Got a few thousand off Trump's win there back in November. Their casino games are definitely rigged though that's an instant loss if you mess with those.

Now that I am back living in my hometown a lot of my old crew still lives here and being the bunch of degenerates we are we've been known to gamble on literally anything. Anytime we get together there will definitely be some low stakes bets going down on something, normally whatever activity we happen to be doing. Our new thing is bowling actually. Once a week we get together to bowl like 6 or 7 games and throw some money down, proves to be a lot of fun.

 

[asdfk]

When you play in a casino, you are betting against an opponent who has made the rules.

It's beta to be a gambler. It's alpha to be the casino.

 

[MX90]

My vice is poker. Specifically live low limit 1/2 and 2/5.

For many years I was a consistent winning player but for the past few I've been slightly below breakeven. It's easy to blame it on variance but the truth is I just have a hard time leaving the table. Another factor is that the room I play now has set hours. The disciplined regs hit and run or are results oriented. I tend to stay till the bitter end and get sucked into the inevitable donk fest for the last hour the room is open. This is the biggest leak in my game which I'm working on.

To the poster above. Poker is the only casino game where your opponent has no built in statistical advantage. In fact it's the only game where you can place a bet knowing you will win the pot with absolute certainty. As for the rake, I view it as cost of doing business. A small seat rental fee.

 

[jamaicabound]

I was really into gambling when I was younger, these days I work too hard for my money with it to piss it away, especially on an outcome I have no control over.

Have you tried to figure out what's at the root of it? Is it a love for the risk or adrenaline or is it wanting to make money?

IF it's wanting to make money I would try to funnel that energy into an actual business where you actually have control over the outcome.