Gambling

LegacyUser

this could probably go in gambling forum but wanted to go unreged

Well to make a long story short i feel myself getting more fond of gambling lately.
I don't have very large bills but I find that on average I can gamble over half my wage every week with very little success many people Ive talked to believe that this would be classed as a problem. Now I have asked myself those questions on the GA website but am undecided.
Basically what Im wondering is would someone have a gambling problem if they could afford to lose the money but still feel that they always feel the need to gamble.

jhegarty

See if you can go a month without making a bet. How long you last will tell you alot.

alantc

Spend the money on courses on playing poker and start playing big money tournaments.

cooperla

alantc wrote: »

Spend the money on courses on playing poker and start playing big money tournaments.

Not really good advice IMO.

For every person who manages to make a living out of gambling there are dozens or hundreds who's life's are seriously damaged with it.

OP: If you feel like you need to gamble and never have any real success with it, then you need to give this some serious thoughts.

Whether or not you can afford to lose the money isn't what determines if you're addicted as far as I'm concerned. For me, it's what goes through your head. For example, do you find that you try and justify gambling before you do it? And what do you thing about after you lose?

Good luck

alantc

alantc wrote: »

Spend the money on courses on playing poker and start playing big money tournaments.

this is personal issues....




try and not play for a month as said above.. i went through a big addiction and eventually had to quit cause it was taking over my life. playing 4 tables 10 hours a day took it's toll.

i think the best thing to do is draw a line in the sand and just decide to stop. that's what i did eventually and now since i've started earning money, i only play maybe every two months.

dudara

Infraction awarded to alantc for blatantly unhelpful advice to someone seeking advice about a potential addiction.

dudara

pseudonym1

Gambeling IME one of the worst addictions it does not manifest itself like drugs or alcohol and cannot see the physical effects so much but it gradually takes over your mind and life - like any addiction induces behaviour that misrepresents the person.

Dangerous road my friend! That you are aware of it is positive though. Cease it while and if you can. If not you need to enlist help. Do you bet on line in casinos or betting offices???

Like any addiction you need to change lifestyle routine people and places with which you assocaite your vice. Take up something new swimming jogging etc.

One month is great advice maybe even try one day - it works!!
Luck and hope in your direction.

estar

start a gambling profit and loss account. invest two hundred euro and try and make this last a year. when your two hundred euro is gone your gambling company is bust and you cant invest again until next year.

if this discipline proves hard, then it is more likely you are emotionally invested in the outcome of the gamble rather than financially invested. which is a place i personally woudlnt want to even contemplate being.

newestUser

Most bookies run an overround of, oooh, 9-13% (betting exchanges, 1%-5% depending on their comission). This means that, betting randomly, just picking bets with no logic attached to your decision process, will result in you losing 9-13% of what you stake. So, if you stake 10000 euro, you will *probably* lose somewhere between 900 and 1300 euro. Bookies and exchanges are very accurate at estimating the probabilities of outcomes in sporting events. Arguably, you could budget for your gambling losses with as much accuracy as you could budget for your electricity bill. As long as you stick to level stakes (ie don't vary how much you stake) over a statistically significant number of bets, you'd have to be either exceptionally unlucky or have found some kind of system that alters the 'expectation' of your bets (the percentage of your stakes that will be returned to you over time).

If you have *any* positive expectation to your betting over a statistically significant number of bets (thousands), you could expect to be very, very rich in a short time. You don't have to be betting big money to see how much your returns are.

Just bet small amounts, and see how you do. If this doesn't do it for you, and you think it's pointless, and no fun, you're just enjoying the thrill of winning and losing large sums of money, regardless of the fact that your betting is eventually going to make you destitute.

You may not be a problem gambler, but as I see it you're not a smart gambler. Bet small amounts. If you make 30 bets a week, each for 5 euro (150 total staked) you will probably lose 12-20 euro a week. That's not a huge amount, plenty of people do more than that on the lotto. If you can win playing for pennies, you'll win playing for pounds. Sure fock it, why not make 30 bets a week, each for 5 cent, 1 euro 50 cent total staked, 12-20 cent a week lost? Same principle. It's not about how much you win in absolute terms, it's about how much you win as a percentage of how much you stake. Doesn't matter what the absolute monetary figures are.

Bearing all this in mind, if you *still* end up losing half your wage packet every week, then yeah, you've got a problem.

This doesn't take into account the cost of your betting in terms of time. Even if you're betting 1.50 euro a week, if you lose your job, relationship, friendships because you're spending 60-70 hours a week researching your bets, you've got a problem too.

LegacyUser

As someone who is married to a gambler, please take yourself away from this routine as soon as you can.... how much worse has this habit gotten over the last 12 months for example?.... Add that amount on again to have where you are guaranteed to be this time next year, if not worse... The fact that you are seeking opinions about it, is showing that you ARE concerned with the way it's going.... It may just be you and your own paypacket now, but a gambling addiction can destroy you and those closest to you....

MrPillowTalk

dudara wrote: »

Infraction awarded to alantc for blatantly unhelpful advice to someone seeking advice about a potential addiction.

dudara

I dont think thats fair, I know of at least 3 people who have turned gambling addictions that were costing thm significant ammounts of money into relatively successful poker habits ie they went from losing their wages in the bookies to being breakeven or better poker players.

Dont get me wrong if you have a gambling problem then its probably best to just stop. However if it is not quite a problem in that you enjoy gambling and it isnt adversely affecting your life then switching from the bookies to the poker table can be an effective way to gain the same buzz without the same inevitability of failure, in that poker is a skill that to a certain extent can be learned. Yes most people will still lose but not to the same extent of the degens in the bookies.

M@21

The advice above about staying away from gambling for a month is the best.
If you cannot stay away, then try using the time you would normally spend on your gambling doing something else.
If it's poker then try the playmoney tables or stay away from the cash tables and try the more time intensive tournaments with low entry fees.

freshtodeath

Unregistered wrote: »

this could probably go in gambling forum but wanted to go unreged

Well to make a long story short i feel myself getting more fond of gambling lately.
I don't have very large bills but I find that on average I can gamble over half my wage every week with very little success many people Ive talked to believe that this would be classed as a problem. Now I have asked myself those questions on the GA website but am undecided.
Basically what Im wondering is would someone have a gambling problem if they could afford to lose the money but still feel that they always feel the need to gamble.

What is your general gambling behaviour? i.e are you losing all your money from several large bets or loads of smaller ones?

Either way, the amount that you are losing is a problem, that is not to say that you have a problem however. The constant need to gamble is not necessarily a problem if the same satisfaction can be found in a €5 bet as a €500 bet. If that's the case, the same buzz, yet not the same winnings(losses) can be achieved by toning down the amount you bet e.g. setting yourself a max betting limit per bet/day/week. If the need is driven by going after big bucks it will lead to big bets and bigger losses, and more losses chasing these losses, if your record is how you say it is. This is where you lead to problems, and in this case it's a matter of not putting the big bet on, as hard as that may be.

Summary: Try and find contention in small betting if you want to still gamble, if you feel you can't so this, you should look hard at the option of not betting at all, if this requires help from GA etc so be it...

Good Luck