Quickest way you've seen someone ruin their life?

Gambling. Crypto, stocks, casinos, sportsbook.

Addiction in general is so destructive, but (could get chewed out for this), you can only drink so much, for example, before your body rejects it... you can literally gamble right down until every penny you've ever had is lost, and then you can tap up the bank to help you get some bankroll to try win it all back.

By the time anyone who could help knows about it, like a partner, they too could be unaware that their own financial situation has been decimated.

But Paddy makes hilarious ads, so it's just fun

….get some help right now, oh ive seen this in a more advanced state, its not good, plenty of gambling supports out there, did you have a difficult childhood, as this is a common issue with such addictions?

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/against-the-rules/episode-10-anybody-can-win-but-everybodys-gonna-lose

Interesting insight into the industry.

Shower of bastards

Ive seen a few of those traffic stop videos escalating into situations that should have gotten to that level. I'd think that in a lot of cases the judge could be lenient and or the person has a chance to rebuild their reputation.

In relation to destructive behaviours I'd agree fully with all those putting gambling to the top of the list. I've seen it destroy some many individuals and families and unfortunately its worse it is getting. Once upon a time you could only gamble in a certain type of establishment that had set opening times and had some level of simplicity to them. Nowadays every town and village has at least one of these places but of course worse again, 24/7/365 online access to thousands of sites with various different ways to lose money, and again not just the time limited sports books but virtual, casino slots and table games also.

The normalisation of these sites via advertising to the point that young people are getting driven towards them will lead to significant issues down the line.

A lot of the casino type sites are aimed specifically at younger people.

The activities of these sites leaves lots to be desired also. Verification only occurs when you wish to withdraw funds, additional hoops to jump through when withdrawing and slow withdrawal processes all make them scumbags attempting to make it easy to start and continue to deposit but difficult to withdraw.

As others have said you will continue to spend money chasing the impossible until you have robbed your own family, leading onto anxiety, sleepless nights and far far worse.

I don't believe the state do anywhere near enough to police gambling and it is something that requires significant enhancement on, cries of nanny state or not, the state needs to protect it's citizens from these practices!

To anyone dealing with this addiction, my heart goes out to you.

neighbour of my grandparents. Got an award for saving someone’s life in a near drowning , then ended up in the joy himself for killing someone. He died in the joy in 2022. In the papers years before he was photographed in his tux at the award night… how things unraveled. 😵‍💫

from a newspaper…

“pleaded guilty to manslaughter but a jury found him guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict following a week-long trial the previous month.”

“Xxxxx had been awarded an Irish Water Safety Award in 2000 after he and another man pulled a Bus Eireann driver from the River Liffey.”

“He had helped lift the unconscious driver from a submerged section of the bus after it crashed through a wall at Butt Bridge.”

So literally saved a person from dying, then subsequently murders someone else and dies in the joy.

I knew this fella he rammed his life into the ground fairly quickly

https://www.thejournal.ie/cork-garda-ramming-stolen-truck-grand-theft-auto-6625880-Feb2025/

Nah, was because they went against Israel. Had they said nothing about Gaza none of the Tory stuff would have been brought up.

Oh yeah, and neither is shouting support for terrorist organisations but none of that would be being splashed all over newspapers, tv or radio if they hadn’t gone so far against Israel in the States.

We all cheered and said "good job" when the UK locked up people who were encouraging riots and hate speech on Twitter last summer.

Either its ok to tell people to go and kill, or it isn't.

Cheating. A one night stand can torpedo your whole life, esp if you are married with kids, mortgage etc.