Gambling addiction..

posturingpat wrote: »

In a pub if someone is drunk out of their minds, the barperson is not allowed serve them anymore by law. In a bookies if a member of staff refused to take a bet off a customer because they had lost too much they'd be looking for a new job i suspect.

I've been told in Australia they can tell someone to **** off if they feel a punter is too drunk or when their stakes become erratic if they're a regular.

Not that they should have to though. Most of the time the people behind the counter are just kids. I don't think they should have to get involved like that with a punter who may react in any number of ways.

It's sh1t when you're in the height of it and I'm speaking from experience in saying that, but at the end of day we need to take responsibility for ourselves.

I was in a bookies on Friday evening to place a bet on the Scottish champion hurdle. Was a decent sized bet each way on a horse to win about a grand if it won. I had to wait for about 5-10mins while the staff faffed about on the phone calling head office doing the usual ****e.
Meanwhile there was a guy in there drunk out of his mind dropping 20s and 50s on dogs/virtual dogs/american racing/virtual racing anything he could get his hands on.
Not a bother to them taking his bets. He dropped at least 250 while I was there and I'm not sure if he had a winner.

Absolutely sickening stuff really.
They eventually took the bet and I said to them when I was leaving that if it was that guy I wouldn't have had to wait to long. The staff looked a bit embarrassed but I doubt they gave a **** really.

I watched this one day on a youtube TED talk binge i was having. If anyone has 20 minutes its well worth a watch.

The Rise and Fall of a gambling addict. Fairly frightening what this guy was doing to have a bet. Hard to relate to but its certainly interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AN3VLLlkdI

Johner wrote: »

I've ordered that book, has anyone read it? I'm also currently reading Cathal McCarron's book. I've struggled for around 10 years myself now with addiction. I've stolen from family members, lost girlfriends and fallen out with nearly everybody I know over it.

I've found GA meetings haven't helped me at all. I'm self excluded from every bookie there is now apart from one. I haven't been able to bring myself to close the final one and I know nothing will start to change until I do. Online is the real killer for me, I find it harder to part with say €50 in a shop but online I have done multiple bet's on the football/horses of €1,000 without blinking which is just crazy considering I wouldn't dream of that in a shop. I put €1,000 on a horse called Kandinski a few years ago in a maiden hurdle at Ballinrobe. :rolleyes: Needless to say it came second and it was the most horrible feeling I've ever experienced.

I only back the odd horse now but I'm still backing far too much football. My problem used to be if I watched a horse race and a horse I fancied won and I hadn't backed in the race I would get pissed off that I didn't have anything on it.

Fair play Johner for being so honest. TBH I'm still in the throes of it more than I've cared to admit. Only 31 and no debt thankfully but still, I've very little to show for my age and I put that down to my gambling and drinking. I'm not in any way deluded about it; I am a sh1t gambler. Still hasn't got me to the stage though that I'm going to change the away I do things.

I'd probably put myself down as a gambling addict too although I controlled it myself without ever having to tell anyone. Never stole or was never in debt thank God but definitely felt the emptiness of it all and the ridiculous betting patterns of an addict. Lied to family and friends over it mad. I'd be a bottler about things in general, you'd never know what was going on in my mind although I realise it is an awful way to be. Every weekend someone would say "any luck today" and I'd say "no only had the one bet" when in reality I'd have thirty of forty. You could never really tell if I won or lost money. One Saturday at work I won 4000 and didn't tell a soul, I probably didn't even smile. I probably had to re-deposit into that account a few days later.

Punting hundreds on South American third division football late at night, betting on things like cricket without having the foggiest of ideas of the rules. Betting hundreds @1.1 for a tennis player to hold their serve. Never went down the virtual betting route besides maybe throwing a fiver on it on a very boring day but that was once in the blue moon. I feel so sorry for people who actually bet on those regularly.

I'd spend hours in work picking bets out instead of working. My analysis was good, still is mind you but it wasn't until I copped on many thousands lost later that I realised the game is rigged from the get go more often than not. I always knew about value betting and bank roll management but it wasn't until I learned about overround and the mighty uphill battle that you face versus the bookies that cooled by gambling down a little.

But yeah it definitely affected me hard. Getting angry at others for no reason, simply because my mind was so frazzled by gambling losses and thinking how I'd get it back. Social life turns to ****, even the times you were out it was filled with thoughts of betting. "Jesus I forgot to put a bet on the Aussie soccer in the morning" at 4am. I'd definitely be one of those people that would get angry for not betting on something when you felt like it would win. I'd easily place 100 bets a day back in the peak degen days and I'd have more picks shortlisted that I wouldn't follow through on...and if they won they'd hurt the most that I didn't follow through on my gut and that would just lead me to betting more and more.

Wins felt like nothing, not even relief, just more to add to the balance in the top right corner to punt away. I hated betting shops, hated the sight of seeing old lads shaking with the stress of years and years of gambling away their wages and pensions and thought "I'm not one of them". Yet I'd be there at lunch time casually placing hundreds on an in play game on who'd get the next corner whilst pretending to have a laugh with the lads over work chatter. Lads would be talking about not being able to afford something worth 100 hundred quid for their kid whereas I'm placing 500 on some random lad in a Tennis youth tournament. Insanity. The money just isn't real on that screen.

I worked in an office where lots of others bet which didn't help. The rare day you wouldn't feel like betting on something, someone at work would have got a tip, you'd tail and while you were at it you'd spot another ten bets you'd like. I lost count of times the lads would say "did you bet on that as well?" and I'd just nod and smile, trying to hide the anger and sadness inside me for losing another one. Thinking back on it I was probably one of the better bettors, only that I was using much bigger stakes so I was the one who was crippled. Often I'd have the weeks wages punted off by Monday afternoon. Imagine having to work a whole week only to be still down money for the week because you punted it off on some stupid Chinese friendly game on a Monday morning. I still shake my head thinking back to the days of myself telling my brain "sure its fine your wages will cover that loss".

I'd say the thing that woke me up from my daze was one Christmas. I had just over 8k in my account at the start of the month that would do nicely for a lovely Christmas, presents, going out, general life expenses etc. with plenty left to start the new year nicely and still have enough to bet. A week before Christmas I'd less than 100 pound...no presents bought and no rent paid as it was due on the last week on the month. I can still feel the heat of the redness from my face when the error message came up on the deposit screen and then checking Open24 and seeing I was skint. In a way it would be better that I'd go broke as it would have saved me some hassle down the line but somehow I managed to spin up 100 into 4 grand and cover my arse. Once Christmas and rent was covered I blew the rest of course. Its a story I have since told many people and the mixture of reactions, both from utter disgust and shock to respect is amazing. I am both ashamed to death and proud of that month, but it is something I hope I never have to do again.

But yeah that was a thorn in the side of my gambling. I slowly started to fall out of love with it, couldn't catch a break in the footie and I didn't have enough money to punt big on things like Boxing and Tennis. Studying about odds and over round and the exchanges definitely helped me, I went from using Paddy Power as my main bookie to barely using them at all now unless a special comes up. Since January I've placed less then 20 bets with a bookie I'd say, a flutter at Cheltenham or on a Boxing fight, things the normal lad does with his tenner on a weekend after a hard week's work. Fine and healthy sort of betting really. How I got to that stage is a bit fuzzy tbh, but I went cold turkey for a long time, just by uninstalling the apps and emptying the accounts seemed to work for me. I was murder for having my paypal topped up as it meant easy deposits and nothing on the bank statement so I had to even stop using that for buying worthwhile things online as temptation would have been too great.

It is a huge problem in the country and in the world. I'd still follow a lot of betting forums and the like, more so because I have grown to love how odds are made and I am studying about Betfair trading so learning about the market's feelings and that is enlightening and I see anger and depression and gambling problems everywhere. Reddit's betting forums are especially humbling as you'd see a username very active for a month or two before he disappears only to resurface again saying he was broke and had to quit. In reality he's stopped until he gets more money to start again.

I must grab a hold of that Cathal McCarron book, I really enjoyed the interviews he gave when it came out.

Johner wrote: »

I've ordered that book, has anyone read it?

Yes. I read the Tony O'Reilly book.
In my opinion he knew nothing about sport, and spent no time assessing odds.
At one stage O'Reilly ran €5k up to €462k over about two days. He got a call at work from his bookmaker saying that as the website was down he could phone in his bets. A day later he had lost the €462k in about 30 bets.
His typical bet was ~ €10k on a five event accumulator, perhaps a couple of soccer matches in Malaysia or Turkey, a tennis match, a horse race, and a basketball game. All his selections appeared to be on heavy odds on chances.

It seems they are very close to lowering the FOBTs in the UK to a £2 stake with news this morning that MP Philip Hammond has accepted a proposal.
A bunch of bookies share prices have also dropped 10%+ in light of the news.