Liverpool City Council Ban FOBTs In Betting Shops

[Im_Rodger]

It's the same if someone steals from the company as well. 

The company will do everything they can to get the person to walk rather than get any sort of formal action taken against the employee. 

[19QOS19]

Addiction works in the same way, regardless of what you’re addicted to. To simply state that people who are addicted to gambling should just quit is as equally ridiculous as suggesting heroin addicts should just quit.

It really isn't. Substance addiction is physical as well for a start. Quiting gambling for a week won't give the user a week of physical hell. Going cold turkey from heroin is also very dangerous, quiting gambling doesn't have that risk.

As I say, that wasn't the point I was making anyway.

[ICTChris]

38 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

You’re supposed to refuse service to people who show signs of problem gambling but someone can sit there losing thousands without any obvious outward signs of distress. Everyone’s idea of distress varies as well. Someone might see swearing at a machine as a sign and others will wait until they’re flipping the machines over.

I've been in casinos where people have dropped hundreds and possibly thousands of pounds on absolutely nonsensical bets but appear non-plussed.  

[Im_Rodger]

Also there is no way of telling if someone is spending money that isn't their own or if someones just rich as f**k. 

 

 

[ayrmad]

4 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

 

Addiction works in the same way, regardless of what you’re addicted to. To simply state that people who are addicted to gambling should just quit is as equally ridiculous as suggesting heroin addicts should just quit.

 

It's easy to quit when you truly want to, the hard part is getting to that point, his post was indeed ridiculous, people have this misconception that drugs like heroin are somehow more addictive or harder to get off, by it's very nature I'd be shocked if there isn't some chemical or other making me feel like a million dollars everytime I punted.

There's not a person on the planet saw me walking down the street and thought "look at the state that guy, he's just punted his brains out".

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

 

It really isn't. Substance addiction is physical as well for a start. Quiting gambling for a week won't give the user a week of physical hell. Going cold turkey from heroin is also very dangerous, quiting gambling doesn't have that risk.

As I say, that wasn't the point I was making anyway.

 

Adrenalin addiction is a physical thing.

[Guest bernardblack]

These machines should be banned altogether.

Bookies talking about shop closures and staff losses is outrageous...they've preyed and made millions on these people playing on these for years.

[vikingTON]

Just now, ayrmad said:

people have this misconception that drugs like heroin are somehow more addictive or harder to get off

That's not even remotely a misconception - the direct chemical pathways for a drug like heroin are much, much more powerful than those for indirect behavioural addictions like gambling. They are therefore far more addictive, harder to get off and carry a risk of serious physical harm.

[19QOS19]

It's easy to quit when you truly want to, the hard part is getting to that point, his post was indeed ridiculous, people have this misconception that drugs like heroin are somehow more addictive or harder to get off, by it's very nature I'd be shocked if there isn't some chemical or other making me feel like a million dollars everytime I punted.
There's not a person on the planet saw me walking down the street and thought "look at the state that guy, he's just punted his brains out".

Except it wasn't. Going by your posts I assume you've been in the unfortunate position of being addicted to gambling.

If it's not too personal, can you explain what physical side effects you had when you first quit, to shoot down my ridiculous point?

[WullieBroonIsGod]

I genuinely feel for the staff asked to single man betting shops, often in areas of high depravation, til 10pm.

 

This is a bit of a horror read.  The bookmakers care only for profit - f**k them. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/31/big-gamble-dangerous-british-betting-shops

[ICTChris]

Bookies should offer gamblers heroin if they are losign too much on the FOBTs.

#solutions #blueskythinking 

[vikingTON]

14 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Adrenalin addiction is a physical thing.

Go skydiving then. 

[SlipperyP]

Bookies should offer gamblers heroin if they are losign too much on the FOBTs.
#solutions #blueskythinking 

Speed, they do, was not free coffee given to punters before? Definitely happens in Vegas

[DA Baracus]

22 minutes ago, WullieBroonIsGod said:

I genuinely feel for the staff asked to single man betting shops, often in areas of high depravation, til 10pm.

 

This is a bit of a horror read.  The bookmakers care only for profit - f**k them. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/31/big-gamble-dangerous-british-betting-shops

Yup. They don't want to help anyone out, which is why the suggestions made earlier in this thread (page or so ago) would have never even been discussed. They don't take any action unless forced to.

Also there comes a point where jobs aren't worth lives. So if a few folk unfortunately lose their jobs then it's a price worth paying. They don't need to lose their jobs of course, but folk in charge won't be making as big a profit (they'll still of course be making a huge profit) overall, so they'd rather fire folk than lose a wee bit of money they don't need.

[ICTChris]

Just now, SlipperyP said:

Speed, they do, was not free coffee given to punters before? Definitely happens in Vegas

I'm sure you get free drink ifyou are gambling in Vegas.  What could go wrong?

I used to work with a guy who was a gambling addict/problem gambler, he blew every penny he had on a trip to your neck of the woods - had an argument with his partner, then took off on holiday to Thailand and spent three weeks drinking, shagging hookers and gambling until he was cleaned out.  He was off work sick for six months and when he came back he worked every overtime shift he could but was back to gambling.  I was working with him one day and he had a coupon on with Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen to win, he'd put £1,500 on it.  Also, a few years before he'd won a massive bet, I think he won £25,000 but ended up blowing it all in a couple of months.

As well as gambling, he loved hookers and would incessantly talk about them, I'm not sure the bets/hooker split on his money losses. 

[ayrmad]

28 minutes ago, virginton said:

That's not even remotely a misconception - the direct chemical pathways for a drug like heroin are much, much more powerful than those for indirect behavioural addictions like gambling. They are therefore far more addictive, harder to get off and carry a risk of serious physical harm.

I think you'll find that gambling addicts and drug addicts have very similar pathways and deficiencies, the only part that is different is the come down, people have this weird notion that giving up gambling is easy because you're putting nothing in your body and drugs are hard to kick because the opposite is true, that may well be fairly accurate in the early years of addiction but it's not the case after decades of abuse.

[SlipperyP]

I'm sure you get free drink ifyou are gambling in Vegas.  What could go wrong?
I used to work with a guy who was a gambling addict/problem gambler, he blew every penny he had on a trip to your neck of the woods - had an argument with his partner, then took off on holiday to Thailand and spent three weeks drinking, shagging hookers and gambling until he was cleaned out.  He was off work sick for six months and when he came back he worked every overtime shift he could but was back to gambling.  I was working with him one day and he had a coupon on with Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen to win, he'd put £1,500 on it.  Also, a few years before he'd won a massive bet, I think he won £25,000 but ended up blowing it all in a couple of months.
As well as gambling, he loved hookers and would incessantly talk about them, I'm not sure the bets/hooker split on his money losses. 

Gambling is illegal in Thailand, unless he was he was in the know how. Witch most tourist are not, I call bullshit. If he did know, it with
Snakes and no change of him winning even if did.

[ICTChris]

Just now, SlipperyP said:

Gambling is illegal in Thailand, unless he was he was in the know how. Witch most tourist are not, I call bullshit. If he did know, it with
Snakes and no change of him winning even if did.

Must've just been the hookers he blew his cash on then.  He certainly talked about them enough.

[ayrmad]

Redefining compulsive gambling as an addiction is not mere semantics: therapists have already found that pathological gamblers respond much better to medication and therapy typically used for addictions rather than strategies for taming compulsions such as trichotillomania. For reasons that remain unclear, certain antidepressants alleviate the symptoms of some impulse-control disorders; they have never worked as well for pathological gambling, however. Medications used to treat substance addictions have proved much more effective. Opioid antagonists, such as naltrexone, indirectly inhibit brain cells from producing dopamine, thereby reducing cravings.

[SlipperyP]

Must've just been the hookers he blew his cash on then.  He certainly talked about them enough.

Correct. Lads have many excuses where their money goes when they come to Thailand...gambling is not one.