robbiethemole
Well-Known Member
23/24 season so no panic yet
I'm not certain but Blair's government was behind a a lot of expansion in the gambling industry.It is always going to be problematic and unrealistic to expect bookmakers to police and control problem gamblers, given they are profit led organisations. The answer I guess would be as in some other countries for gambling to be state regulated, but non profit making, so that the gambling operators would not then have a vested interest in profiting out of addiction, but rather in identifying those with the problems and then trying to help them. The trouble is that goes against the ethos of our Government who believe in less state control and more competition, so there appears no chance of that happening anytime soon.
Plenty of working class herberts like me enjoy going to the racing
Most of us aren't addicts
But agree that things are out of control with advertising now - including the supposed anti-gambling ads
If you know most of your profits come from people who have lost control over themselves and carry on anyway you’re a c**t in my view. Just mine of course
I'm not certain but Blair's government was behind a a lot of expansion in the gambling industry.
Betting sponsors will just get replaced by Crypto sites, 2021's favourite new way to gamble.
Profits babyGood documentary tonight on BBC 1 about Paul Merson and his gambling addiction and the business model gambling companies use to entice addictors to keep depositing money and betting
Evil really deep down. Something needs to be done big time
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I watched this as well. Real eye-opener. Many, many years ago, I had a problem with gaming machines in pubs. I couldn't walk into a pub without looking around first, to see where the machines were. If someone was playing one, I'd sit cursing under my breath at them to hurry up. I'd buy a pint (in the day a pint was less than £1) and ask for my change in pound coins and 50p pieces. Then I'd put the lot into a machine. If I lost the lot I'd change another tenner, and if I won it all went back in. I once bet a whole week's wages on a single game of 3 card brag once. Lost the lot! Thankfully after about 2 years of this I saw what it was doing to my mental well-being and managed to stop. It was a scary time, believe me.Good documentary tonight on BBC 1 about Paul Merson and his gambling addiction and the business model gambling companies use to entice addictors to keep depositing money and betting
Evil really deep down. Something needs to be done big time
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I watched it and couldn't help thinking how Merson feels about his mate Stelling fronting gambling ads on TV.Good documentary tonight on BBC 1 about Paul Merson and his gambling addiction and the business model gambling companies use to entice addictors to keep depositing money and betting
Evil really deep down. Something needs to be done big time
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I used to work at William Hill while at Uni, didn't have student finance for postgrad and it fit with my hours as had early morning lectures.Evil really deep down. Something needs to be done big time
it is a difficult one - I have also had gambling problems, but i have no issue with people who do not have a problem having a bit of fun.I watched it and couldn't help thinking how Merson feels about his mate Stelling fronting gambling ads on TV.
I stooped listening to Talk Sport because of non stop advertising campaigns. Hypocrisy at its highest. One minute they're banging on about the pain of gambling addiction , followed by a bookie giving odds for the weekends games.
The whole industry stinks and breaches every ethical rule and policy that apply to most other industries. There’s a place for gambling, in moderation, for those who can afford it and enjoy it. But the current system and “regulation” is a joke.
Alcohol is my addiction and now I’m over a year in I can get by quite easily without it being shoved down my throat (not in the literal sense). I can, if I want, stay out of the pubs and avoid situations where I know there will be drinking. Advertising is nominal for the most part. No real ads in the daytime and minimal on radio and billboards etc. or maybe I just don’t notice it anymore.
Really feel for gambling addicts. Can’t watch or listen to anything sport related without having it fired at you non-stop. Temptation at your finger tips 24/7 and the companies making a concerted effort to pull you in at every opportunity with free bets and targeted marketing.
Thankfully Stella Artois and Jack Daniels never felt the need to send me freebies when I was starting out recovery.
It needs shaking up from top to bottom. Ban the adverts, massively scale down the online sites, introduce huge penalties for companies targeting customers who evidently have problems (even soft credit checks could be introduced) and make them properly risk assess anyone betting large amounts.
I’d even go as far as banning the online casinos, or at least massively scale back what people can bet. At least in a proper casino the staff can stop someone clearly on their arse (or out of their face) spunking their life savings. Not that they necessarily would.
The rules are there for fast food, tobacco, alcohol (to an extent) but none of those things can cost a family their house in the space of a few clicks. Also, you can stop eating shit/drinking/smoking when you wake up… with gambling you may already be in too deep when the penny drops, hence the shocking suicide rates.
Id like to see an avenue opened up for addicts who were targeted despite the companies having sufficient information they were problem gamblers to bring civil claims. Big ones.
The more I think and learn about the more it really fucks me off.
It's the giving gifts/freebies to known problem gamblers that really gets my goat. As you say, no other industry could get away with giving a known addict more rope. Like any self-regulated industry, they'll keep taking the piss until independent regulation is forced on them.
The Guardian wrote this over 4 years ago. Sadly not a lot has changed since -
The Guardian view on regulating gambling: don’t leave it to chance | Editorial
Editorial: Gambling addiction is ruining more and more lives. Self-regulation by the industry is not enough. The government must actwww.theguardian.com
The whole industry stinks and breaches every ethical rule and policy that apply to most other industries. There’s a place for gambling, in moderation, for those who can afford it and enjoy it. But the current system and “regulation” is a joke.
Alcohol is my addiction and now I’m over a year in I can get by quite easily without it being shoved down my throat (not in the literal sense). I can, if I want, stay out of the pubs and avoid situations where I know there will be drinking. Advertising is nominal for the most part. No real ads in the daytime and minimal on radio and billboards etc. or maybe I just don’t notice it anymore.
Really feel for gambling addicts. Can’t watch or listen to anything sport related without having it fired at you non-stop. Temptation at your finger tips 24/7 and the companies making a concerted effort to pull you in at every opportunity with free bets and targeted marketing.
Thankfully Stella Artois and Jack Daniels never felt the need to send me freebies when I was starting out recovery.
It needs shaking up from top to bottom. Ban the adverts, massively scale down the online sites, introduce huge penalties for companies targeting customers who evidently have problems (even soft credit checks could be introduced) and make them properly risk assess anyone betting large amounts.
I’d even go as far as banning the online casinos, or at least massively scale back what people can bet. At least in a proper casino the staff can stop someone clearly on their arse (or out of their face) spunking their life savings. Not that they necessarily would.
The rules are there for fast food, tobacco, alcohol (to an extent) but none of those things can cost a family their house in the space of a few clicks. Also, you can stop eating shit/drinking/smoking when you wake up… with gambling you may already be in too deep when the penny drops, hence the shocking suicide rates.
Id like to see an avenue opened up for addicts who were targeted despite the companies having sufficient information they were problem gamblers to bring civil claims. Big ones.
The more I think and learn about the more it really fucks me off.
The whole industry stinks and breaches every ethical rule and policy that apply to most other industries. There’s a place for gambling, in moderation, for those who can afford it and enjoy it. But the current system and “regulation” is a joke.
Alcohol is my addiction and now I’m over a year in I can get by quite easily without it being shoved down my throat (not in the literal sense). I can, if I want, stay out of the pubs and avoid situations where I know there will be drinking. Advertising is nominal for the most part. No real ads in the daytime and minimal on radio and billboards etc. or maybe I just don’t notice it anymore.
Really feel for gambling addicts. Can’t watch or listen to anything sport related without having it fired at you non-stop. Temptation at your finger tips 24/7 and the companies making a concerted effort to pull you in at every opportunity with free bets and targeted marketing.
Thankfully Stella Artois and Jack Daniels never felt the need to send me freebies when I was starting out recovery.
It needs shaking up from top to bottom. Ban the adverts, massively scale down the online sites, introduce huge penalties for companies targeting customers who evidently have problems (even soft credit checks could be introduced) and make them properly risk assess anyone betting large amounts.
I’d even go as far as banning the online casinos, or at least massively scale back what people can bet. At least in a proper casino the staff can stop someone clearly on their arse (or out of their face) spunking their life savings. Not that they necessarily would.
The rules are there for fast food, tobacco, alcohol (to an extent) but none of those things can cost a family their house in the space of a few clicks. Also, you can stop eating shit/drinking/smoking when you wake up… with gambling you may already be in too deep when the penny drops, hence the shocking suicide rates.
Id like to see an avenue opened up for addicts who were targeted despite the companies having sufficient information they were problem gamblers to bring civil claims. Big ones.
The more I think and learn about the more it really fucks me off.
When I was losing large amounts I was desperate for there to be the self-blocking with the bank that you can do now. Would just go through a very brief rush when the stake was placed and then a lot of self loathing afterwards, just to repeat whenever the next payday came. Pretty scary place when you literally cannot afford even the bus fare into work and you’ve blown all the overdraft. All the time I still get texts offering different sites and proudly boasting they aren’t affiliated with GamStop. E-mails still come through from the places I thought I’d closed an account with.
They know what they’re doing and they know most of the profit comes from people with a problem. Haven’t done it myself in 10 years now anyway.
Well done for kicking it for ten years. Can't be easy.
A lot easier now that I’ve set the bank to block any gambling transactions and got them to make it nearly impossible to lift them.
A lot easier now that I’ve set the bank to block any gambling transactions and got them to make it nearly impossible to lift them.
10 years is some achievement mate. And very wise with the bank. What should happen is that the bookies should blacklist people in the situation you were in and put the blanket block on automatically. I’d hazard a guess some form of AI or algorithm could do that in a matter of hours. As someone else said though, they won’t, unless/until they are pushed to do so.
I could (and did, to the tune of £3,000 - thanks Wonga) go after a lender for irresponsible lending and claim the money back with interest, and obviously we had the ppi scandal. I think it’s right now that those mugged by gambling companies who knew, or ought to have known, their customer had a problem faced similar.
What shocked me from the Merson programme was the amount of information the bookies compile on each user. They have all the tools to be able to identify and help problem gamblers but instead they use the information to exploit them. Evil companies.
I never got into it as just always thought you’ve never going to win as the whole point of bookmakers is that they set the odds in their favour! Think remember someone saying once with old school betting shops there was a reason why there were loads of counters to pay in and only one to collect.
The use of phones must have made the issue a lot worse, if people had to physically walk to a betting shop and hand over cash when they wanted to have a bet like the old days that would stop a lot of people getting into it.
Thing that shocked me a few years back was seeing a panorama programme on bbc about betting company’s exploiting people. A lot of them were women with bingo style games etc, basically the people who were obviously problem gamblers were being treated like vip’s with their own account managers ringing them up all the time and giving them giving them free credits etc to keep them hooked. One women was in tears as lost everything , her mum had died and this sales women was just trying to get her to borrow money to get back in the game
I never got into it as just always thought you’ve never going to win as the whole point of bookmakers is that they set the odds in their favour! Think remember someone saying once with old school betting shops there was a reason why there were loads of counters to pay in and only one to collect.
The use of phones must have made the issue a lot worse, if people had to physically walk to a betting shop and hand over cash when they wanted to have a bet like the old days that would stop a lot of people getting into it.
Thing that shocked me a few years back was seeing a panorama programme on bbc about betting company’s exploiting people. A lot of them were women with bingo style games etc, basically the people who were obviously problem gamblers were being treated like vip’s with their own account managers ringing them up all the time and giving them giving them free credits etc to keep them hooked. One women was in tears as lost everything , her mum had died and this sales women was just trying to get her to borrow money to get back in the game
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