Gambling Addiction

GamblingAddiction is a very real gambling AntiPattern.

A Cautionary Tale

I have seen it happen to a previous manager of mine. I think it usually starts after a winning streak. For some reason the victim then seems to have a SelectiveMemory?, remembering the win rather than the many other losses. Victims of GamblingAddiction become great optimists. The big win is always around the corner. Their sense of perspective changes too. My XM once won £12,000 (around US $18,000), but this was not the big win, but the chance to make the big win. The whole lot had gone within a week..

This false optimism also removes all common sense. My XM also got into the stock market. Now the stock market can be a good investment, but not the way a gambling addict plays it. My XM went for options (derivatives), mostly on unknown start-up companies. With an option, if the shares are below the option price at the time the option can be exercised, you lose everything. Needless to say my XM did exactly that, end ended up having to pay about £2,000 (US $3,000) dealers fees with nothing left. My XM went to his bank, and arranged a loan to pay of these fees.

Now, anyone sensible would have paid of the fees, and learned a lesson. Not a gambling addict though. My XM took the money, and thought of a "dead cert" in a horse race. He reasoned that he would win this, then be able to pay off his loan and his stockbroker, after all the horse was certain to win. Of course it lost leaving him in a very difficult financial situation.

This could have been a tale of absolute ruin, but fortunately my XM had a very understanding wife with a good career herself. She marched him down to see his bank manager and told him exactly what had happened. They came to an agreement where my XMs wife would pay off his debt, but in return the bank manager would remove all his means of credit, credit cards, cheque cards etc. He also put a note on my XMs credit references. In effect my XM's wife ran his financial affairs for him after that, giving him cash for things he needed, a spending allowance etc. When I last heard from him he was living very happily like that.

Be warned: GamblingAddiction can happen.

See http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ for more information.

In the long run, the house wins, otherwise casinos wouldn't make any money. The corollary is that in the long run, the gambler loses.

The odds on lotteries are even worse: Lotteries are voluntary taxation, or more cynically, lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math.

I heard somewhere that one is more likely to die in a car accident on the way to buy the lottery ticket than to win anything substantial.

Can you imagine the outcry if a tax on illiteracy were implemented?

Encouraging gambling is encouraging the idea that you can get SomethingForNothing?, a concept that contradicts IndividualResponsibility.

The healthy way to approach gambling is to consider it an entertaining activity that costs money. If you are willing to pay $100 per hour to play blackjack or roulette, or a few bucks a week to play the lottery, then there is nothing wrong with doing that. But if you think you are actually going to make money as a player, then you may have a problem.