Answered questions(7)
Gambling- The black pit of debt
This is really messed up. I started with online poker about 6 months ago and for a while I was doing really well. At one point I was up more than ten thousand $. Now I am down almost the same amount and the big problem is I have borrowed money from my employer to pay off some of my debts thinking I only needed a short term loan and now I don’t have the money I need to pay off my new loans, and I am getting a lot of pressure pay up. I have about 1500 and I need at least 5000 by next week. A big part of me seriously wants to gamble for the money but a small part of me knows that this is just digging the whole deeper – another part of me just doesn’t really care and just wants to get online and play. I am so stressed out and that just makes the urge to play stronger. I need to get control of myself now or I am going to lose it all. How can I stop gambling right away? What do I have to do to get back in control?
Read answer →Children online, and predatory advertising
My 7 year old son is always wanting play on these free games websites for kids. They really are websites that are designed with kids in mind and with basically only age appropriate games – nothing too violent or too sexy or anything like that. I don’t let him play very much because I don’t think that these games do him as much good as playing outside or with his imagination, but he loves them so I do relent and let him play a couple few times a week. But last time I did he showed me this ‘really cool’ site where he could win real money and prizes – and what it was, was basically that you played games and you could win tickets for playing well in games. And then when you had enough tickets you could enter into competitions like bingo games or draws to win cash and prizes. Here is the website I am talking about. http://www.candystand.com/play/bingo http://www.candystand.com/prizes Is working to earn tickets so you can spend them to try to win contests of chance to win money so very different from in real life working to earn money so you can spend it on contests of chance to try to earn more money? Isn’t that called gambling? Isn’t it bad to be teaching young children how much fun it is to gamble? I mean the website basically makes itself look like a slot machine. Am I crazy or should sites like this be allowed to prey on children in this way?!! Am I crazy here…?
Read answer →Is the gambler ready to handle money?
My son has a gambling problem. And in the past couple of years he has taken a couple of substantial loans from us and not payed them back and he has even stolen from our family business to cover his gambling debts. I am not angry anymore because I recognize that he has a disease and he did a lot of things he never would have normally done because he was not really in control of himself. Now he has completed a gambling treatment program and he is going to GA and he says he is doing good and he has not gambled at all for 6 months. He does not have much an education and he is finding it very hard to get a job right now. He has some debts he needs to pay off to which makes things harder for him. We have a family business which involves selling imported handicrafts at festivals and fairs around the state. He has always worked with us and he can make a good living doing it and now he is asking for his job back. He says he is ready and we can trust him now. But the problem is it is very easy for someone working a festival on his own to skim the sales without our knowledge. This is why we only have family working with us. I am worried that it will be too much temptation for him to be able to have access to a lot of money. Maybe the only reason he can control himself now is because he has no money to lose? How can I tell if he is ready to come back to work and control the money again?
Read answer →Gambling addiction "in moderation"
I am in Uni and I have a gambling problem. I have tried doing the whole gamblers anon thing but the sanctimoniousness of those people really grates on me and I’m not much for group things either. I have been trying it though and in the end it is just not working for me. My financial situation is really f***ed and my parents have no idea how bad it is or that I’ve already passed through a fund that I inherited a couple of years ago, but for me I don’t think that not ever never gambling again is ever going to be an attainable option. When it gets going I just feel this pressure and it feels l I just have to go and do it just so I don’t have to keep thinking about it every second of the day. I have really tried to fight this and it’s really not doable. Can I learn how to gamble more sensibly? I don’t think abstinence is for me but I can’t keep on going like I am now. Is there some sort of gamblers for moderation group out there that would make more sense for people like me who want to get things under control but can’t really stop altogether?
Read answer →My brother is a gambling addict. What's best kind of treatment for him?
My brother came to me for a loan. He is a gambling addict. I swore I would never give him money again but he came to me with 2 broken fingers and he said that he was going to get killed unless he paid some gangsters back what he owed. I gave him $5000 but made him promise he’d get help. It was the first time he actually admitted what everyone has known for a long time – That he is an addict. So now what’s the best kind of treatment for him to get. My parents will not give him any more money but they will help pay for treatment. So if money is not really a problem, what’s the best thing for him to do if he is really serious about stopping for good?
Read answer →Hitting Bottom
My brother in law brags about his sports betting but the strange things is that he and my sister have to live in a tiny apartment because they never have any money. What is up with that then? He claims to have a football betting system that can’t lose. He bets on every game every week and for each game he places multiple small bets like first half score and other things and then he doubles up on any bets he loses until he wins it and then he stops. It is a pretty smart system if you are willing to do the work but where he goes wrong is he never stops betting when he wins so the money never comes in. He won’t admit that he has a problem and he argues that it is like a scientific program. He has an answer for everything. My sister is getting really fed up with him. How can I make him admit or at least see that he has a gambling problem?
Read answer →I have a real gambling problem... Will registering for a self-exclusion ban help?
I have a real gambling problem. I am thinking about registering for a self exclusion ban that would make it illegal for me to gambling in any casino in the state. I am kind of scared to do it even though I know it is the right thing to do. You can choose to ban yourself for a year or for 5 years or forever. Should I choose a year to start with to try it out? These bans are not reversible and a year would be a big step for me and maybe I could get myself sorted out a bit by then. I have just finished losing my child support payment money for this month, which is the same thing that happened last month. I would have already gambled the rent money away but for I live with my mom again so I don’t have to pay it.
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