In the end no one wins...

SpinMeUp

SpinMeUp

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Most of us know that devastating feeling of having lost tons of money after a losing streak and when it comes up your mind what value that actually IS. What you could have bought from it - a nice holiday, a car...  Whilst gambling online  all that money is just numbers. That makes online gambling even more riskier than gambling in a land based casino as far as I am concerned since in a physical casino you still feel that money going out of your pocket. Many of the streamers and viewers gamble every or almost every day. I myself gamble at least 6 days a week and I have lost tons of money. I could stop it for months but always returned to it and never could let my fucking hands of it once and for all.  whenever you win a big amount of money it will soon be deposited in your favorite online casinos again. As soon as you start to gamble slots on a regular basis there is no way you are ever going to be in lifetime profit (except for some crazy jackpots like mega fortune being won) It consumes a lot of time, it affects your brain in a seriously dangerous way, it will be financially devastating and sooner or later gambling will break you and - if you keep on to gamble for years or even decades  - gambling will destroy your life and you will lose everything that is even more important than money. In the long run every gambler is a loser. A loser that wastes his time to lose his money, his friends and his family. 

I would love to see that topic being covered in some streams eventually. 

 
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Some elements are true, such as that in the long run you are set to lose money. At the end of the day, that is what slot machines / roulette / black jack etc  are designed to do.

Other elements don't necessary apply to everybody. Gambling is a vice so to speak but as long you have control over it, this vice can turn into a hobby. A hobby that you can make as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be.

 
Let's face it: for how many people who play almost daily gambling is a "hobby"? Compare the brain activity of someone gambling to a drug addict consuming his drug (in this case it was heroine): you cannot tell the difference by just looking at scans of both brains since there are the exact same areas being active. I am surely not judging here. I am not in the position of judging being addicted to gambling for atleast 4 years now. BUT there are few streamers (not going to mention them) who play so often on stream and off stream (you can tell from those picture and video uploads of big wins that did not happen on stream) they are clearly problem gamblers to say the least, might be a gambling disorder. The point is: does advertising something potentially dangerous as gambling come with some kind of responsibility? Let's have a look at those  big and epic wins coming in on YouTube and here as well day for day.. If you put that in perspective to the amount of deposits beforehand I wonder how big any of those wins still would be? Of course there is no "big / epic loss section" - no one likes to see that. The worst point in my gambling career was to win a few thousand euros on an epic luck streak in an online casino. WORST EVER. 

For the absolute most people playing regularly gambling is NOT a hobby and they cannot "make it as a cheap or expensive as they WANT it to be" because they simply don't have anymore control of their behavior. So, if gambling is a hobby for you on what you always spent what does not hurt you, and if regular gambling does not affect your personal life in any bad way, good for you. But you are a rare exception unfortunately. 

 
@SpinMeUp I think we are all adults here who can take their own decisions. Most streamers that I watch are constantly warning viewers on the dangers of gambling. And that's the most they can do, to inform the viewers of all the downsides of gambling. In the end, each and every person is responsible for their own actions. If someone tells you not to rob a bank and presents you with possible consequences and you decide to do it anyway, is the person who told you responsible for that? Of course not.

Some people keep it real and show / tell how much they lost in regards to how much they won, some people play "fake money" in order to lure in affiliate earnings (which is a disgrace) and some people make it show like that they're winning all the time. Unfortunately that will always be the case. As a viewer or a gambler arm yourself with information, set your bankroll, set limits and stick to it (even if it's tough at times, but it is more tough when you lose more than you can afford).

 
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I was just about to edit my post but apparently you are only allowed to do so within a few minutes after posting.:

A personal side note: my initial post is very emotional (it was during the night and I was a bit drunk (I am fragile to addictions, which is a genetical disposition - some people tend to be more vulnerable, some don't) and of course I gambled (and lost) this night - and I lost an amount that hurted me.This seems to be about someone transferring his own experiences to every other gambler. Which on the one hand it is. I am only 25 and I haven't lost my life towards gambling. I lost my ex girlfriend though because of personality changes related to gambling 2 years ago and I often had to make excuses and made things up in order to gamble. Sadly I can notice these personal changes again. I restarted gambling half a year ago after I managed to stay away from it a few months. It is funny though: Actually I can't complain, I got friends, a beautiful GF and I am doing what I always wanted to do. Still it seems I am not fulfilled so it  keeps me gambling..

One the other hand I have seen and spoken to many (gambling) addicts in the past two years (I am about to finish medical school this year, hoorraayy ;)). I have never heart someone referring to his gambling activities as a "hobby". And I have seen people who have lost EVERYTHING. They are always male, in their late 20s or early 30s, most of them earn a decent living from a good job.

 
@Skylined87Of course we are all adults. This not an accusation against casino streamers by the way. I love these streams and probably spent more time watching them than I actually gamble myself. Your camparison with someone robbing a bank does not work. Gambling here is more or less glamorized. You wouldn't glamorize robbing a bank, would you?
Again, all those tools you mention do not work for problem gamblers. Limits can be deleted (within a week of waiting time). Self Exclusions in online casinos do not work, since you will always find another casino gladly accepting your deposits. In my opinion, advertising gambling comes with a resposibility - and that does not mean to tell you viewers "play responsibly" every other day..
But that's just me and in the end of the day you are perfectly right: Ultimately, everyone is responsible for their own actions. A problem gambler will always gamble no matter if you promote responsible gambling. But there are also many people new to the casino world that watch you and these people are the ones that might be influenced by your streams in one way or another.

 
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SpinMeUp said:
@Skylined87Of course we are all adults. This not an accusation against casino streamers by the way. I love these streams and probably spent more time watching them than I actually gamble myself. Your camparison with someone robbing a bank does not work. Gambling here is more or less glamorized. You wouldn't glamorize robbing a bank, would you?
Again, all those tools you mention do not work for problem gamblers. Limits can be deleted (within a week of waiting time). Self Exclusions in online casinos do not work, since you will always find another casino gladly accepting your deposits. In my opinion, advertising gambling comes with a resposibility - and that does not mean to tell you viewers "play responsibly" every other day..
But that's just me and in the end of the day you are perfectly right: Ultimately, everyone is responsible for their own actions. A problem gambler will always gamble no matter if you promote responsible gambling. But there are also many people new to the casino world that watch you and these people are the ones that might be influenced by your streams in one way or another.
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There is usually a reason that people watch these streams. I guess not a lot will accidentally click on say Nick's stream and then decide to start gambling.

I today gave up gambling for two weeks because my budget is gone. I made it clear during my stream why and even blocked my account live on Twitch to show that these facilities are available at reputable casinos. These are the kind of actions, in my opinion, that show that us streamers do take this matter seriously.

At the end of the day you can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink it. Will power is needed to stop gambling as it is if you want to kick any other addiction such as for example smoking cigarettes. If that will power is not there, anything can trigger going back to gambling such as watching an advert on TV, walking past a bookies on the high street etc. At least with Twitch you can avoid it by simply not tuning in.

 
I have been gambling last 20+ years, under that time i have lost a lot of money. If i would start chasing after the money, then i would be in a black hole.  

  Always remeber that gambling is a entertaiment for your money, if you start to think that you can make a living from online casino then you need to have deep pockets or a four-leaf clover up your a**. Everytime you deposit you need to see that the money is gone same time you push deposit. It's there to give you some fun/entertaiment and some thrills. If it's start to be some kind of compulsion to push the button to chase money that you lost or try to get a big win that will fix all your money problems, then it's a dangerous path you are going on. If you are on this path i say that take a break, but if you still wan't to play on casinos, use weekly/month deposit restriction and other technical help. 

   My personal gambling budget is made by this way. I have X amount of euros per/week. If i loose them on monday then there is no entertaiment/gambling more on that week. Let's say that i win in something (sport, casion, poker) for ex 800 €, then i take half of the winning to my bank account. So for this week my gambling budget is X€ + 400€ and 400€ in my personal bank account.

I never mix between personal bank account and gambling account. I have learn this the hard way when i was younger. 

I think it realy good that you take up the subject, specialy for younger people that just see the "super MEGA win" that get posted on many forums. That gambling can have serious impact on your life. It's just not push a button and win big and have all the cool stuff. 

I made a post about how brutal a slot's can be when its "cold", i try to use some humor in the post(story telling), then just whine about that i just lost X amount!! We all lose in the long run, you can have "hot" runs or cold days/weeks/month as long you keep to your budget and time frame its a nice hobby.

......Fck bonanza (still have not completet my mission) :)  

 
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