Is Darren risking this ?

[Ian Hislop]

A harsh question but is Darren risking encouraging bad gambling behaviour ?

I know, he shows the reality but is it still encouraging bad ?

Ergo, anyone promoting gambling, not Darren alone. 

[BlindHaze]

I suppose it depends on your take. Some people may refer to it as ‘promoting’, others would say ‘showcasing’. Personally, I’d say the latter as he often comes out with a terrible loss. If he were promoting, then you’d only see the positives and massive wins.

I agree that gambling can be bad, the odds are always stacked against you, but there has to be some personal responsibility. I don’t gamble because StopandStep does, I came across his channel many years ago because I gambled on the FOBTs. I also couldn’t afford to deposit the amount he does every month, and that’s why I don’t.

In summary, monkey see monkey doesn’t 😜

[Groyd]

Thats right, Blindhaze.... Just because Darren does it, doesn't mean I do/don't do it.

I am able to make my own decisions, and so should most people be able to.

The idea of personal responsibility seems to have been taken away though.

[Ian Hislop]

The idea being "gambling can be a serious addiction" that some people don't have good control and an argument that almost everyone is capable of tilting at some point more than once.  Claiming personal responsibility never will work unless a person never gambles and gets addicted. This is a fact. 

You can't claim personal responsibility during the act because you aren't there when the damage is being done during the tilt mode of addiction. 

Companies are no longer pushing customer care either. After everything, a person can literally ruin their life and the rich people don't have a f*ck to give. Playing the addiction down helps the industry. "Gamcare" doesn't do anything other than show a person a few links. Once the life is ruined, it remains that way sometimes for good.

[BlindHaze]

Agreed, gambling can be a serious addiction, it always has been. I played my first ever fruit machine back in the 80s when I was 7 or 8 years old. No YouTube or streamers in those days, maybe it was just the flashing lights of the arcade that lured me in. I’ve also been on tilt before, borne out of frustration of the slots doing naff all. 

I have to disagree with your point about personal responsibility. People do need to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences. The only other way would be to criminalise all kinds of gambling to ensure that everyone is protected from its harm, although this would just drive it underground.

Funnily enough, I’ve only ever had one interaction with customer care. It was a couple of years ago about 3 weeks after I’d opened my PP account. They called me because they were concerned about my gambling, primarily because I’d placed 16 bets in 10 minutes on the Everton v Liverpool match. All of them were from the ‘what odds Paddy’ section that I was browsing through. One thing that they didn’t seem to take into consideration was the fact that the highest bet was £1 and they all came to a total of £4.70. They locked me out of my account for a week…. But that’s the only time they’ve seemed to care, they never got in touch when I’d lost a 3 figure sum on the slots at 20p play.

[Ian Hislop]

How can you disagree when I said some people. Some people are stronger minded and the industry isn't bothered about them. they are targeting anyone. The various "we care" banners mean nothing. A person who has just lost it all and is ready to jump is of zero interest to them.

[Mentholdan]

The biggest ever mistake was to  legalise bookmaking in the first place. All casinos, betting shops and nowadays on line gambling should have been government run. Every bit of profit could have gone back in to the government coffers, unimaginable billions, and there would be millions to cover the cost of help and treatment of problem gambling.

The old chestnut about gamblers resorting to betting with illegal bookmakers is cobblers really. There are illegal books a plenty if you know where to look. It wouldn’t be any more rife if bookmaking was state run.

Darren shouldn’t be pegged along with the likes of Fruity Slots, Chipmonkz and Hideous and the like, they’re the ones taking money from the pockets of the general public to satisfy their own gambling addictions.

 

[BlindHaze]

13 hours ago, Ian Hislop said:

How can you disagree when I said some people. Some people are stronger minded and the industry isn't bothered about them. they are targeting anyone. The various "we care" banners mean nothing. A person who has just lost it all and is ready to jump is of zero interest to them.

Because the remedy to any addiction isn’t handed to you on a plate, it takes a heck of a lot of time and willpower, ergo personal responsibility. But I agree, about the ‘we care’ banners, they’re solely there because they have to put them there. They’re reminiscent of the ‘please drink responsibly’ signs in the Wetherspoons at 8am…

9 hours ago, Mentholdan said:

The biggest ever mistake was to  legalise bookmaking in the first place. All casinos, betting shops and nowadays on line gambling should have been government run. Every bit of profit could have gone back in to the government coffers, unimaginable billions, and there would be millions to cover the cost of help and treatment of problem gambling.

The old chestnut about gamblers resorting to betting with illegal bookmakers is cobblers really. There are illegal books a plenty if you know where to look. It wouldn’t be any more rife if bookmaking was state run.

Darren shouldn’t be pegged along with the likes of Fruity Slots, Chipmonkz and Hideous and the like, they’re the ones taking money from the pockets of the general public to satisfy their own gambling addictions.

 

I think nationalisation could be great for sports betting. My vice has always been fruit machines, and the private industry has always tried to make them as alluring as possible with threats of big wins that just miss and seemingly potentially massive payouts. I’m not sure how the government would tackle this side, it’d be interesting to see whether they’d practice what they preach and make them relatively unappealing - although ‘Danger, High Tory’ has a nice ring to it. 😜

[Ian Hislop]

Lockdown made me realise they could literally shut down gambling and the world would cope better without it. 

I'm the kind of person who likes a buy-in poker tournament as opposed to a lose your house game. But some people have no heart, just like the people who run the gambling industry. They're just like the shops that are all smiles and happy faces, until you have bought and paid for the item... then they turn into careless scum.

I saw a question posed "have you ever influenced someone into suicide via gambling?" which when you think about, for any decent person, is a horrific notion. The entire industry is guilty. Truth hurts.

[Ian Hislop]

I block all gambling adverts on facebook. They keep getting unblocked. Haven't seen one for a while and just made that comment above and went to check on my facebook notifications. 3 posts down and I am pretty sure the cookie from here caused this

Now if data protection is law then how is this allowed without my expressed permission. Could it be corruption.

Not a question mark in sight.

[Groyd]

That woiuld be a problem with Facebook, either they know about it and don't care or they are unable to correctly block.

Either way, I can't see that it's Darrens fault in any way. He, after all, is not responsible for what other sites show you.

[Skipper]

Self control 

[BlindHaze]

3 hours ago, Ian Hislop said:

Lockdown made me realise they could literally shut down gambling and the world would cope better without it. 

I'm the kind of person who likes a buy-in poker tournament as opposed to a lose your house game. But some people have no heart, just like the people who run the gambling industry. They're just like the shops that are all smiles and happy faces, until you have bought and paid for the item... then they turn into careless scum.

I saw a question posed "have you ever influenced someone into suicide via gambling?" which when you think about, for any decent person, is a horrific notion. The entire industry is guilty. Truth hurts.

I’m with you on that. I didn’t miss the bookies at all during lockdown, however now I still pop in once a month or so to lose some money. It was also when I started playing online and, looking at my net position, I wish I hadn’t. £20 here, £40 there soon adds up.

I also much prefer the live poker tournaments. My favourite was the cheap Monday night at Genting (when I had the Tuesday off work!), £7 registration fee and £10 to buy back in during the first session or top up at the end. There used to be a great regular crowd, I’d know 10-20 of them and no one took it too seriously. If I won nothing, I might get home £50-£60 lighter. Mainly from the bar bill and there was no way I’m making the mile walk home at 2am in Southend….

Thankfully, I can answer your last question ‘no’, although it is an horrific prospect. Gambling can ruin lives, there’s no doubt about that.

[Chicken dinner]

it could be worse you could be watching this guy, who would take him seriously???

[Lukeski84]

tilting is so real & very toxic…

today has £100 cash on me (just sold a games console) , thought I’d go in for a quick £20 spin while in town (local bookies) . So went with the fortune spins (been at it for 6 months now) & I thought I’d instead go with fortune spins @ 1 in 25 with my fave, cops & robbers. So £40 down, nothing came in, so I thought another £20,,,still nothing. Then reduced the odds 1 in 5 , £20 on that, then a second try another £20…..

seriously that was £100 in little more than 5 mins, left the bookies with tail between my legs. Then spent the next hour thinking I should have just stuck with the 1 in 25 odds, a bonus would have rolled in at that for sure. Even then it doesn’t put me off gambling, not at all. It’s like I’ve fought myself a lesson, commit with the lower odds , but I already knew this so how can I be so stupid throwing £100 away. 
 

im certain that an algorithm within the machine knows when a player is chasing losses,,,  I mean it’s pretty easy, most loosing gamblers will put in that next£5, £10, £20 within say 15 seconds of a loss, so the machine is damn sure that the gambler is chasing losses & then therefore take that too like a hungry hippo!! 
 

again, not that I didn’t know this already, but it’s quite simple , don’t take so much cash in/leave bank card in the car….then when you loose, you don’t think ….ah another £20! 
 

I would have loved to spend that money on my 7 year old daughter, instead they have it, what a twonk.