‘I lost 10 years of my life’: how UK betting giant’s unlawful marketing kept suicidal gambler hooked

[laintrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

It sucks and this predatory behaviour should be regulated out of existence and the people behind it Luigi'd.

However, it's not very easy to have sympathy for the guy. Any time you can just walk away.

[nurse_robot@lemmy.world]

So can alcoholics. So can drug users. So can obese people. So can people in abusive relationships.

Walking away is rarely as simple as it sounds, and it's typically better to have empathy and offer support rather than dismiss them.

[lemjukes@lemm.ee]

“Bro just stop being addicted” wow thanks, im cured…

[newthrowaway20@lemmy.world]

You clearly don't know how addiction works if you think they can just walk away.

[laintrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

I've had multiple physical substance addictions, some multiple at a time and ultimately I just stopped when I needed to. It's hard, but it's definitely not impossible.

[laintrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Obesity is primarily genetic so yeah most likely a different story there. Nonetheless I've had the rest of all those. Hardest is probably the abusive relationship, but for me that's because I was very young and the guy was quite a bit older and a decently skilled manipulator.

[bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net]

You didn't really understand what you read.

Over two years, when his gambling problem was at its height, the Sky Bet group emailed him multiple times a day, with staggering success. Internal records suggest that of the 1,389 emails it sent him offering free spins and bonus prizes, Sam engaged with 98% of them. “I wasn’t able to ignore them. They had this grip on me,” he said.

They reached out to him. Specifically. Personally. Not automated. They decided on him.

Did your drug dealers text you multiple times a day? For two years?

[not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

We need to ban advertising for all addictive substances/activities. We've mostly come to terms with the fact that mixing addiction and marketing are horrible for public health when it comes to cigarettes. We need to extend that to gambling, alcohol, Marijuana, hell even sugary drinks.

Even ignoring the public health implications, it's just cruel to recovering addicts. It must suck to see advertisements of attractive people having fun drinking beer if you're a recovering alcoholic and are just trying to forget about it.

I'm opposed to prohibition as it just ends up jailing minorities and empowering the police, but just because we make something legal to consume doesn't mean we have to give it over to the market and capitalism with its perverse incentives for growth at all costs.

[shadowedcross@sh.itjust.works]

Don't think your experience is universal. Others struggle a lot more with it.

[laintrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

But that's the thing. I struggled too, so did I have it easier, or try harder? I humbly assume the former most of the time, but the sheer scale in question in this article plus the logistics of actually having to gamble that much make me wonder.