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Casino Gambling Addiction Denial

Discussion in 'Casino Forum' started by Junket King, Oct 12, 2021.

  1. Junket King

    Junket King Well-Known Member Compulsive Liar

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    Like any true gambler, most will deny they have any gambling problem

    Fact is, many here, including myself have been hanging out of gambling forums for over a decade, tells it's own story.

    Any short and to the point. There was a TV program about Paul Merson a former footballer with a bad gambling habit, probably all you gambling junkies outside of the UK have never heard of him.

    They performed a brain scan on him, showing him images which would cause excitement to most normal people, such as fine food, family, playing with kids, socialising, unbeautiful relaxing scenery.

    Here is an image of that scan.

    Capture normal.PNG

    Where you would expect to see activity, there is nothing,

    They also showed him many images of casino gambling, even though he wasn't into gambling inside casinos, he actually said "casinos did nothing for him".

    Capture gambling.PNG

    Images of dice, cards, chips, BJ and roulette table, note all the yellow areas.

    We are all gamblers, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at this thread, the program touched on various triggers, such as a advert showing a ball spin around a roulette table, cards being dealt.

    Don't wanna make this a long winded post, suffice to say, be forth-warned, you brain on occasions may be out of sync with what you say and think, hence why self-control is paramount and sometimes harder to maintain than what you may appreciate.
     
  2. Junket King

    Junket King Well-Known Member Compulsive Liar

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    Paul I might add, as not gambled for close on 12 months, as he says, "this disease has literally re-wired his brain, gambling is the only thing that brings him any pleasure, it's like looking at a tumour".

    The medical professional also said, the scan result is common with many gamblers.

    Here is the would be scan of somebody like say,,,, Glenda and the mere mention of the word Baccarat.

    Capture gambling.PNG
     
  3. gizmotron

    gizmotron Well-Known Member Founding Member

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    It's like Pavlov's dog experiment: "During the 1890s, Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov was researching salivation in dogs in response to being fed. "

    An addicted or problem gambler will start to go into the pleasure center of their brain before they reach the parking lot on the way there. They leave the logic center behind and are immediately desensitized from receiving messages from the logic center.

    There is also documented and validated evidence that a person can self cure. I have my own opinion. I problem gambler is someone that uses money that is needed for other things. That must stop. Second, the problem gambler must learn to win. They must ignore the pleasure center and stay in the logic center no matter what they feel.
     
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  4. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    This is a very applicable post. The current thinking on consciousness is that what we think of as "us" is more of a narrator trying to whitewash the reality of who we really are. We are only witness to the actions of the real person for whom we have no choice but to be spokesperson.

    Self-control is also an illusion. If you wish to truly influence the entity at the helm of your existence you need to convince them (AKA: Your real self, that does not speak to you) that you can no longer cover for their errors. They may listen as they have little to no confidence in you.

    Scientific research has shown conclusively using FMRI brain scans that what we think of as "US" is the narrator describing, and justifying what the real us has done roughly .5 to .75 seconds before. We are not aware of this due to the fact that our cognition is delayed. If all clocks are behind by 1 sec then no one notices.

    It's an almost impossible to comprehend truth.
     
  5. gizmotron

    gizmotron Well-Known Member Founding Member

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    You will make an excellent psychologist.
     
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  6. Punkcity

    Punkcity Well-Known Member

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    I think you had a typo there gizmotron, did you mean he’d make an excellent ventriloquist?
    Lol
     
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  7. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    Thank you very much. It's kind of you to say that.

    I was first exposed to psychology in high-school when I had a melt down after two constant years of abuse from the American kids. My English accent set me apart and always getting the TOP grades in class without ever studying or doing homework made me wildly unpopular.

    I was put in a program for emotionally disturbed children. After one month of Evaluation I was told I didn't qualify as "messed up enough" to be in the program. However, the head of the program Tom Viner said he could pull some strings and keep in the class if I wanted to help with the new students.

    Let's see this class had a 2 teachers to each student ratio, we could study anything we wanted. There were no tests, and we went on three field trips a week. I think you know what I decided.

    I continued to go in once a week to help with the group therapy sessions even after leaving school up 'till age 26 when Tom passed.

    I am still friends with one of the other teachers to this day. In fact I cook her and her husband meals every week and deliver them...then we watch "ROBOT-WARS"... He was a mechanic.

    The point of the back story was this: I have been told by so many people in the psychology field my entire life that I should have officially entered the field. Tom once said to me that if I did anything else I be wasting my gifts and wasting my life.

    My one issue is I have always been a wee tad too empathic. So the very thing that makes me good at psychology holds me back. There is a moral there, though I don't know what it is.
     

  8. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    Alrighty then...that's some funny sh*& right there that is...
     
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  9. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    If you are new to gambling I would honestly recommend not ever playing in the first place.

    It is possible to make money gambling. It is also possible and easier to learn how to lose as little as possible to get comps and have a nice vacation on very little money.

    I would pick ONE-GAME and learn that before branching out into anything else. If you tell me your favorite game I can recommend the best books and instruction you'll need to master it. (DO NOT GOOGLE) There is a lot of BAD info out-there. It's why I post on this site: I just want to help and I get paid nothing so you know I have no ulterior motives.

    What game interests you???
     
  10. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    Oh, in case you don't know who I am. I was a professional gambler for 30+ years, published author, and I had a radio show on gambling to advise people how to play. So I know things.
     
  11. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    Oh I forgot to say the most important thing I wanted to say to you: Learning how to beat the casinos and become a professional gambler is roughly on-par and equally difficult to learning a musical instrument like the piano. It might be slightly harder or easier depending on the specific branch of pro-gambling you choose.

    So yes, it's possible...but really really hard...

    ~FK

    P.S. Oh and say goodbye to a social life. When you gamble for a living your boss (YOU) never gives you days off...
     
  12. gizmotron

    gizmotron Well-Known Member Founding Member

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    This is not meant to trigger the moderator. I don't have good news for you Frank. I know for a fact that when you come up for your evaluation and to defend your dissertation they will seek people around you like professors and other students for recommendations concerning you being allowed to go forward. You may genuinely care a great deal about other people and see yourself as helpful. But I see an entirely different personality in your writings and your impression of yourself. You should not be allowed to go forward and I hope that wherever you are matriculating that these people can see it too. This will come as a shock to you. I see you taking in all this education but I don't see you making any good common sense. Like you hanging around here at a gambling forum for attention. It does not add up. If my opinion of you is correct then you will lash out at me. You are too invested in what people might think about you.

    I hope that the moderators will let this stand. I don't want you to get through your last tests, your dissertation, and to become board certified. I know other people that were helped along the way to become phycologists. Someone vouched for them when they should not have. Their actual medical careers were bad. And they are no longer practicing in the medical fields.

    You are clueless. You will not know why I think this way. Nothing will wise you up. I'm expecting the educators that teach you to do their duty. That's what I mean.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2021
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  13. Junket King

    Junket King Well-Known Member Compulsive Liar

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    Money could be used for anything, other than making the casinos richer. The program also made reference to the term "winback". Used for players trying to recoup their losses.

    Anyway, I don't think people can self cure, they may refrain from gambling, that's not to hard (for some), however even those that haven't gambled for a few years, I think a brain scan will demonstrate the same images as the first post when shown images of participating in gambling and that is the sad reality.

    So what book did you author, Blackjack??
     
  14. gizmotron

    gizmotron Well-Known Member Founding Member

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    That might be true today. But when the DSM-4.5 supplement came out they decided to change the definition of a "problem gambler" to an addicted gambler. Back when it was a problem gambler it described a person that uses money intended for other needs. Like spending the rent money, food money for the kids, etc... And the scientific research was validated through peer review by educated and certified collogues thorough a properly conducted research experiment. People could come out of the status of being a problem gambler by controlling their spending. Now 'addicted gambler" comes with the beliefs of the 12 step programs for addicts. You are forever an addict. That is in direct contradiction to the research already validated. But they say this too: "When the myth becomes the truth, print the myth."

    This crap about how the brain chemistry works is great for confirmation biased outcomes. Specially for those that treat patients forever for addiction. You will always be a degenerate gambler, a loser. Your brain will always chemically run to the pleasure center. You are a victim. Hopefully there will be a government program one day so that money can be spent paying addiction psychologists and licensed therapists to treat you. And it will be good for their own addiction too, government money that is. I was told that I had a brain disorder that would show up in a MRI because of how the scientists in search of crap to study had discovered this crap in pictures of Yosemite rock climber's brains and their propensity to thrill sport. What a load of shit. Here is what really happened. The academic weasels spent all their time looking into books and people like themselves opinion's and never discovered that they missed the boat when it comes to life. So they write a book. It's all human nature and horse shit. They don't know. So they fake it. It's like hiring an engineer to certify a structure. You hire ten engineers and you get ten different solutions.
     
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  15. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    I'll answer your second question first: No, not Blackjack. I managed a video poker progressive team and I got paid salary. My first five years of "gambling" involved dealing with all the problems of 40-88 people who were paid to play for an investor. At age 26 I did finally decide to go play for myself with my own money and formed a small team with my best friend, Mother, my other best friend, and the former accountant/book keeper from the previous team.

    My book is about Progressive Slot and Video Poker Teams. It's not relevant to this discussion. I was forced to go to work for this gambling team when my mother needed me to stay in Las Vegas to take care of her after a bad hip surgery. I gave up on a scholarship to Julliard to care for her.

    For me gambling was always just a job. A job I did not particularly like or want. It fell on me like a house from Kansas.

    I'm quite sure if you brain scanned me while showing me pictures of gambling you'd have to keep waking me up to get a reading.

    I find doing the math entertaining up to a point. It is very satisfying to figure out something that no one before you has ever considered...and then I remember that no one needed to.
     
  16. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    Here is a very old article based on an interview I did with Dr. William G. McCown the lead researcher into gambling addiction and current Dean of the University of Louisiana at Munroe. It was my idea to try to write about prevention, rather than treatment...
     

    Attached Files:

  17. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    ATTEMPT TO POST ARTICLE AS PLAIN TEXT... (fail)
    --------------------

    upload_2021-10-13_12-29-10.png
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2021
  18. gizmotron

    gizmotron Well-Known Member Founding Member

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    If you teach a person what it takes to win and they get it then why would they go back to ignorance and failure?

    Not possible because the brain trust within the head-shrinker factories have no clue how to win. They instead teach the basic lie, "the house always wins in the long run."

    Fix the problem. The primary problem is that most gamblers lack knowledge. If they had it they would keep it a secret to themselves. So it's not in anybody's interest to fix the problem. The casinos don't want it fixed. The shrinks don't want it fixed. Government bureaucracies don't want it fixed. We need victims.
     
  19. Frank Kneeland

    Frank Kneeland Active Member Lineage to Founders

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    Very insightful. I went to a few GA meetings to support my friend's wife, without ever mentioning who I was or what I did for a living.

    It was all I could do not to laugh hysterically every time they talked about how impossible it was to make money gambling.

    The irony of course is that making money gambling is absolutely possible. The casinos do it every day. One simply needs to gamble with the odds in their favor.
     
  20. Junket King

    Junket King Well-Known Member Compulsive Liar

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    I was referring to parts of the brain lighting up like an Xmas tree when thoughts of or participation of gambling are involved.

    Doesn't matter, win, lose or full abstention, for any former hard core gambler, your brain is going to glow (on the inside). Doesn't matter how disciplined or skilled you are, you are being lit up [period]. How you control, handle that is up to the individual, again, awareness is one step in the right direction.
     

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