Day 301 - Accepting that gambling is an industry
One of the most difficult things about quitting gambling, is realizing that I can’t just develop the mindset that gambling is terrible, a scam, and should be banned. I would love to live in a world where gambling didn’t exist, where advertising it was banned. I would love to live in a world where their aren’t gambling companies on sports jerseys, where sports casters and commentators aren’t allowed to mention betting. I would love to live in a world where slot machines in bars are banned. I would love to live in a world where the lottery is banned. Sadly, that world doesn’t exist, and never will. The ship has sailed, and it has basically been decided that profits, economy and taxes are more important.
I am not smart enough to really explore whether the societal cost, the health costs of gambling addiction, and gambling in general out way the profits and benefits to the economy. Just like I am not smart enough to now whether the societal costs and health costs of alcohol out way the profits and benefits to the economy. While it seems we have decided the costs of Smoking Tabaco do actually out way the economic benefits (smoking ads are banned, products are hidden in stores, etc) it seems very unlikely that we will come to the same conclusions for gambling, alcohol, pornography.
As hard as it is for me, someone who is heavily anti gambling, to admit I have to say that gambling is probably less harmful to society then smoking was. Smoking will kill you, gambling only kills a small percentage of people. Many people enjoy it casually, many people bet on the game of the week. Cruise ships wouldn’t exist without the casinos on them. Many sports would not exist if there was no gambling. Many athletes wouldn’t be able to compete in the sports they love if gambling didn’t exist. Horse racing would not exist without betting. So much of our entertainment simply would not exist without attached gambling.
Many play the lottery casually, many people buy scratch off tickets every now and then and do so within a healthy entertainment budget. These things are heavily taxed and regulated and the money goes to funding things like schools, hospitals, the arts. For every gambling addict that has destroyed their life, there are new schools built, there are books bought for teachers. For every gambling addict, there are countless casino workers, slot machine developers, and other people who are just trying to make some money to raise their families.
As a gambling addict, I have given a lot of my earned money to shady companies, for some rich executive to have a bigger bonus. But hey, even that rich executive has a family to feed. Every website employs support staff, developers, customer service reps… and they need those jobs. I can’t sit here and say “Ban it all, get real jobs”. That is living in a fantasy world, and I just quit the biggest fantasy world there is, I am not about to lose myself in another.
Is gambling good for society? Hell no, but the industry that has developed around it, the economical juggernaut that it has become, is good for many and I am not going to sit here condemning people just because I couldn’t control myself, because I got scammed.
When we develop this view I think it is actually very helpful for the struggling addict. If I can view gambling in a more positive light, if I can have a more positive relationship with it, then I can actually move past it. If I were just going to preach “Ban all gambling” then I would be constantly fighting this war in my mind, I would constantly see myself as a victim, I would constantly think we live in a terrible world. Yet, I have to move beyond that. Because I am better then gambling, it has no holds over me.
When I walk past a new school I can joke with myself that I helped fund that, when I see a casino worker I can joke with myself that I paid their salary. When I make light of these things I can accept that gambling isn’t going away any time soon. Hold on tightly, let go lightly.
So on the one hand, I enjoy saying “fuck you” to gambling, and on the other I enjoy saying “well that is life, the good comes with the bad”. I want to be the kind of person who can walk into a bar and order a coke and have a good laugh with the bartender and the other patrons, instead of the person who avoids it at all costs and develops a hatred to it. Because there is power in that. There is a hell of a lot of power in that.
I will always hate gambling, I think in many ways it is terrible, and very dangerous for young people, but I can’t hate the industry, I just have to accept that it is the world we live in. So you are a gambling addict that has lost all their money like I was so many times? Well, remember at the end of the day, without you schools would not be built, cruise ships wouldn’t exist, many athletes who scrape by wouldn’t be able live their dreams. The good comes with the bad. You can quit gambling without hating it, you can dislike it and condemn it without hating it. Hatred isn’t helping anyone. It is a tough pill to swallow, if you read many of articles I express a hatred for it, but you know what? I know in my heart 100% that if I keep hating it, if I keep being 100% negative about it I will relapse, and I have no intention of that.