Not the greatest start to 2012... gambling

[Pawnless Endgame]

...and password it ofc.

 

[theNude]

Its good that she has told you, it will be a great weight of her chest as it can't be easy keeping something like that from her partner.

Only problem really is to fathom whether she has a problem or was just a bit naive about betting online. perhaps ask her to attend some gambling anonymous meetings. That way she can see the real damage it can cause plus get support if need be from people that can actually help her.

Knee jerk reactions like blocking internet or taking finances away from her are going to make her feel awful, isolated and probably move her back to the gambling or worse other addictive traits that people with addictive personalities can pick up.

Dude.

 

[HangTime]

Martingale strategy is flawed when applied to a game of chance (or more specifically, any game of chance where the house has an advantage) because statistically it will lose in the long term.

I do think however if you have sufficiently big pockets that it can be viable in sports betting, in terms of using it as a method of recovering losses in cases where you can identify the probability of an outcome more accurately than the bookmakers (and to a level that outweighs their overround). The problem is of course that not everyone who believes they can do this, actually can - essentially everyone who starts (non-matched/bonus-bagging) betting thinks they know better than the bookies and many of those people lose.

Anyway going back to the OP it sounds as though you've had a positive outcome in terms of her being more open with her finances, allowing you to block sites and ensuring that the joint account is funded first.

 

[area51_for_psx]

I got into bother with gambling a few years ago. The threads might be still about. I now have closed all my online accounts and dont touch it anymore. Only gambling I do now is playing £5 game of poker once every 2-3 months with friends. Were its more drinking than anything else. It takes time and I did fall back into it after quitting but it can be done. As now I have money in my account and it stays there, I even have savings now. There is help out there but I did it as I new I was going to lose everything i care about if i didnt stop.

So dont give up on her yet. Try and help her and you will get there in the end

 

[dowie]

I do think however if you have sufficiently big pockets that it can be viable in sports betting, in terms of using it as a method of recovering losses in cases where you can identify the probability of an outcome more accurately than the bookmakers (and to a level that outweighs their overround).

Its still pointless even assuming you've a +ve edge - in terms of the size of your bets the kelly criterion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion) is theoretically optimum but in practice a less than kelly amounts (often fractions of) are used - e.g. fund managers using half-kelly strategies.

 

[mehuk]

The Martingale system is only played by idiots.

Blackjack isn't a 50/50 game, and it never has been.

These are the kind of 'tips' that lose people thousands of pounds.

Didnt say it was 50/50, re-read rather than going for maximum kudos points.

I said it was almost 50/50 something like 49.1 - 49.6 in favor of the house or thereabouts. Or was when I played anyway.

And Martingale is fine, definately a better way of playing than going all in say at 50 quid a hand from the get go... as you can manage losses at say a quid, but get a run... 1,2,4,8,16... plus if you can contain yourself, not hard with a bit of willpower, then you can say OK ill Martingale to 16 quid wins and then dump back to a quid or whatever... maybe you can afford to start at a fiver a hand, or a tenner... im just using basic examples as its only a 2k loss so not like its stupid punting.

 

[Liampope]

Id give her 500 quid, get her the charts (maybe do it together?) and have a punt at winning some of that cash back.

How very stupid! That's a bit like saying to an alcoholic who's just made some big drunken life-balls-up 'There, there, mate, have a beer. That'll make you feel better.'

 

[Craig1981]

Gambling can be a nasty curse if you get a taste for it. My mum had a similar issue with online bingo websites. She won a few £1000 prizes, but she probably gambled away quite a bit more than she won.

I have no idea how much she lost alltogether, its not my business to ask. But I know she ended up emailing a bunch of different sites and having herself self excluded from ever using their sites again. I dont think she's been on them since then, so at least she was able to kick the habit.

 

[Ali195]

In my old job at the purple shirts we had to support the odd parental control sw call. One guy rang up saying he wanted gambling sites blocked so i remoted into his PC & went through all the different options. It then came to settings the 'admin' password but refused because he wanted it to stop HIM from accessing the websites. Was a solid 20 second pause from me before saying....i dont think it works like that sir.

 

[Hyburnate]

At least she told you. Support her.

 

[madsin]

I've asked if she wants me to block the betting websites but she said there's no need.

yeh right.
the trust whole thing would eat me away more than the money.

 

[Scon]

yeh right.
the trust whole thing would eat me away more than the money.

Read the thread again.

Looking good OP, but she may just be saying things to keep you happy atm, only time will tell.