Aretz, a recovering gambling addict, had not placed a bet in nearly two years. But because he was vaccinated, he was set to be automatically entered into the lottery, which he considered a gamble — and which he worried could lead to a relapse.
“I am appreciative that the government is trying to do something promoting people getting vaccinated,” said Aretz, a 58-year-old construction engineer. “At the same time, they are putting folks into an awkward position. . . . One thing leads to another and the next thing I know, I am in Atlantic City.”
No… This guy is correct, it’s unfortunate to be an addict but this is 100% truth, he cannot be placing or receiving a bet, if he does it could and possibly will trigger him and as he says, it’s game on.
Edit: You would not give a drink to an alcoholic and make him drink it, so why give a gambler a free bet? He breaks his abstinence and its on.
Your friend is a recovering alcoholic and gambling addict.
You go to their house, crack open a beer and offer it to them.
You go to their house, tell them you entered their name into the local radio station draw to win tickets to their favorite bands upcoming show.
You really think those are the same? That’s absurd.
No one is blaming the addict. I imagine everyone agrees it is good they listened and took his name off of their list. Everyone has different triggers for life’s problems and they should be listened to.
My contention is with passive actions vs deliberate ones.
It is highly recommended in Gamblers Anon that you do not put yourself in a position in the 1st few years of recovery where you’ve placed or received a free bet as every binge starts from 1 bet and removing that aspect gives you a far better chance of recovery and will aid 8n improving your thinking moving forward to be honest with yourself that placing or receiving is absolutely wrong.
Sometimes it different to different folks what will set them off, sometimes it’s not the actual placing or receiving of that bet, but the head will nt allow you to forget it, some people may not be alarmed and that’s great, they got away with it, but that person who cannot let it go will have an urge to place a bet and that urge in an addict is what they try ti avoid.
Sure its not scientific as @CaffeineNeeded might come in and say, but its far better for recovery if you’re able to avoid situations where the urge will come.
But there are degrees here. You shouldn’t walk into a casino because they’re offering you a free play. We agree there. But, most grocery stores I go to offer you a chance at a gift card on your receipt if you fill out a survey. Burger King does the same. I dont think these trigger in the same way.
You want me to get the women round the corner to explain to you why her husband is no longer with her because his pal thought it was OK for him to place a raffle ticket in the charity event that caused him to blow thousands online when he got home and blew everything again.
That’s a bad way to look at it, why not just remove the free stuff? Maybe give the bet to someone else? Like someone who might use the money if won for a better life rather than endangering the public when the addict goes on a spree?
But these aren’t comparable. Giving someone a physical object in the form of a lottery ticket is way different. If you have an email address and sign up for even the basic websites we use as humans in society in 2021 (Google, Amazon, netflix) you will be presented with a ton of surveys and promotions.