Gambling Addiction

[El Sid]

Props to u for writing this

Thanks, props to you to.

[Karabiner]

I bet it isn't a best seller.

Not yet Keith, it's only been out for eight hour. Hopefully it will sell a few copies before Christmas, otherwise it will be frozen tripe suppers, fortunately stocked up when they were half price at Morrisons.

If you are looking to buy a best seller could I recommend 23 Shades of Gray, it's about an online poker player who is obsessed with the number 23. He moves house to live at number 23, which is on the 23 bus route, he always plays 23 screens of poker, his beautiful girlfriend Frangelina Monteith, is 23 years old, she sits on his lap when he plays poker and things get very steamy.

Whenever I hear your name it takes me back years when I ran away from home with Bertram Mills Circus, There was a guy there who trained a camel to walk on his back legs (you would get locked up for it these days) he found that the camel loved a sticky date placed up his rectum, the camel suffered from constipation and this relieved it. The camel was so grateful the it performed this amazing trick of walking on its back legs.

All the very best to you, keep playing - cos practice makes perfect.

BoB

[El Sid]

I will warn you now there is some subliminal content in the book,

Can you elaborate?

He did in his OP. Wait till tomorrow

No he didn't. Subliminal messages in an ebook?  Really? (subliminal messages in anything really, but especially an ebook)

The following is a small section of the book, read it and see how you feel when you wake up in the morning, you will have vivid dreams that will enlighten you. Enjoy the journey.


“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colours are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again”.
Elizabeth Lawrence.

I was brought up in Soho, in Lisle Street, long before it became Chinatown.
In 1953 at the time of the Coronation, I was an eight year old street-wise kid, playing on bomb sites, running through the streets, ducking and diving between prostitutes plying their trade and street bookies who bustled along trying to stay one step ahead of the police.

And then there were the gamers, these sharply dressed characters were usually just out of prison. They specialised in find the lady, the three card trick.

To a child of eight these gamers were absolute magic. They were even better than the Newport Court escapologist who was strapped into a straitjacket, placed in a canvas bag and trussed up with chains and padlocks. Then, for good measure, a couple of swords were placed between the canvas bag and the chains.

He’d take a full ten minutes to shake himself free as the queue of cinema goers threw pennies into a hat. Two young rogues once grabbed him, while he was still in the bag, and threw him onto the back of a passing lorry.
There were eight or ten gamers in a group, while the main man set up a box to place his three cards on, the majority of gamers would bustle around him. “Find the lady, find the lady”. The main man would shout and the other gamers would start placing wagers.

Of course their wagers were successful and the main man would pay them off. Two or three of the gamers would act as lookouts, even a notion of a policeman in the area would result in a shrill whistle and they would disperse.

Their movements were like a ballet as they pushed in and out of position sometimes as fake gamblers, sometimes as lookouts. My friends and I would look on in awe wondering who the first mug in the crowd would be. As the crowd grew the first mug punter would move forward and be enticed to place a bet.

The hand was faster than the eye and the mug punter parted with his cash, a gamer would nudge him out of the way and place a winning bet, this would make the mug punter all the more determined and he would increase his stake and have another go at finding the lady.
Needless to say, no mug punter ever found the lady, the gamers after dividing the spoils would move on. The mug punter had literally stood for the three card trick.

Times changed, laws were passed and the working girls were taken off the streets, the street bookies were replaced with betting shops. The bomb sites were levelled and office buildings replaced my playground. Who knows what happened to the gamers, maybe they’d saved enough to become legitimate and go into the betting shop business.

“In a bet there’s a fool and a thief”.
Chinese Proverb.

Sleep well and sweet dreams - Sid Harris.

[DMorgan]

I bet it isn't a best seller.

Not yet Keith, it's only been out for eight hour. Hopefully it will sell a few copies before Christmas, otherwise it will be frozen tripe suppers, fortunately stocked up when they were half price at Morrisons.

If you are looking to buy a best seller could I recommend 23 Shades of Gray, it's about an online poker player who is obsessed with the number 23. He moves house to live at number 23, which is on the 23 bus route, he always plays 23 screens of poker, his beautiful girlfriend Frangelina Monteith, is 23 years old, she sits on his lap when he plays poker and things get very steamy.

Whenever I hear your name it takes me back years when I ran away from home with Bertram Mills Circus, There was a guy there who trained a camel to walk on his back legs (you would get locked up for it these days) he found that the camel loved a sticky date placed up his rectum, the camel suffered from constipation and this relieved it. The camel was so grateful the it performed this amazing trick of walking on its back legs.

All the very best to you, keep playing - cos practice makes perfect.

BoB

Solid gold

[sovietsong]

Are your books written in the style you post on here?

[kinboshi]

I will warn you now there is some subliminal content in the book,

Can you elaborate?

He did in his OP. Wait till tomorrow

No he didn't. Subliminal messages in an ebook?  Really? (subliminal messages in anything really, but especially an ebook)

The following is a small section of the book, read it and see how you feel when you wake up in the morning, you will have vivid dreams that will enlighten you. Enjoy the journey.


“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colours are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again”.
Elizabeth Lawrence.

I was brought up in Soho, in Lisle Street, long before it became Chinatown.
In 1953 at the time of the Coronation, I was an eight year old street-wise kid, playing on bomb sites, running through the streets, ducking and diving between prostitutes plying their trade and street bookies who bustled along trying to stay one step ahead of the police.

And then there were the gamers, these sharply dressed characters were usually just out of prison. They specialised in find the lady, the three card trick.

To a child of eight these gamers were absolute magic. They were even better than the Newport Court escapologist who was strapped into a straitjacket, placed in a canvas bag and trussed up with chains and padlocks. Then, for good measure, a couple of swords were placed between the canvas bag and the chains.

He’d take a full ten minutes to shake himself free as the queue of cinema goers threw pennies into a hat. Two young rogues once grabbed him, while he was still in the bag, and threw him onto the back of a passing lorry.
There were eight or ten gamers in a group, while the main man set up a box to place his three cards on, the majority of gamers would bustle around him. “Find the lady, find the lady”. The main man would shout and the other gamers would start placing wagers.

Of course their wagers were successful and the main man would pay them off. Two or three of the gamers would act as lookouts, even a notion of a policeman in the area would result in a shrill whistle and they would disperse.

Their movements were like a ballet as they pushed in and out of position sometimes as fake gamblers, sometimes as lookouts. My friends and I would look on in awe wondering who the first mug in the crowd would be. As the crowd grew the first mug punter would move forward and be enticed to place a bet.

The hand was faster than the eye and the mug punter parted with his cash, a gamer would nudge him out of the way and place a winning bet, this would make the mug punter all the more determined and he would increase his stake and have another go at finding the lady.
Needless to say, no mug punter ever found the lady, the gamers after dividing the spoils would move on. The mug punter had literally stood for the three card trick.

Times changed, laws were passed and the working girls were taken off the streets, the street bookies were replaced with betting shops. The bomb sites were levelled and office buildings replaced my playground. Who knows what happened to the gamers, maybe they’d saved enough to become legitimate and go into the betting shop business.

“In a bet there’s a fool and a thief”.
Chinese Proverb.

Sleep well and sweet dreams - Sid Harris.

Okaaaaaaay.

[Doobs]

Are your books written in the style you post on here?

Yep, the style is exactly the same.  I can confirm every page contains spam for his other books.

[sovietsong]

Are your books written in the style you post on here?

Yep, the style is exactly the same.  I can confirm every page contains spam for his other books.

We can forgive spam if it's entertaining. Every musician/actor/comedian appearing on a chat show is trying to get us to buy a album/DVD/book but it's ok if they entertain!

[El Sid]

I will attempt to answer the last few posts in one go.

On the subject of style, if ever I post anything on blonde, I use the style of: Obnoxious, clever dick, world weary old man. This always ensures a reply and gives the locals a chance to vent their anger at that particular kind of old git.

In the real world, I make the most of being a ghost writer and write in many  diverse styles. This makes the job really interesting, and quite amusing. One of my biggest successes is a lesbian persona that I adopt to write on feminist issues. Under the lesbian persona I have written a highly successful novel translated into twelve languages; this is my favourite coup.

I think the multiple style thing is easy for me because I suffer from multiple personality syndrome. Not being lazy, I put them all to work.

As for spam, there isn't enough in the book to make a fritter. I only mention two of my books within the: How to Stop Gambling Now book, and both are relevant. One of the plugs wouldn't earn me a penny because I sold the rights to: The Essential Guide to Backing Winners, 10 years ago, to a highly successful racehorse owner.

Notably that particular book has a cult following and first editions in good condition in the US go for around $100. (you can check that out on Amazon.Com).

But it really isn't about the money, I would have done my job for peanuts, as I enjoy it so much. Much the same as most poker players play the game without any reward because they enjoy it.

I know that you're quite shrewd on this site and you think you will save the £3 and tease bits of the book out of me by playing good cop bad cop.

But this is the last time you have me over, it's part of the section in the book on roulette machines (one of my pet hates). There's no subliminal content in this next piece.


Copyright / Sidney Harris / September 2012

“The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he did not exist”.
Charles Baudelair (From the ‘Usual Suspects’ / Kevin Spacey / Verbal Kint / Keyzer Soze)

The magician John Scarne wasn’t a gambler but was recognised as the world’s leading authority on gambling and cheating. John Scarne, one of the greatest card manipulators, doubled for Paul Newman’s hands in the 1973 film, ‘The Sting’.
Here’s a message from the late John Scarne:
“My last piece of advice to the degenerate slot player who thinks he can beat the one-armed-bandit consists of four little words: It can’t be done”.

Just as there is a warning on cigarette packets, there should be a sign over each betting shop door, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”

In the UK punters lose one billion pounds a year in their local high street playing roulette on fixed odds betting machines. They can stake up to one hundred pounds a spin and the wheel spins three times in a minute.
In essence the punter can lose three hundred pounds in a minute. The punter can lose money literally as fast as he can load it into the machine.

These machines are producing more addicted gamblers than any form of gambling ever did. If a foreign power wanted to undermine the UK’s population these machines are far more effective than terrorism.

These roulette machines attract the young. Although the minimum age for playing these machines is eighteen. Thousands of sixteen and seventeen year olds are involved at the most impressionable time of their lives. Blind eyes and fake ID’s abound in our society.

Internet porn and Internet gambling are devastating children. In the UK, six hundred children a year telephone a child help line because they are troubled by or addicted to internet porn. For every child that seeks help, hundreds are corrupted in silence. There are no reliable figures for how many children are addicted to internet gambling. It seems like nobody cares.

“Gambling is the future of the internet. You can only look at so many dirty pictures”.
Simon Noble (Australian internet bookmaker).

Why are these machines so dangerous?
Because they induce the trance like state that leaves the addicted gambler vulnerable ‘the gambler’s trance’.

How is this done?
The spinning roulette wheel is the key. Although not the favoured induction method by skilled hypnotists, the spinning wheel can put someone into a trance. Anyone fool enough to watch a wheel spinning for hours will find it, at the very least debilitating. This is a brain addling pursuit. This is nothing new, roulette wheels have been mesmerising people since the eighteenth century.

The people sitting in front of these machines enter an altered state, betting shop proprietors will say this is risible; they really wouldn’t want anyone to cast an aspersion on the machines that hold the industry together, these machines that, without exception, always deliver a magnificent profit.


Each betting shop is allowed a maximum of four of these machines. The average profit these four machines will make for each shop is over two hundred thousand pounds a year. Without these machines betting shops would be closing down, not springing up on every high street where shops of real use to the community are being forced to close due to the recession.

You might ask, why would any government allow this lunatic state of affairs to exist? One of the best people to ask would be Tony Blair whose government introduced the parliamentary bill that made this possible.

“If we had known then what we know now we wouldn’t have allowed this. Because it’s not just ruining the high street, it’s ruining people’s lives”. Harriet Harman (Labour’s deputy leader)

It is virtually unheard of for a UK politician to admit to being wrong. This makes Harriet Harman’s statement all the more compelling. The current government is quite happy to accept the badly needed taxes and blame the miserable state of affairs on the previous government.

John Whittingdale the chairman of the House of Commons, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is calling for the creation of more casinos, he insists that fruit machines are legitimate entertainment.

In reply to this news, a Daily Telegraph reader had the following to say:

“I grew up in a seaside town with slot machines here, there and everywhere – and by the age of twelve I was addicted to the bright lights and the spinning reels. The fact that I went home with more cash than I went out with one time in one hundred didn’t matter. I gambled for the thrill of it at every opportunity. I lost a serious amount of money and got into serious trouble. I only managed to quit gambling by getting into drugs.

As a mature adult, who managed to kick the habit and all the follow on addictions – I’d like to see people who earn a living from fruit machines and the like impaled, the right way up and people can go and stick a few coins in their mouth for amusement.

Yet another perverse politician, whose only idea is to skim wealth from the people who do all the work; these people make maggots and tapeworms shine.” 24/07/12.

In the USA there are now casinos in most states although most of the profits still end up in Nevada (Incidentally, that’s where most slot machines are manufactured). There are over eight hundred and fifty thousand slot machines in the USA, twice the number of cash machines, ATMs.  

“When we put fifty machines in, I consider them fifty more mousetraps. You have to have a mousetrap to catch a mouse”.
Bob Stupak (The Polish Maverick, casino owner and builder of Vegas’ Stratosphere Tower.)

The largest casino in the world, the Venetian in Macao, boasts eight hundred and fifty slot machines.

Slot machines are the equivalent of crack cocaine as far as addiction is concerned. The one arm bandits of old were designed by engineers - the slots of today are designed by psychologists.

Whereas Pavlov used dogs to prove his theory of conditioned reflex, human beings now offer themselves up voluntarily to prove Pavlov’s theory by sitting in front of slot machines until they are penniless.

In B F Skinner’s ‘The Behaviour of Organisms’ 1938, Skinner describes operant conditioning; how intermittent rewards have a greater effect than rewards that are predictable.

Slot machines keep giving rewards, small rewards, far less than the money that the slot player, the operant, puts into the machine.

These intermittent rewards are unpredictable they are a surprise, just what the operant is seeking; the surprise of many small rewards, regardless of the price they have to pay.

The small rewards seem like big rewards as the machine plays the same fanfare for a small win as a big one. Spinning wheels, flashing lights, clicks, bells, chimes and fanfares; this has to be right up there with the ice age as one of evolution’s top ten dead ends.

Inside every gambler there is a three year old child who adores the small rewards, the spinning wheel, flashing lights, clicks, bells, chimes, and fanfares; in the same way they delighted in receiving a small reward for good behaviour as a child.

The slot machine was developed by the cynical to be played by the gullible. The slot machine has no conscience. To the slot machine you are not a person with feelings, commitments and family; you are an operant. While you continue to play the slots it might be a good idea to think of yourself as an operant rather than a person.

The love affair you’re having with this machine is ill fated, because this machine is something between a robbing whore and a heartless pimp; the minute you walk away from it, it flashes its lights at another operant. This machine has no heart, it not only wants your money it wants your soul. It wants to destroy you and your family. This slot is a slut.

When love turns sour it turns to hate, one day soon you’re going to hate this machine you once adored. The machine you thought was going to deliver you untold riches, the machine that lied to you while it spun its wheels, flashed its lights and fooled you with small rewards.

"They are the new breed of slot machine; colourful, fancy, exciting, wonderful and deadly; they sit there like young courtesans, promising pleasures undreamed of, your deepest desires fulfilled, all lusts satiated”. "
Frank Scoblete (Actor, turned gambler, turned author).

Earlier in the book using Einstein's theory of relativity I prove conclusively that, in the long term, no one can win at roulette, and as I always say, life is lived in the long term.

The thing about the book is it will immunise most people against gambling addiction. If I can get educationalists to adopt the book, it might save a lot of kids going down a dead end that could destroy them.

With drug dealers around every corner and roulette machines on every high street, young people don't stand much of a chance these days. They need all the help they can get.

Final word from Einstein:"The only way you can win at roulette is to take the chips off the table while the croupier isn't looking".
All the best to you all,  save and prosper, El Sid

[nirvana]

I enjoyed reading that

[ScottMGee]

this machine is something between a robbing whore and a heartless pimp; the minute you walk away from it, it flashes its lights at another operant.

so true

[El Sid]

Just read the tragic story below in today's Mail, have decided to make my book available FREE for the next week.

It's an ideal deterrent for youngsters who need some immunisation against this chronic problem. It's downloadable FREE and readable on any iPad or computer.

Make sure your teenager has a sporting chance and understands the perversity of a very crazy world.

If you know of anyone in danger recommend it to them. If we can save one life - we would have achieved the ultimate success.

Go to> http://howtostopgamblingnow.net/   

Press the smashwords connection and get your FREE eBook.
An insight into the gambler's mind.

From today's Daily Mail.
Former professional footballer jumped to his death after racking up £10,000 of online gambling debts
Adam Billing, 27, from Liskeard, had been a promising youth team player with Plymouth Argyle before his career was wrecked by injury
Family say he turned to online gambling after failing to make it as a pro
He siphoned off £10,000 from his friend's building company to fund his addiction
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 14:01, 27 September 2012 | UPDATED: 16:16, 27 September 2012
Comments (24)
Share
 
A promising football player whose career was wrecked by injury jumped to his death from 150ft high viaduct after racking up gambling debts online.
Talented Adam Billing, 27, from Liskeard, near Plymouth had been a youth team player with Plymouth Argyle FC but failed to make it as a professional after suffering a serious knee injury.
He threw himself from the 150ft high Moorswater viaduct in Liskeard, east Cornwall, in April after spiraling into debt through an online gambling addiction.

Tragedy: Adam Billing, 27, plunged to his death after becoming addicted to online gambling

Promising: Adam had been a youth team player with Plymouth Argyle before career was cut short
An inquest in Truro heard how Adam ran a building business with his friend Leon Caers.
Mr Caers said that £10,000 of payments had been transferred from the firm’s account into Adam’s personal bank account.
 
Tough new curbs on high-stake gambling machines in bid to protect problem punters
In a statement he said: 'For whatever reason Adam had been drawn into a cycle of gambling that became more and more costly to him and he felt he couldn’t approach me or anyone else for help.'

Heartache: The Liskeard viaduct in Cornwall where Adam plunged to his death in April this year
Adam's parents said he had seemed happier after meeting girlfriend Jenny Dodds.
But on the day of his death he sent a heartbreaking message to his mum Karen saying 'I'm so sorry mum - I've let you down again.'
His family said Adam had been 'a fun-loving joker' who became become depressed after his knee injury and an assault in which he had his ear bitten off.

Gambling: Adam had transferred £10,000 from his friends company to fund his addiction

Happier times: Adam was described as a 'fun-loving joker' by his parents Bill and Karen
Mother Karen and father Bill said: 'It is our opinion that Adam turned to online gambling after a number of personal circumstances left him at a low ebb and made him vulnerable to the lure of online gambling.
'Unfortunately, within a few weeks, Adam became caught in a vicious circle and could not see a way out.'

Talent: Adam Billing had been a promising footballer in the Plymouth Argyle youth team

Mrs Billing went on to warn others about online gambling.

‘Vast amounts of money can be easily lost, just by clicking a button.
Those who gamble get embroiled, not acknowledging that they are losing real money,' she said.

His parents and sister Shelley paid tribute to their son, who also played for local teams Dobwalls and Liskeard Athletic.
They said: ‘He lived his life to the full, packing more into his 27 years than most of us would in a whole lifetime.'

The Cornwall coroner Dr Emma Carlyon recorded a verdict of suicide.
Earlier this week the government announced plans to toughen gambling laws in a bid to protect problem punters.

The Lib Dems have launched a campaign to clampdown on gambling regulations which were relaxed under the previous Labour government

[paulhouk03]

good book btw deffo worth a free dl

[fidget]

At £3 it's got to be worth a punt.

[El Sid]

Fidget, thanks for vote of confidence at three pounds, but you are mistaking three for FREE - for the next seven days.

It will be Free for longer in US libraries.