During the past two weeks I have been writing about gambling addiction, the reason why I think this is important is because gambling can be a dangerous thing if people let it get out of control. It is a proven fact that some people are exaggeratively more prone to become addicts that others.

Even though most players will not develop a gambling addiction, a small percentage might and that is why this problem needs to be taken care of. I believe that if the online gambling industry acts more responsibly about gambling addiction and encourages players to stop gambling when it has become a problem in their lives, we will in a better track to establish legal and regulated online gambling legislation.

In this article I want to strongly encourage others in the industry to look after their players not only when it comes to bonuses, features, game variety, game quality, etc. but to also provide assistance for gambling addiction. This could be through a toll-free number, a part of their website in which they mention what gambling addiction is and where players can find help. It does not even need to be big but I think it would be optimal to let players know that there is a way out of it and that they can find resources for it at the online casino too. The Virtual Casino encourages players to gamble responsibly.

Just a thought…

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 800.522.4700 or go to www.ncpgambling.org.

While we recommend that you use the download version of casinos, sometimes players download more and more games and they also download the software of different casinos. When you have too many of those files in your computer, the computer’s memory usage starts building up and that is why your computer could be running slower as the weight of the files can slow down processing speeds, especially if you have one of the older computers.

If your processing speed has gone down even online casino game play can suffer from it. Some of the more modern computers have sufficient memory to accomodate several online casinos without affecting the speed but your start menu can also be longer and/or your desktop can become cluttered.

We recommend that you download casino software prudently. This should also be a factor to consider when choosing an online casino to play at. We also encourage you to check for extra software in your computer that you may not be using and Uninstall it to get rid of it. Deleting the desktop icons will clear space on your screen but the file is still in your computer. It is important to understand that during the installation of the online casino software the core software is stored in the location chosen by default or specified by the player but components of the software are placed in various system folders.

To get rid of the extra software you will need to UNISNTALL it and not only delete it. All software, including online casino software, come with an uninstall facility that exactly mirrors the install process. This facility accesses each and every location where a component of the software was placed during installation and removes it from there before removing the core program folder.

Post a comment if you have any questions on how to uninstall software, I will be happy to answer. I also recommend downloading The Virtual Casino’s software as it is reputable, comes with great quality and it is easy to navigate.

Realizing that there is a problem will not be enough for your friend to overcome a gambling addiction, you will need to be there for them and give them support because they will need it. We recomment that you encourage a gambling addict to read our previous articles because we discussed some tips for helping yourself to overcome a gambling addiction.

We advice that you tell your friend to go to therapy, gambling addiction is a serious problem and therapy can really help them. If you go back to our gambling addiction articles you will find that it takes a lot of will for an addict to overcome their habits. You should come in at the moments when the person is lacking enough will to do things themselves.

Some of the things you might want to consider doing is spending time with them when they get very anxious, suggest new activities that they may like and try getting involved with them as well. Encourage your friend to set greater goals every two weeks for example, they can diminish the time they spend at the computer gambling gradually and you can provide some type of reward for it or just some words of comfort.

The keywords for helping a friend with a gambling addiction are honesty, sensitivity, support, patience… a lot of patience. We wish you the best in this process if you find yourself helping a friend and reply to this post if you have any other concerns.

Soon we will talk why it is important to talk about gambling addiction in this industry even though gambling is what we promote.

A lot of online gaming providers offer this tool but, interestingly, it is different for each one of them. For example, Realtime Gaming offers an auto play feature that allows you to enter the number of auto play spins and also enable some conditions. Some examples of these conditions are stop when a jackpot is won, stop when a win equals or exceeds a specified amount, stop on any win,stop if the balance increases or decreases by a specified amount. If you are in front of your computer you can manually stop auto play but if you are planning to go get a sandwich this can be convenient.

Vegas Technology offers a similar type of auto play option but with one very important additional option. Players are able to specify the number of seconds between spins between 0.25 and 2.00 which would allow you to have the game run really fast.

Cryptologic offers a two-level auto play feature. In the first level players set the number of auto spins and run them through. In the second level players can specify conditions for the auto play to automatically stop. These conditions are the same as Vegas Technology with the exception that players cannot specify the time between spins but they can select the number of paylines and the coin denomination from within the auto play settings.

There is also the Microgaming auto play feature which allows players to activate a 5x or a 10x auto spins can be activated directly without entering the setup box. The only condition at which the auto play can be stopped is when a win exceeds or equals a specified amount. The auto play automatically stops if a bonus feature is activated.

The Payment Act defines that any organization processing payments for unlicensed online gambling operators will become an accessory to the crime. This ruling also applies to financial service providers who transfer payments from players to online casinos in Norway. However, the ban onli applies to local banks and payment processors since Norwegian laws do not apply across borders.

This new law also aims to make it difficult for local online gambling operators which function legally hoping that this could ideally eliminate, or at least reduce, competition for the state-owned gambling monopoly.

The Norwegian Payment Act will come into effect in June 1st, 2010 the same day when the UIGEA would come into effect in the US. “The Payment Act has been modeled on the UIGEA, which also prohibits processing of financial transactions for illegal online gambling.” states Ryan Alders from CasinoAdvisor.

The European Commission has been protesting against this new law in Norway, the European Union clearly states that an online gambling operator licensed by any of the member states can operate in other member states without requiring to be licensed there. The Payment Act is being seen as a major impediment in the EU objective of forming a single unified online gambling market.

When you find yourself in the position of being a close relative, friend or partner to a compulsive online gambler you are in a position to help them realize the problem.

I recommend that you sit down and talk to the person about the problem, maybe they will recognize that it exists but some will deny it and it is possible that they get mad at you in that moment. However, once you have mentioned it to them you have put it in their mindsets. The next time you notice that they have been in a computer for more than 10 hours doing nothing but gambling you might want to say something like “Do you think people who are not addicted to online gambling sit in the computer for 10 hours everyday?”, and just question their actions everytime you notice the dangerous behaviour.

There is a high chance that the online gambler will get angry and will feel annoyed by you pointing out each one of their compulsive gambling actions, but try to be the reasonable person and calmly explain to them the dangers of addictive online gambling.

This will be the hardest part of the process, you will need to be very patient and also very careful with the type of things you say so that you are not attacking the person but pointing out their actions so they can judge themselves.

On our next article we will go into pointing out those actions more in detail and what to do once they acknowledge that the problem is there.

I have broken down his story to exemplify best the different areas his gambling addiction affected.

“In spring 2009 I was fired from my job for misappropriation of funds. Translation: I stole money from my employer to feed my Gambling Addiction. We are not talking about petty cash either. The total amount of my fraud was almost $40 Grand.” he stated. As you can see his problem was serious and the consequences of it was that he lost his job because of not being able to control his gambling urge.

“When I admitted my illegal indiscretions (sounds better than criminal activities) they did not immediately fire me. It took them close to a week to decide that [...]I asked everyday for a disability insurance application. I was told I did not need one as I was still receiving my salary. I told them that regardless of their decision, I would need treatment. I continued to ask everyday. Everyday I was told I didn’t need to as I was still being paid. Then they fired me. The next day when I asked again I was told I did not qualify as I was not an employee.” the second part states. Here we can see that he has accepted the problem and decides to seek help.

“Prior to my being canned I did contact the Employee Assistance Program and an appointment was made with a local clinical counsellor. When I was turfed the company generously agreed to pay for 3 months of weekly sessions. Unfortunately when you are a pathological gambler it takes a bit more therapy than that to make a dent in your disease.” he said. The compulsive online gambler now moves on to look for real help in the form of therapy.

“The first month following my admission of being a pathological gambler was a bit difficult (understatement). My wife hated me. My in-laws wanted me dead. My friends (the few I had left) didn’t know what to say. My kids cried at school. My parents were busy blaming themselves.” At this point he is finally starting to realize the effects of his actions on all aspects of his life and especially on the people he loves the most.

If you visit his blog you will find other posts in which he describes different stages of his journey of overcoming a gambling addiction. I just want to give a shout out to our reader for facing his problem!

First of all you need to realize that it might happen that you cannot go back to gambling again, depending on the severity of your problem. However, there is a chance that you can just limit yourself to certain amount of time and be really careful, but in most cases it is likely that you will be recommended not going back to online gambling because you are always in danger of being caught by it again.

In order to determine this I would recommend that you go to therapy. The next thing to do when overcoming an addiction once you have accepted that it exists is to seek help in order to understand yourself better. You will need to realize the severity of the problem and what it is doing to yourself and your loved ones around you and therapy is a great way to start doing this. Do not be hesitant about going to therapy, a lot of people do it and it is very helpful; going there does not mean you are crazy.

If you are determined to overcome your addiction we also encourage you to start talking about it with the people around you and listen to their perception of your latest actions. By doing this you will be able to gain an outside perspective of yourself and the problem and you will develop a better understanding of this.

A gambling addiction is something serious and should not be taken lightly, seek help if you feel you might be developing one.

Once you have come to realize that you could be online gambling-dependent you have taken the first step forward, and probably that was the hardest thing to do. Acknowledging that you have a problem will help you have a stronger sense of will in overcoming your addiction.

We recommend that you change your lifestyle a little bit and acknowledge the following:

• To start online gambling you need to make a DECISION to sit at your computer and do it. If you feel an urge ti gamble try to ease it away with another activity immediately, call a friend, cook some food, just try to get your mind away from it before it gets to you.
• To gamble you need money. Try to get rid of your credit cards, have someone you can trust be in charge of your money for a while. Keep limited amounts of cash with you.
• You need to start doing things to fill your time so you should look for something you enjoy better than gambling. Learn a new language, learn how to cook, go out with your friends. Get busy!
• If you think that you cannot handle yourself, try to email your online casino and/or poker room and they might restrict you from accessing them. do not put yourself in tempting situations, avoid gambling patterns at all cost.

Obviously, this article does not attempt to be a unique saving guide to overcome a gambling problem. I am trying to give you some general things you can do to improve your status.

In our future articles we will look into gambling addiction therapy, other treatments and also how to face the decision that perhaps you should just put gambling away from your life, as much as you may love it.


]]> http://thevirtualcasino.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/gambling-addiction-what-to-do-once-detected-part-iv/feed/ 0 Marian http://thevirtualcasino.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/gambling-addiction-consequences-part-iii/ http://thevirtualcasino.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/gambling-addiction-consequences-part-iii/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:28:52 +0000 Marianty http://thevirtualcasino.wordpress.com/?p=176 ]]> Here are a few more signs that online gambling is becoming dangerous for you:

- Sometimes you feel guilty while at the computer.
- You watch the laundry/dishes/work pile up but you keep on gambling.
- Online gambling is now your principal activity and other stuff, like family, work and friends are secondary.
- You feel extremely annoyed if people interrupt you while gambling online. This gets even worse if you take aggressive measures when people interrupt your games.
- While not gambling online, you anticipate the moment when you will do it again.
- You feel anxious if you online gambling time needs to be cut down by other activities and feel the need to go back to the computer.
- You have started borrowing money from other people to afford your online gambling activities. (You may also think that at some point “you will get even” if you just play a little longer.)
- You have started STEALING from other people to be able to afford your online gambling activities.

These signs are a little more intense than the ones we mentioned on the past article. If any of this is true for you then you are already addicted or very close to being addicted to it in an unhealthy way.

If you got a red flag on your online gambling behaviour, then maybe you should start taking care of this. Often, when a person gets hooked in this types of addiction their social skills and relationships fall aside. Eventually, the only thing left in your life will be you and that screen with the flashy lights and I am sure none of you wants to end up that way.

However, this is not the end of the world…yet. If you can detect a gambling addiction there is still a way back but as with any type of addiction it will take a lot of WILL and support from family and friends. In our next article we will discuss how to overcome your gambling addiction so stay with us for more information.


]]> http://thevirtualcasino.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/gambling-addiction-consequences-part-iii/feed/ 0 Marian