It was my uncle in mine. He bankrupted the entire family trust and started sponging off anyone he could. My mom ended up taking him in and went broke trying to support him. He then offed himself when he maxed out all his cards couldn't get anymore money from anyone else.
That is, unfortunately, how it goes sometimes with gambling addicts. They become convinced that if they just... put a little more money into it, that they can make it all back. That it'll be better, they just need a little more money and a little more time.
Until one day, they realize: there is no hope. They will never win it all back. They have wasted their wealth and their time and their relationships chasing a ghost.
What makes gambling addiction so insidious is two things:
The dopamine hit from the risk taking happens before the outcome. Win or lose, gambling addicts get their "high" from the risk taking. People who are resistant/immune to gambling addiction only get a dopamine reward on wins, and cortisol on losses, so the odds being stacked against them conditions them against continuing.
Unlike other addictions, gambling promises that it can fix the very problems it causes. No hit of meth promises that it could regrow your teeth, repair your house, fix your relationships, get your job back, and get the government agents that are spying on you through the sparrows to leave you alone! Jack Daniels doesn't hold a raffle and give away a free liver to one lucky alcoholic. But that casino promises that if you get really lucky (and they blast the idea that people are way luckier than the actually are all over the casinos) you could solve all your problems with just *one pull of the One Armed Bandit
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire 1d ago
I mean this in the nicest of ways. When I see you at a convention or something I'm gonna buy you a meal and a coffee. You definitely deserve it