How do you evaluate that you're still gambling responsibly?

[Wakate]

I think your friend is making a serious mistake by looking at other people's lives; he can't be absolutely sure that other people are actually playing much harder than he is. What guarantees that other people aren't lying? People who are struggling with addiction rarely talk about it to others, so if they told your friend that they're gambling too much, it might not be true. He should focus more on himself and set limits for himself based on his financial and psychological circumstances. I hope you advise him to be smart and not copy other people or compare his life to others'.

This looks like a case of comparison between him and the way other players gamble. Comparing two people about how their do their things are wrong and should not be overlooked. Comparison has made players to become addicted to gambling because you might think that you are not doing the right thing which is responsible for your loses. By trying to gamble more then you should, it can bring severe loses with in a matter of time.

[Samlucky O]

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

If You ask me I will say no, because sometimes people feel so pumpus and arugant about how they feel about themselves, they even go as far as referring to others as a yardstick. But however they don't even consider themselves and the people they reffearing to. I have actualy met or seen this kind of people and trust me, they are almost everywhere lolz.

[Mindyspace]

When I play slots, I always think beforehand about how much I'm willing to spend. If I exceed that amount, I simply stop and come back another day or even the following week. This has helped me a lot because I'm managing to win, lose little, and, most importantly, have fun amidst all this strategy.

[danherbias07]

You are not having trouble financially.

Yes, that's it. If you still have the means to sometimes go out to the mall and please yourself with good food and a movie, then you are still gambling responsibly.
But if everything is going wrong financially, then you might as well think twice about what you are doing or what to do next because it means it is affecting you. Savings must also be checked. Even if we are gambling, we must have some money left in case of emergency.

[Darker45]

Of course, he has it wrong. But there must be a limit to what we can do. You've done your part. It's now up to him to take your advice or at least think about it or go on with his life.

As for me, I know my financial status. I know how much expenses I regularly have. I know I'm not rich and the future will always be hard. I gamble with the full awareness of the reality. I admit I sometimes gamble more than I should, but I'm aware that it's beyond moderation. I always go back to gambling what I can afford to lose.

[alegotardo]

I was advising a junior colleague who obviously is gambling excessively with respect to his earnings and in self defense he pointed out to me some others who were worse than himself as a vindication of his own already bad practice.

Of a truth, the people he referred to are 5X worse than him and it was obvious they started from his level and degraded to a worse condition. I tried pointing out to him that measuring excessive gambling is a self evaluation with respect to your finances and not using others as a yardstick of measurement but he dismissed my with the words "As long as I'm not yet gambling like these guys, I'm fine".

I'm sure this mindset exists especially among friends who are into gambling and I decided to bring it up here for discussion.

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

The problem is that we try to find a "moral minimum" instead of a "prudent maximum" when we want to find a standard of what it means to be addicted or not.

Today he is 20% away from becoming an addict, tomorrow he sees that this is not as bad as that guy who is 60% on the path to addiction... so if he himself is 40% on that path, that's already good... six months later he will be at the same level as those he previously used as a negative reference.

Of course, my experience seems very silly and childish, but my sincere question to everyone is: who has never used others as parameters to say that "everything is fine" instead of evaluating their own conduct and checking if it is wrong or not? It's easier when we try to compare ourselves with other people and it's comforting when we see that we are better than average, but in reality we are already much worse than what we should be spending to have a healthy and addiction-free life. Or am I wrong?

The golden rule I always use as a reference is a fixed spending amount based on my monthly income. But if you don't like that, I propose something simpler....
Did the money you lost in a month prevent you from paying bills, saving something, and still enjoying life? Then maybe you're no longer within what's "acceptable," but this assessment needs to be HONEST and not a competition with who's deeper in debt.

[MiF]

When I play slots, I always think beforehand about how much I'm willing to spend. If I exceed that amount, I simply stop and come back another day or even the following week. This has helped me a lot because I'm managing to win, lose little, and, most importantly, have fun amidst all this strategy.

The way you take gambling very seriously, I think that if you play like this, the chances of you losing a lot of money will be very low. So I think that if you gamble with such thoughts as yours, no one will lose extra money and will not become addicted to gambling. The biggest problem is that when you lose in gambling, the interest in gambling increases a lot. Many people lose a lot of money to recover the lost money.

[Kasabus]

This is tied to losing, so for me the best answer is simple.. it’s when you’re still enjoying gambling even if you’re losing, and you’re not making bad decisions like chasing losses or losing control. That’s what responsible gambling looks like.

If you’re winning, it’s fine to enjoy the moment and even bet a bit more aggressively as long as you still end up ahead.
There’s nothing to complain with winning. The real problems only show up when we start losing.

[Muba20]

The person is moving forward with a wrong idea that can make him surpass all those gamblers at some point. If someone cannot identify his gambling condition, then that gambler will be the most affected. Many addicted gamblers do not consider themselves addicted, and it is not easy for them to get rid of the addiction. On the other hand, there are some who are aware of their gambling condition. Gambling usually has to be managed depending on one's financial capacity, which is why the gambler will benefit the most if he sets his own gambling limits instead of following gambling of others.

[maydna]

Sometimes referencing others as boundaries to evaluate our level of responsible gambling will not be a problem. If that help them to be aware of their gambling habit, they will not break the boundaries. You cannot force him to follow your advice because he is free to decide. If he thinks that he is still fine, he can playing gambling as usual. Usually, someone will not realize that something has changed. He needs help from others to see from their perspective so he can suggest something. We can only suggest something that will be good for him but we can't force him.

[bakasabo]

The prove that I gamble responsible are my finances. The amount of my bank account is not zero, I have zero debts or other obligatory. Loss in gambling does not make me think how to gain those money back. Moreover, I can allow myself to lose some amount of money in gambling and not be disappointed because of that. As well as I or anyone else ever noticed any signs of addiction to anything in myself. I have never saw financial possibility in gambling. That is a process that bring fun, emotions for me.

[swogerino]

I was advising a junior colleague who obviously is gambling excessively with respect to his earnings and in self defense he pointed out to me some others who were worse than himself as a vindication of his own already bad practice.

Of a truth, the people he referred to are 5X worse than him and it was obvious they started from his level and degraded to a worse condition. I tried pointing out to him that measuring excessive gambling is a self evaluation with respect to your finances and not using others as a yardstick of measurement but he dismissed my with the words "As long as I'm not yet gambling like these guys, I'm fine".

I'm sure this mindset exists especially among friends who are into gambling and I decided to bring it up here for discussion.

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

That has got nothing to do with measuring gambling if you point out other people who may gamble more. I know for example that streamers are in most of the time what they call themselves "degen" meaning people that don't care about anything except their feeling well but I don't compare my gambling to them as if I did I would look like I don't gamble at all. I compare myself against people I play poker in poker lobbies and I see no one puts a 100 dollars directly, they start like me with 10 or 20 dollars max for having fun as a beginning. So the best would be to compare yourself to people spending similarly to you in gambling otherwise if we think like your colleague we may end up hurting ourselves badly.

[Faazs]

I was advising a junior colleague who obviously is gambling excessively with respect to his earnings and in self defense he pointed out to me some others who were worse than himself as a vindication of his own already bad practice.

Of a truth, the people he referred to are 5X worse than him and it was obvious they started from his level and degraded to a worse condition. I tried pointing out to him that measuring excessive gambling is a self evaluation with respect to your finances and not using others as a yardstick of measurement but he dismissed my with the words "As long as I'm not yet gambling like these guys, I'm fine".

I'm sure this mindset exists especially among friends who are into gambling and I decided to bring it up here for discussion.

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

It's quite important to check whether you are going OVB with you betting habit,,, that's really important,, if u don't do that u are likely to loose all you have laboured for within a short time, how you can do these first restrict yourself to the amount you use to gamble weekly or monthly put a measure on it and make sure u don't ever spend above that limit every month, with dis you have a kind of control on your expenditure, don't have the mindset that you can beat, sometimes you pull back, strategize and reinvest, count your losses and move on to nxt , don't be amongst those that lost everything because of their addictive habit.

[Oluwa-btc]

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

Checking my bankroll management and gambling activities is how I keep in check or evaluate when I'm going off track. You know the moment you loose control of your responsible gambling habits that's the point you need to be guided and put a stop. Besides there's no point using anyone as yardstick of measurement but we should get to know what triggers us to go beyond and do well to control it effectively.

[348Judah]

Being a gambler, we just have to be able to tell of how we have been gambling, especially when we see more of the benefits in it than what may not be suitably appreciated by us, there are effects to everything we do, how we are gambling determines what we see from it, that is why we need to take time in making review not how we have been gambling, in other to have some feedbacks and be able to improve if needs be.

[Pandu Geddon]

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

Of course, it can't be like that. Everyone's financial situation and needs are different. So we can manage our own finances and know the budget limits that can be allocated for gambling. 
When your friend compares you to others, they don't know how big that person's needs are. It could be that the person's needs are already covered by other family members. So that person allocates more for gambling. 
We have to know our own capabilities.

[coin-investor]

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

This is irresponsible behavior; every gambler should be for himself, because we have different backgrounds, and do not think the same way. Others may look worse than you gamble, or spend more than what you can; for all we know, these gamblers are ten times richer than you, and they have the means.
When it comes to how we are doing in gambling, it should be based on our self-evaluation, like you've mentioned, not based on comparison, because all addicts to gambling have the same fate: they ruin their finances and their Wellbeing.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

Do you think it's right to reference to others as a yardstick to evaluate your level of responsible gambling?

How do you measure yours?

If You ask me I will say no, because sometimes people feel so pumpus and arugant about how they feel about themselves, they even go as far as referring to others as a yardstick. But however they don't even consider themselves and the people they reffearing to. I have actualy met or seen this kind of people and trust me, they are almost everywhere lolz.

He doesn't want to take responsibility of his actions, it's normal for people to find an escape route from accepting the truth about themselves, maybe he was afraid of losing face so I would not start seeing him as irresponsible since I'm his superior even though I cleared him that it was not my intent, but he remained adamant and I had to let him be.

I admit I sometimes gamble more than I should, but I'm aware that it's beyond moderation. I always go back to gambling what I can afford to lose.

This is the point that my junior is refusing to admit, that he is being excessive and in denial so he is not prepared to take an inventory of himself and his financial life to see reasons to cut down on his gambling, maybe a bad financial condition is the only situation would force someone like him to be more diligent in handling his cashflow, that is if he would be willing to learn from his mistakes and not find yet another thing to blame.

[suzanne5223]

I evaluate gambling responsibly based on activities and budget for spending on gambling.
If gambling with funds set aside for something else, or I am spending the time I ought to spend on something else on gambling, my personal belief is that I am not gambling responsibly because I care a lot about my time and mental state of health.

According to the person in the subject, I believe the person in the subject didn't know that s/he are on the verge of harming him/herself by comparing others to themselves when they don't have the same emotional control, level of funds, etc.

[Die_empty]

He doesn't want to take responsibility of his actions, it's normal for people to find an escape route from accepting the truth about themselves, maybe he was afraid of losing face so I would not start seeing him as irresponsible since I'm his superior even though I cleared him that it was not my intent, but he remained adamant and I had to let him be.

In my country, gambling is restricted to citizens who are 18+. The reason for that is that at this age, people should be able to take responsibility for their actions. Trying to compare a wrong behavior with another person's abnormal character looks childish. That individual is not mature enough to engage in gambling.

This is the point that my junior is refusing to admit, that he is being excessive and in denial so he is not prepared to take an inventory of himself and his financial life to see reasons to cut down on his gambling, maybe a bad financial condition is the only situation would force someone like him to be more diligent in handling his cashflow, that is if he would be willing to learn from his mistakes and not find yet another thing to blame.

Maybe it is time you adopt another strategy to help him because he might go out of control if it is not put in check. But the main problem now is that he is denying that he has a problem. I would have suggested that he seek professional assistance.