Success Stories | Northstar Problem Gambling Alliance

success stories of gambling addiction

success stories of gambling addiction - win

I wrote a long reply on why gambling, and loot boxes in particular, are bad...

So, inside some other post, I was asked why gambling is bad... My reply ended up being really detailed, so I'll promote it to a post of its own (just copy-pasting it here; no new words)... [Note: list of 3 points about loot boxes at the end...]
(I work at a company that sells gambling services... I see how the sausage is made...)
By the way, I love PoE and GGG. Still, loot boxes are bad.
I personally get to see the statistics side of oddsmaking. It's always about suckering you out of your money, because by definition all you are doing is paying more money as the price of getting less money (on average), but you also need to feel like you have a chance at getting the upper hand, even though in the long run you don't.
For example, sometimes, if you're really "good" at betting, you just end up working for the oddsmaker on a bad deal. It's really hard for them sometimes to get the odds perfectly right (although the profit margin still takes care of 99.9% of punters). So, if you're a professional gambler making a regular profit, what's basically happening is that you are investing an enormous amount of time and expertise to try and make tiny profits at the margins, and the bookmaker monitors your activity and learns about the market from you, at what ends up being a lower cost than if they hired experts to give them the same info on a salary. Plus you constantly run high risks! Which is why my company is full of ex-gamblers who were able to make a profit for a while, and intelligent enough to realise that they were still getting a bad deal, and come to the company and offer their services directly. (For another way gambling companies guarantee their own profits by passing on the risk to gamblers, research "balancing the books": yes, a professional gambler could make some profits this way, but if you're possibly making profits by taking on a risk that a large gambling corporation wants to get rid of, do you really think you're getting a good deal, especially considering how much time and expertise you sink into the activity? EDIT: more info)
The only way I know of to make a consistent and considerable profit off gambling is when a pro gambler is allowed to make a profit off other gamblers, in a move that a company makes to increase total amounts played. So, for one person to profit, many others are being seriously scammed, and the company is safely skimming its percentages off the top.
There are many different ways a gambling company presents bad deals to you, hoping that your intuition misfires about one of them and you decide to throw away your money. Examples... There are single bets, of course. But then there are also combinations, and these screw with your intuition--you can convince yourself based on a narrative (e.g. team 1 wins first half, team 2 comes back in second half), where in fact the actual hard cold odds are against you. There is "cash out" where you take a fraction of a likely-seeming win early (but at a loss), which of course simply taxes you for your risk aversion. There are "systems", creating more and more complex bets, until you convince yourself you've set up the perfect deal, and yet the company's profit margin keeps growing the more complex you make it.
Anyway, those are the parts I work on as a software guy. (By the way, this isn't the worst thing in the world, it's not as bad, as, say, the military industry or the military itself, or say religions or banks, because at some level gambling is voluntary. And making gambling illegal is a terrible idea-we should fight it through education, not prohibition. Still, I only work there because I'm currently a completely non-creative software grunt (and currently satisfied with that). If I get to the point of pursuing higher-level jobs, I'll look elsewhere.)
But the most nefarious part of all is the psychological work they pull on you. That's not my area of expertise, so if you want it explained you need to look elsewhere (recommended book: Thinking Fast and Slow--it's not about gambling, it's about psychology). They are constantly doing things to 1) give you false hope and 2) artificially trigger some pleasure response in you.
E.g. most people are naturally risk averse and loss averse, e.g. losing $10 brings more pain than winning $10 brings pleasure. In reality, a gamble is about paying, say, $10 to win an average of, say, $9, so that's a terrible and painful deal. In addition to all the advertising and bright colours and encouraging sounds and making you read success stories and all the other psychological manipulations, they can also straight up befuddle you with numbers. So, losing $10 brings more pain than winning $10 brings pleasure, but what if you pay $10 but you're not really at a risk of losing that much, because on average you win $9 back, so you're only really risking a single $, and yet if you get lucky you won't win a mere $10 but millions? Suddenly that sounds good, right? Risk $1 to win $10000000? Of course not: you're still risking $10 and taking $1 losses on average each time you play, and the high rewards are vanishingly rare and built into that average.
That's it about gambling for money. On loot boxes I'm no expert, but, beyond the basic problems (encouraging addiction, exploiting minors who beg money from parents and don't understand how they're throwing it away, generating gambling "pleasure" while giving you "bits" instead of any real value, etc), I can point out a couple of extra scummy aspects:
  1. They can say "the box costs 30 points but all the possible rewards are worth at least 50, the average reward is worth 70 and the best is worth 400"... really??? Those prices are completely arbitrary... Who says the footprints are "worth" 50 or some random hideout decoration is "worth" 200? Talking about average microtransaction point values in a loot box is completely misleading.
  2. Either you (a) lose on the statistics of getting complete sets or you lose on (b) being psychologically manipulated into buying extra stuff you didn't actually want so much (or (c) you just lose by getting useless stuff). Let's say you decide to pick up a couple of boxes and see what you get before buying more stuff. You might just get useless stuff, of course (case c). But what if you get the body armour or wings? Now you might say "I'll get more boxes to complete the set". But the chances of getting any one part of a set are not anywhere near as bad as your chances of completing a set (like map lab trials, but much worse because loot boxes contain many more items), so you are getting totally fleeced (case a). Alternatively you could go "oh look, I got x in the box, I'll buy matching items y and z from the shop later" so you think you got x cheap and y and z at normal prices. But you are being manipulated into buying y and z. Would you really have bought x and y and z from the shop if there had been no loot box? Only rarely. The rest of the time you are overspending (case b).
  3. Loot box gifts are another scummy behaviour, considering people don't have good intuitions about statistics. Most of us get bad results from the gifted boxes, but some will get lucky. Those of us who are already gambling on loot boxes won't be affected by the outcome of a few extra boxes. Those who wouldn't ever buy them normally, and get bad results, who cares. But those who wouldn't normally buy them but get lucky a few times in a row might decide it's a good deal after all. So, it's manipulating us psychologically in a way that is statistically designed to fail at no cost most times and succeed sometimes, which makes money. (While also giving everybody holiday presents or race prizes, making the company appear generous.)
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A Little Help for our Friends with Zac Clark: RECAP

The hosts say that his proposal made them teary.
Asked to expand on his story of addiction and recovery.
First notice of the addiction being a problem.
Challenging part about working in recovery.
Family’s importance and that dynamics.
His experience and his family.
Definition of hitting a rock bottom.
Sobriety
Release Recovery and his work.
Recovery and life in general
WHAT A GUY!!!
Very rarely do you hear someone who is so self-aware, kind, humble and eloquent.
Please listen to this because the hosts were amazing too. They let him speak and he didn't hold back.
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Old Austin Tales: Forgotten Video Arcades of The 1970s & 80s

In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1
Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe
June 15, 1975
ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.
March 3, 1976
ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.
First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2
Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road
May 15, 1984
A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.
I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4
Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St
Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St
August 23, 1983
Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."
Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7
Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf
March 4, 1982
'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."
Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8
Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway
February 25, 1982
Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.
This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:
Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.
The gameplay looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003
submitted by s810 to Austin [link] [comments]

Day 70 of SR

Some of you may know me from my previous posts, many of which are among the most upvoted of all time on this subreddit. Just kidding, I’ve never posted here. I’m coming up on day 70 of SR and I figured I would make a post detailing what I’ve discovered.
Introduction
I began whacking off when I was 12. The negative effects were immediate. I went from a popular and liked individual to a member of the untouchable class. Never knew what caused that. Now I do.
At 13, I started working as a blackhat internet marketer. In other words, I was a scammer or con artist. I had immediate success and became “kid rich” in high school. From there, I continued ripping people off until I was 24. (You can read about all of my various scams and schemes in a 255-page book I wrote about my life, and how I changed my life, here. It's free.)
And we're back. Along the way, I became a drug addict. At 14, I discovered weed. At 16, I discovered psychedelics. At 17, I discovered MDMA and other stimulants. My home life sucked (divorced and depressed parents), so I dove straight into the world of drugs.
Overall, from the time I became a teenager, my life revolved around drugs, video games, and scamming people. I also whacked off very generously, considering it to be normal and healthy. I thought it was a waste product. Not an uncommon story.
Accidentally Discovering SR
About a year ago, I hit rock bottom, which you will read about if you decide to read my book. In essence, I was completely broke and living at home, with no friends, and my girlfriend had just dumped me. Coincidentally, I was also whacking off a ton during this time. Go figure.
A string of wild synchronicities led me to read the book Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich was the catalyst that led me to get “kid rich” in high school, so I basically just followed Mr. Hill’s recommendations on how to outwit the devil to the letter… and it worked. I became genuinely happy for the first time in my life. I was crying tears of joy every morning when I woke up.
Frankly, at the time, I was not convinced that lust was a bad thing, because getting attention from women made me feel so good. Still, since the rest of the formula for outwitting the devil was working so well, I decided to completely repress my lust. I even managed to quit drugs under the guise of considering them to be gluttonous.
Life was good. The results were unbelievable. I moved to a new city. After being antisocial my entire life, people were going out of their ways to converse with me. I had tons of friends. Very attractive women were going out of their way to make themselves known to me. I didn’t know what on earth was happening, but my life was better than it had even been before, despite the fact that I was more broke than I had ever been before. Turns out money doesn't equal happiness. Who knew?
After about two months of completely repressing my lust, I decided to have sex. With all of this new attention from women, my lust then spiraled out of control. Repression doesn’t work. Knowledge is the key. Knowledge allows you to want to retain. At the time, I had the belief, but not the knowledge behind the belief, which inevitably led to a lack of faith.
Fast forward a couple months and I was back to where I was before: scamming, doing drugs, etc. Lust truly is the root of all sin. Lose control of your lust and you’re probably going to lose control of the rest of your life to some extent.
Whoops
I once again hit rock bottom in October 2020. I took a big gamble on a big adventure, and it failed. In fact, I came within a minute or two of certain death, and my plans were ruined. Now, I had $300 to my name, no car, no housing situation, and no more possessions than I could fit into a large backpack.
I crashed at a friend’s house and spent two months mostly moping around. At the end of November 2020, I read a random Reddit linking to montalk dot net and had a bout of gnosis.
Here is where things get interesting.
Randomly, I messaged a random Reddit user, and he linked me to The Practice of Brahmacharya. I was sold. I started doing SR, controlling my passion, and being careful to remember that pleasure comes but never stays, the human body is only clay, and everything will pass away. This was the knowledge I needed to WANT to control my lust. Before, after reading Outwitting the Devil, I was doing it almost against my will.
Results
Magnetism. The point of SR, to me, is not to attract women. But there’s no doubt that doing SR will attract women. In fact, it will attract everything and everyone. But the attraction is mostly mental. People subconsciously sense your high vibration and they look at it curiously. You’ll get a lot of love, but also a lot of hate if people are comfortable enough to confront you. Your thoughts begin to influence reality more than ever before.
Invisibility. This is mostly a joke, but I swear it’s real. When you’re vibrating at a very high level, you become invisible to others. Not literally. But I’ll give you an example. I’m walking down this road and the air is completely still. Two women are approaching, gossiping in a negative tone. As they pass, I say hello. They jump, completely startled, and looked at me as if I had just appeared out of nowhere. I was in their field of vision for, like, a minute. They should have noticed me. This has happened a couple times. I’m aware this bullet contradicts the previous one.
Calm. I used to be an explosively angry person. In fact, I used to get violent fantasies. I used to really hate the sheep. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t see through the lies! May as well exploit them. Now, I love the sheep, even though they still chirp at me occasionally, especially with all of this asinine /\/\@$K usage. (I’ve taken a hardline stance and will not put one on for even a second. Since I’m still self-employed as a copywriter, it’s possible to do since my workplace (read: bedroom) doesn’t require it. I’d recommend doing the same if you are sick of the bullshit. We need your help.)
Ability to disconnect emotion from thoughts. Emotions come and go. The error is when you let external influences affect your thoughts. There will be times when you are tense or sad. For example, it’s hard to feel totally good emotionally if you are tired. In the past, I let these emotions go straight into my neural network, which would lead to entire days full of bad emotions, which I masked with drugs. Now, I relax into the emotions, meditate on them, and they pass quickly. I usually learn something in the process. The thought of being able to control my emotions without drugs is awesome.
Ability to heal trauma. If you are not powered by your semen (lol), you’re not as strong and solid as you could be. This makes it nearly impossible to face the trauma of your past, before you woke up. Now that I have healed my trauma, at least to an extent, my life is just wonderful. I’m a complete stranger to my past scammer self, which is fantastic. IMO, the point of life is to realize your trauma, heal it, then link up with the Holy Ghost, Sophia, and help others heal theirs, too. If you’re doing SR but still not loving life, consider reflecting on uncomfortable moments from your past. Don’t repress them, just like you don’t repress your lust.
Loving life, man. If you ignore the ethics of my blackhat marketing, I was always rich in comparison to my peers, and I barely worked. I was also pretty jacked. I happened to be born with a conventionally attractive face and am quite tall. Despite these intrinsic advantages, life always sucked. Now, life always rocks, no matter what is happening. Do I still get down sometimes? Sure. You can’t feel euphoric always. But now I realize that stumbling blocks are part of the equation, and I take them in stride. I get excited for bad moments because I realize I’m about to learn something big which will make my life even better in the long run.
Difficulties / Relapse
I have not yet physically relapsed. But I have definitely let my mental state get out of control before, to the tune of looking at Instagram models, etc. This has happened twice. It SUCKED! Felt crappy for days afterwards.
When I feel it bubbling up nowadays, I take a deep breath straight into my cranium and hold it for a few seconds. It dissipates. I also channel it into my third eye if it’s a lesser urge and I feel like I can actively control it. Learned these two tricks from posters on here.
If I'm out in public, I straight up look away. I never really looked, considering it to be disrespectful. But man, don't feel bad about looking off to the side if there's an attractive woman walking in front of you.
IMO, the mental leads to the physical, and not the other way around. It’s the same as any other addiction. You can’t physically force yourself to stop if you don’t want to stop, because your mind controls your body. So, work on your mind instead of putting all of this effort into repression. Books can provide the knowledge you need to want to stop. Once you want to stop, it’s easy to do so.
Summary
As far as other aspects of my life go, the past two months have been a wild ride, as I’ve healed an absolutely massive amount of trauma in that time. One night, I did the karma meditation on ascensionhelp dot com and ended up screaming at the top of my lungs for two hours, uncontrollably, almost involuntarily. Scamming people for a decade, then realizing all of that karma in a short span of time, will do that to you!
This post has been all over the place, but I just wanted to let everyone know that SR is a very key part to living a good life. Better financial circumstances? SR can help with that. You want peace? SR. Happiness? SR. You want to stop scamming people, even though you’re damn good at it, it’s easy, and there’s no one to stop you? SR. (Side note: I did get sued by Perkins Coie when I was 17 due to one of my early scams, and I was also visited by a 3-letter agency for a particularly illegal scam, but nothing ever came of either of those instances. I’d like to say I talked my way out of them, which I did, but looking back, it was blatant intervention from my Higher Self which allowed me to talk my way out of them in the first place. Thanks, dude!)
SR is not the end-all-be-all to success in your chosen realm, but damn does it ever help. I really like this community because you guys understand the physical, but a lot of you are well-versed in the metaphysical realm too. If you want to do SR to get ahead in the physical world, that’s cool, but understand that the real power of SR is allowing yourself to access the metaphysical and spiritual concepts of this world that are hidden to the masses. Many posters here can give me a run for my money, which I very rarely experience in real life. Peace!
EDIT: Turns out I can't reply to comments on this post since I have no less than 25 karma on here. To u/UniqueUsername203: Fair question. This is an epic trollzor account, minus this post. I've had to branch outside of poker since I'm banned there for 30 days. If I really wanted to scam people again, I know of better avenues than spamming and pretending to be a girl, though I did that in an automated fashion circa 2010. Didn't work that well, only made like $20 - $40 per week and it was weird as fuck (even though I never directly talked to any of my victims).
submitted by ExpertPokerStrategy to Semenretention [link] [comments]

Jan. 28 Daily HUT Content - What is new?

Hey guys, it’s Coooolin! It’s Throwback Thursday, and 2 more days til the weekend!! How was everyone’s day!? Gooodd ? Baadd? Let me know, dooown beloow !!
Here’s the new cards today, thanks as always EA!

Silver Master Icons

MARTIN ST. LOUIS - 91 OVR - TBL / RW - BAR2 , WH2
Billy Smith - 91 OVR - NYI / G - 5’10” / 185 lbs - SWA2 , DIS2
*Brendan Shanahan - 91 OVR - DET / LW - H and S2 , SH2

Sets

All these guys to upgrade to their 91 OVR cost their specific 86 OVR card , plus 9 Icon Collectables.
9 ICONS TO UPGRADE - short said .
—-

Primetimes

NHL

(Flooded with a team that beat the sens... lets not talk about that game..)
Will Update wanting to pump this out with Silver Master Icons
Elias Petterson - 89 OVR - VAN / C - GLA1 , PP1
Matt Duchene - 87 OVR - NAS / C - LTL1 , MAG1
Thatcher Demko - 86 OVR - VAN / G - 6’4” / 192 lbs - SPA1 , BAL1
JIMMY Howard - 85 OVR - DET / G - 6’1” / 218 lbs - SWA1 , DIS1
Nick Cousins - 82 OVR - NAS / C - SPE1 , WH1
Jordie Benn - 81 OVR - VAN / LD - SH1 , PP1
Jay Beagle - 81 OVR - VAN / C - LTL1 , GLA1
Kevin Lankinen - 80 OVR - CHI / G - 6’2” / 185 lbs - BAR1 , SWA1
Tyler Motte - 80 OVR - VAN / C - SPA1 , WM1
Jarred Tindroi - 77 OVR - NAS / LD - DIS1 , WH1

Other Leagues

Zachary L’Heureux - 83 OVR - HAL / C -
Aleksi Klemetti - 77 OVR - KAL / LW -
• • • • • • • • • • - - - - - - - - - • • • • • • • • • • • •

Packs Available

Quantity - 1,736
Double PT PACK - 37.5k C / 750 P
13 items, at least 5 Players with 2 guaranteed Primetime Players.
— From previous day —
23H / 40M
• Jumbo Premium Players Pack - 45k C / 900 P
20 items , all Gold Players, at least 5 80+ OVR Players
• Mega Pack - 37.5k C / 750 P
30 items, at least 15 Gold Players, and 4 80+ OVR Players
• Jumbo Premium Pack - 15k C / 300 P
20 items, at least 9 Players with at least 4 Gold Players

P.S.

• Squad Battles Rewards
• New Season of HUT RUSH — 3M POINTS FOR FREE ICON COLLECT

HOCKEY NEWS TODAY

• Hockey History Today
• Winnipeg Jets back in runnin
Fantasy Hockey Pickups
Who should be on your team?

STOCK MARKET NEWS - WHAT JUST HAPPENED

• Gamestop See-Saw
• Disney Rising from its tumbled down
Corona News
• Corona News Today
• Ontario Reports Fewest Deaths

BELL LETS TALK DAY

• Bell Lets Talk
• Bublé is in on BLTK (Bell Lets Talk Day)
That’s the most important stuff I found today!
——————

What’s to Come?

• New Event Tomorrow - 5pm EST
• Weekend!!
—————

Summary of the day

Quick Read
Best Forward of the Day - PT - is ELLLIIAAASS PETEERSSONN OVR 89 with the syn GLAAADDIIATOORR and PASSSINN PLAYYMAKERRR
Best Defence of the Day - PT - is JOORRDIIEE BEENNNNN OVR *81 with the syn SHUUTT DOWNN and PASSSINN PLAYYMAKERRR
• Squad Battles Rewards!!
• New Season of HUT RUSH!
———— —— ———

Important Notice

Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day. Today is a day where Mental Health is in full action and everyone talks about it. You can help Bell Lets Talk Day gain money for Mental Health by; tweeeting #BellLetsTalk , Snapping friends with the Bell Lets Talk Day filter, sharing / liking / commenting their post on Facebook...and many other ways, as well as the obvious - simply donating.
Mental Health is HUGE especially with everything going on in the world.
Please know you are loved, cared for, and that your someones reason to smile, and wake up. You are a blessing to this world, put here for a reason. You are so strong, capable of anything you put your mind to. I know I am just some stranger on the Internet that does these “Daily Posts” but I am here for anyone in need of just talking about their problems, venting away, or just someone to talk to.
Bell Let’s Talk Day is one of my favourite / least favourite days because I personally love talking about Mental Health.... but I personally believe that it should be a week, or a month.. or just seriously for more people to talk about it on a daily basis.
Let’s end this stigma around Mental Health.
You can make a huge difference to someone’s life. Simply just be nice to one another, smile, and just say “I appreciate you” or some nice positive thing like that.
You recieve what you give away... karma goes a long, long ways.
I hope your 2021 and years to come are full of love, happiness, kindness, laughs, blessings, and success.
You deserve what you give to people. So if you give hate —- I’m sorry, but you’ll recieve that..
Love you all, I’m very appreciated of everyone who likes these posts, and strives me to keep posting. Its so much fun!!
My PM / Chat is open to anyone !! Don’t be afraid . We’re all in this together!!!
——

Interested in Stocks?

EA’s Stock Price, after hours - Jan 28
$ 143.01 (usd) —- Currency Converter
we looked at the stock at $137.54 usd
—— That is a difference of ( $5.47 / 3.98% ) —
Disclaimer - I am not a financial advisor. It is your money, please do your own due diligence. I am not responsible for your money. This is *not** advice. I added this section for an added educational purposes only. YOUR CAPITAL IS AT RISK. Happy Investing.*
—— —— —— —-

NEED A SOUNDTRACK TO LISTEN TO?

TONS OF PEOPLE SEEM TO LOVE THE PLAYLIST!! How are you not listening to it already!?
Comment songs to add, and please give feedback! It’s much appreciated!!
I currently have “Skin” by “Sabrina Carpenter” stuck in my head.... which you can play, recently added to the playlist!
Sidenote - How do you guys like the playlist!? I have a friend who makes music...and I really want to surprise him with some new people listening to his music... if you wanna help me, please click Here!! it would mean a lot to me!!
———-

Sites To Bookmark!

If you click here you will be redirected to bilasport. Bilasport is the best Online Streaming site for your entertainment needs for all sports! (Not affiliated)
A great streaming source recommended by NHLStreams is SurgeSport. Click on Hockey and you’ll be good to go!
Want to make your dream team, and show others what you’ve been working on, and much more? I will redirect you HERE!.
Here’s a helpful pack guide for you! Click!
Want to know how the market is holding up? With a simple TAP! you will be on the newly fresh made website for the HUT market, made by one of the guys on the sub!
.... what do the stats on a card mean? Is my card I want / pulled good? Click here to find out!!
When is my favourite team playing? When do they play!? Here you can click on this link, and tap on your favourite team. From there, tap “Schedule” . You can add this to your homescreen on iPhone by clicking the square with the upwards arrow, scrolling down, and tapping “Add to Home Screen”
——- —— —— —— —— —— —— —— —- —— —-

Fighting a Gambling Addiction?

Don’t feel scared to click here. Winning is SO much louder than losing. Know that you are NEVER alone. We are all here for eachother, and it is never too late to get help. I am here for you.
This is a VERY important thread, especially if you are new to HUT. Here!

Story Time!!!

“Happiness” - By Anonymous Person
Then I stopped to think, if helping a little kitten could make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy.
So the next day I baked some biscuits and took them to a neighbour who was sick in bed.
Every day I try and do something nice for someone. It made me so happy to see them happy.
Today, I don’t know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do. I’ve found happiness by giving it to others.
When she heard that, the rich lady cried. She had everything money could buy, but she had lost the things money cannot buy.
The beauty of life does not depend on how happy you are; but on how happy others can be because of you.
Happiness is not a destination, its a journey. Happiness is not tomorrow, it is now. Happiness is not dependancy, it is a decision. Happiness is what you are, not what you have!
P.S. - Hope you have a happy fun filled day
——-
28 / 365
—— —— —— —- —- ——- —- —— ——
Thanks for reading.
I’m always welcome to feedback, please let me know what I can improve on.
If there’s anything missing, please let me know!
Take care, happy gaming! TODAY IS BELL LETS TALK DAY!!
• Coolin Killin It
(Life is like a puzzle, you just have to find the right piece.)
submitted by coolin68 to NHLHUT [link] [comments]

Feb. 4 Daily HUT Content - What is new?

Hey guys, it’s Coooolin!! How was everyone’s Throwback Thursday!? Gooodd ? Baaddd? Whaaat?! Lemme knooww, downn beloow!
.... wait before going further, did you read this ? It’s for you!
Here’s the new cards for today, Thanks EA!

Silver Master Icons

(All cards have +2 their Syns, i.e., DIS2) .. not home, and busy! will update!
Bobby Clarke - 91 OVR - PHI / C - HOW2 , SWA2
Jacques Plante - 91 OVR - MTL / G - BAL2 , DIS2
Terry Sawchuk - 91 OVR - DET / G - BAR2 , H and S2
Needs 9 Collects to upgrade each
—-

Montreal vs Toronto

Toronto
Dave Keon - 88 OVR - TOR / C - SPA1 , SPE1
Tim Horton - 87 OVR - TOR / RD - SPA1 , SPE1
Bob Baub - 86 OVR - TOR / RD - SPA1 , SPE1
Montreal
Steve Shutt - 88 OVR - MTL / LW - DIS1 , HOW1
Serge Savard - 87 OVR - MTL / LD - DIS1 , HOW1
Bob Gainey - 86 OVR - MTL / LW - DIS1 , HOW1

Primetimes

NHL

David Pastrnak - 93 OVR - BOS / RW - PP1 , MAG1 ... TOTY owners can sleep peacefully
Ryan McDonaugh - 87 OVR - TBL / LD - LTL1 , WM1
Alex Killorn - 84 OVR - TBL / LW - SPE1 , WH1
Travis Sanheim - 83 OVR - PHI / LD - SH1 , GLA1
Blake Coleman - 81 OVR - TBL / C - HOW1 , T1
Connor Clifton - 78 OVR - BOS / RD - BAR1 , WM1

Other Leagues

(There’s a lot, but I’m going into town, will update momentarily!!)
Daniel Winnik - 80 OVR - GEN / LW - BAL1 , GLA1
Lukas Cormier - 79 OVR - ISL / LD - BAR1 , HOW1
Linus Klasen - 79 OVR - LUL / LW - DIS1 , PP1
Lïnus Söderström* - 78 OVR - ÅSS / G - H and S1 , SPA1
Kristian Pospisil - 78 OVR - LUK / LW - LTL1 , SWA1
Mika Partanen - 78 OVR - SPO / LW - DIS1 , MAG1
• • • • • • • • • • - - - - - - - - - • • • • • • • • • • • •

Packs Available

23 H / 40M
• Mega Players Pack - 50k C / 1k P
30 items , all Gold Players , with at least 5 80+ OVR Players
• NHL Players Pack - 30k C / 600 P
10 items, all Gold NHL players with at least 4 80+ OVR Players
• Jumbo Premium Pack - 15k C / 300 P
20 items , at least 9 players with at least 4 Gold Players

P.S.

• Squad Battles Rewards - 5pm EST (Today)
• New Game Modes of HUT RUSH - 5pm EST (Today)
• Silver Upgrades for Sawchuk , Plante , and Clarke

Hockey News

• Hockey in History
• Sabres blame the Devils

Stock Market News

• Record Close Highs!
• GameStop whats goinn onn?

Other News

• How many Moderna Vaccines for Canada?
• 3 Stocks Shorted to buy / sell
——————

What’s to Come?

• More Event Cards - Tomorrow at 5pm EST
• Weekend!
—————

Summary of the day

Quick Read
Best Forward of the Day - PT - is DAVIIDD PASTRNAAK OVR 93 with the syn PASSINN PLAYMAKERRR and MAGIICIIAN
Best Defence of the Day - PT - is RYYANN MCDONAUUGH OVR 87 with the syn LIIGHTT THE LAAMPP and WIINGMAANN
——- —— ——-
• Squad Battles Rewards
• New Season of HUT RUSH
• Silver Upgrades for Plante , Sawchuk , and Clarke
———— —— ———

Important Notice

Dear haters, I have so much more for you to be mad at. Just be patient.
Behind someone successful, always lies a pack of haters behind.
Because lets face it — if you can’t handle being talked about... you’re not ready for success.
Success comes in a variety of things; little and big.
Everyone wants to be “successful” in life... but what they really don’t know?
They already are.
They’re waking up every single day, battling life as it comes to them; problems, situations, decisions, sickness, and just doing their best at life... and thats really all that matters?
You’re waking up every day - if you’re blessed with it - doing little things during the day, or having a relaxful “nothing” day.... and that? That is successful, too.
Reward yourself every so often. Don’t be scared to take a few days off work - you’re doing yourself a favour by making your mental and physical health better for a day... regaining all that strength, and just having a relaxing, stress free day... and we all deserve those every once in a while.
So if you’re feeling anxious, and down, and not wanting to go to work? Don’t feel bad to call in.... everyone needs “those days” to get onto a better day!

Interested in Stocks?

EA’s Stock Price, after hours - Feb 4
$ 138.63 (usd) —- Currency Converter
we looked at the stock at $137.54 usd
—— That is a difference of ( $1.09 / 0.79% ) —
Disclaimer - I am not a financial advisor. It is your money, please do your own due diligence. I am not responsible for your money. This is *not** advice. I added this section for an added educational purposes only. Thanks*
—— —— —— —-

NEED A SOUNDTRACK TO LISTEN TO?

WHO LIKES LISTENING TO MUSIC? How are you not listening to this playlist already!?
Comment songs to add, and please give feedback! It’s much appreciated!!
I currently have “Crazy Train” by “Ozzy Osbourne” stuck in my head.... which you can play, recently added to the playlist!
Sidenote - How do you guys like the playlist!? I have a friend who makes music...and I really want to surprise him with some new people listening to his music... if you wanna help me, please click Here!! it would mean a lot to me!!
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Sites To Bookmark!

If you click here you will be redirected to bilasport. Bilasport is the best Online Streaming site for your entertainment needs for all sports! (Not affiliated)
A great streaming source recommended by NHLStreams is SurgeSport. Click on Hockey and you’ll be good to go!
Want to make your dream team, and show others what you’ve been working on, and much more? I will redirect you HERE!.
Here’s a helpful pack guide for you! Click!
Want to know how the market is holding up? With a simple TAP! you will be on the newly fresh made website for the HUT market, made by one of the guys on the sub!
.... what do the stats on a card mean? Is my card I want / pulled good? Click here to find out!!
When is my favourite team playing? When do they play!? Here you can click on this link, and tap on your favourite team. From there, tap “Schedule” . You can add this to your homescreen on iPhone by clicking the square with the upwards arrow, scrolling down, and tapping “Add to Home Screen”
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Fighting a Gambling Addiction?

Don’t feel scared to click here. Winning is SO much louder than losing. Know that you are NEVER alone. We are all here for eachother, and it is never too late to get help. I am here for you.
This is a VERY important thread, especially if you are new to HUT. Here!

Colin’s Thoughts

Recently I’ve been writing a whole bunch of poems, and just writing stuff down. If anyone’s curious to read any of em, or wants me to post em next time in a daily content, let me know please! :)
Thanks!
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35 / 365
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Thanks for reading.
I’m always welcome to feedback, please let me know what I can improve on.
If there’s anything missing, please let me know!
Take care, happy gaming! TODAY IS NATIONAL GIRLS and WOMEN IN SPORTS DAY
• Coolin Killin It
(Life is like a puzzle, you just have to find the right piece.)
submitted by coolin68 to NHLHUT [link] [comments]

I will say my biggest tip to enjoy the game and ANY MIHOYO GAMES IN GENERAL. Spending wise and PLAYING SLOW is the BEST...... But why? THIS POST IS GONNA PISS OFF MANY (maybe because it is late), so please BEWARE AND READ THOROUGHLY. (Also sharing my previous experience in Mihoyo as a HI3 Player).

I will say my biggest tip to enjoy the game and ANY MIHOYO GAMES IN GENERAL. Spending wise and PLAYING SLOW is the BEST...... But why? THIS POST IS GONNA PISS OFF MANY (maybe because it is late), so please BEWARE AND READ THOROUGHLY. (Also sharing my previous experience in Mihoyo as a HI3 Player).
​
https://preview.redd.it/c0htmnmettr51.jpg?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3dacc5c05fc241d37ebeb3a8996854a72768177
How many times have you seen this kind of post? How many videos did you view just to achieve the greatest reroll? How many times did you spend your resins to achieve the highest adventure level in a short period of time? And most importantly,
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IS IT WORTH IT?

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The hype for the game is strong. And it had a successful launch. But as I observe more of the people here, I find it worrying that most of them are overspending and rushing the game like some sort of Minecraft speedrun or something, ending up with nothing but a boring farmland once you get on AR30+, not even mentioning all the "garbage collecting". Also, the in-game purchases are "bonkers, Cash grabs, moneymaking schemes", all sorts of names.

Little did everyone know that we are still in the early stages of the game, where everything is still experimental.

I'm not defending the game. I'm stating the facts, and scolding you. Spending on a free game to support the developers is great, but spending a whole lot of cash on a system that is still unstable is completely a YOU problem. You can't blame Mihoyo like a Karen wooing that game causes violence to cover up her lack of parenting skills or in this case, causing gambling addiction on you because you spent all of your cash and ending up with nothing in return. That 0.6% chance is no joke. Please spend responsibly. Or just wait till everything is corrected.
​

Or just wait till everything is corrected.

​
I know that from this point onwards you will be fuming in anger from what I have just said, But I'll be playing the Dark Knight's role for now because Gotham Impact will surely be in ruins if I didn't do so... well that is also the devs fault as well.
Focus first on the big words just above you. This is GRAVELY IMPORTANT. And will be the core of everything that I will discuss from this point onwards.
​
​
https://preview.redd.it/iwl12sjpttr51.jpg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da7fbcdfce9a66df2be7834dde3520103cee5f5e
For now, here is an official Paimon art. I've been told that reading walls of texts are tedious and boring, and people like pictures of foods and cats and cute things, so I'll have this in there to relax your nerves a bit.
​

FIRST THINGS FIRST. WHY SHOULD I PLAY IT SLOW?

​
Genshin Impact is free-to-play, and pay to (possibly) have more play. Yes. that is basically it. This is no pay to WIN. Maybe pay to unlock, like some EA DLC, but people are forgetting one thing in a Gacha game.

It's wait-to-win.

Patience is the most important trait you should have in playing even a basic gacha game. A battle to resist grabbing your wallet and squeezing all of what's inside of it, just to have a chance to play a character which is undoubtedly be phased out and be given away as a consolation price a year later because of Powercreeping.
Before that, ladies and gentlemen, here is Honkai Impact 3. the game which led to the success of creating Genshin Impact.
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https://preview.redd.it/q92ot9k5xtr51.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=87c336ccef2051836d040e80553504a0795842f4
I have been playing Honkai Impact 3 since it started in SEA in November 2017, two accounts, both at max captain level with most of the meta Valkyries (characters) in my roster. So to sum it up, I have been playing for 3 years under MiHoYo banner. If this is not enough to qualify me to your standards, it is best to stop reading beyond this point. Oh who am I kidding, you'll gonna bash either way.
So, what's keeping me from playing Honkai Impact for three years?
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IT'S FOCUSED ON THE STORY.

​
Honkai Impact is a BOOK IN A FIGHTING GAME FORMAT. It may have great gameplay, great graphics, and great F2P approaches, but that doesn't lit a match against the story it provides.
And Genshin Impact is having that same approach as well.
How did I come up with that? Well, basically, Genshin is a single-player RPG with limited coop modes for you to access. And that is what MiHoYo is intending to do in the first place. The gameplay, the characters, everything is secondary. Please treat the game as such, and stop panicking just because your friend has a higher AR level than you.
​

The game is designed to be played for a limited time each day.

​
and you guys just blitzed through it all. You see, gachas were so bad back then that farming for the in-game currencies to roll them was so tedious and torturing that it made the lives of many people worse. Then guidelines were passed by Gacha Developer's Association* that every game should have their gacha rates displayed, and most importantly, have a feature that LIMITS THE PLAYER'S GAMETIME EACH DAY for them to do other real life issues, like communicating with family, friends, school, and so on. With this, the stamina system was born, or in our case, the Resin.
The resin limit was intended to limit you from getting sucked into this game for 24 hours or more. It's a regulation. A requirement.
*edited and changed the Asian governments to Gacha Developer's Association. Thanks to Tabris2K for the info!
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https://preview.redd.it/7w36wtqnutr51.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=b65352bddb94a1be0682e5599ad94224758cb8d2
About the 1600 Resin spent per week battle pass objective, that wasn't intended to be completed if you play regularly, and regularly I mean even 1-3 hours each day. In fact, it is not needed at all.
Did you know that you can play this game for 1-2 hours a day and still complete the Battle Pass up to lvl 50? And with so much more leftover xp at that, as long as you complete the 150 dailies. That 1600 resin spent is a first aid only intended for those who came late in the game, and want to catch up, and are ready to pay more money to do it. Don't use a first-aid kit if you aren't even injured in the first place.
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MiHoYo is generous in giving rewards/compensations. Especially to new players later on.

​
They are so generous that there is a big possibility that the Diluc you have rerolled for a couple of times will be given for FREE once they launch another better character in the roster. Sometimes, they even resort to nerfing the character, (Like Herrscher of the Void in Honkai Impact) But hey, this is story mode. And you got the character without any efforts at all. Sucks to be the guy who rerolled 50 times for it, right?
Yep, you heard that right. Even a 5-star Top of the META can be given away here for free, making all of your rerolls nothing but a waste of time later on. What's more hurting is that They do this after a year. To gain more players, you will be given a 5-star character OF YOUR CHOICE and the like. You won't believe it, but it happened in Honkai Impact. Also, you can do it two more times via Land of wishes there. All of these were implemented later on in the game.
Now imagine that being implemented in Genshin in the future. That is three 5-star characters, on a new account a year after the game was released.
Mihoyo is known for inviting new players with interesting rewards, and offer a lot of options for those who are not catching up with the game quickly (of course, for the expense of money). You will feel sorry later on that the Diluc you rerolled a hundred times will be given as a basic kit later on.
Still, this is a good time to create another account. This is how my second Honkai account was born.
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THE GAME IS NOT EVEN A MONTH OLD

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https://preview.redd.it/moax1ogavtr51.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec1725d4418ff7b6baae14a4f30ab2e4d0d824e2
You see the primogems coming up on the in-game mail each day? That is for you to test the gacha of the game early on, which you will get fond of it because there are a lot of them gems being given away basically.
Little did you know that the in-game purchases are still experimental. Or perhaps, you already know but d The rates, the fates, everything. Even the way you will angrily complain to them later on are a part of their experiment, being the third toxic and angry gamma tester you will be(Get it? ALpha, Beta Tester, Gamma Tester, Gamma, Hulk?).
They will surely improve the game after receiving enough complaints, and make everyone receive generous compensations for it (even the ones who didn't complain) but will they return your efforts, your time, and your money back? NO. You just paved a way for the upcoming players to play an improved game. Still, thank you for your efforts. and, that's it.
​
For now the volume 1.0 of Genshin Impact is just finished. Now we wait for volume 1.1.
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https://preview.redd.it/yrbizmnsutr51.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26fd9eef0bf87ff7f57abc6a1cded97967e80f57
Don't burn yourselves out. Eat Paimon responsibly. Do not rush or else you'll choke, and do not be afraid to start slow......especially on your first time.
​
Playing the game of course.
submitted by aerosol31 to Genshin_Impact [link] [comments]

My (40F) husband (40M) committed financial infidelity and I’m struggling moving forward.

Long time lurker first time poster, throwaway as my husband knows my main account.
My story is not up for fodder elsewhere.
I’m looking for some outside perspective on a situation that has been ongoing for 4 years now. Aside from this situation my husband was/is an amazing husband and dad. He is hands on, does a lot around the house, he puts us all first and is the type of husband and dad everyone prays for which is why this is so conflicting. 4 years ago my (40F) husband (40M) (together 12 years at that point with 3 kids) quit his job to run a business. I was completely onboard and supportive, said I would work extra if needed to help get the business rolling and gave the go ahead.
Throughout the first year I’d check in and ask if we were making enough for our bills, if I needed to work extra, ask about different things. During that time we planned a trip to the happiest place on earth, went out for lunch at least twice a week and bought a lot of luxuries we never had previously. My husband was in charge of our finances.
There were a few red flags I noticed, the gas company sent an employee out to shut off the gas - I was told it was an oversight and a payment was made right then to stop the disconnection. One of our bank accounts was in the negative and I was told that it was another oversight and money was switched from one account to the other making up for the mistake. I wanted something new for our house I would need to finance and was rejected for my income to debt ratio being too high, was told to pay off the CCs and I would qualify. My husband told me the amount the CCs were, I worked extra and they were paid and still I didn’t qualify. I felt uneasy and again asked if everything was being paid and was assured we were in good financial standing.
Fast forward another year and my husband told me it was time he had to get a job, business was slow, he was bored and so he got a job. I started receiving phone calls of CC debt. The first time it happened, my husband told me it was a scam and showed me the account they claimed I owed a huge amount on- it was at a $0 balance. The next time I just hung up believing it was a scam. The third time I sat my husband down and asked what was going on. I had to beg, plead and cry to get an answer. He told me we had x amount in CC debt, I was shocked. I made a budget to pay off the debt ASAP. As I was working extra to pay it off I asked multiple times if there was more debt or anything else, was promised there wasn’t- I forgave my husband, he said he didn’t want to worry me with finances and to be proud of him and he just didn’t know how to get out of the hole he dug. The CCs were used to pay our regular bills but also to keep up the facade that he was successful. I did scour every single account to be sure he wasn’t gambling or had an addiction I didn’t know about, he was clean there. I also felt guilty that he had shouldered this all on his own and felt that I should take at least some responsibility- I shouldn’t have been so hands off.
I worked extra and the debt was paid off in 2 months (love DOT). I received another call from the original debt collector that started this chain reaction that I still owed x amount- my husband denied it at first, then said he forgot about it and then after begging and pleading for the truth told me it was true and he had actually showed me a bogus account that had $0 balance on it. I told him our marriage was over as I had already said previously that if anything else came up after promising it was only x amount I could not forgive and move forward.
Long story short, as I was working extra to pay the new amounts off, my checks were garnished by the IRS for mistakes made on previous tax returns. It was then I found out that mail was being hidden as well and it could have all been avoided with a payment plan. He also admitted to tampering with our tax returns for extra money. I also found out that it was my name on ALL the credit cards/debts. There were days he spent all day telling me how he was on the phone with debt collectors working things out only to find out a month later that those situations never happened, he was just placating me because he was scared of what I would do. There was one debt that he swore we didn’t owe and he got angry with me for asking him to call the company in front of me. He did so and yelled at the agent and hung up- only to find out he knew we owed the money and was saving face by yelling at an innocent person.
During this time we were in counseling, together and individually. It came out that he is a pleaser and will do anything/say anything not to “get in trouble.” He took psych tests and had evaluations done and continues to do counseling to this day because he wants to be a better man. I took over the finances and we are now debt free and are in great financial standing. I agreed to stay but we live more as roommates on my end. He is upset (but respects my boundaries) that I am not interested in a traditional marriage. I have tried to work through the anger, the bitterness and try to understand how this happened and I do understand why he initially lied and forgive him for that but I can’t get over the repeated lies which spanned over an entire year and only came out because I begged and pleaded and got phone calls and garnishments etc.
I stayed because I do love him as a person, he makes me laugh and we are compatible in every other way and like I said he is an amazing dad and husband other than this nightmare. But I am not romantic with him, I have no interest in that aspect as I feel disrespected and honestly would yell at any other woman about how dumb they are that stayed through something like this. He on the other hand is waiting for the day that I wake up and am his wife again. I don’t foresee this happening, I feel nothing sexual towards him yet I do feel love and smile when I think of him. I’m so conflicted. I don’t want to waste his life staying with me when he could find someone to give him everything he needs, yet at the same time I enjoy his company and all he does for our family and honestly would miss him.
Full disclosure I have NO interest in ever being with anyone else so even if we did separate I’d be single for the rest of my life. We’ve also talked about him leaving and still coming over to see the kids every day and he said he’d still do everything he does now so really there’s no reason to separate if he’ll be here all the time anyway. It would just devastate the kids and take finances away from them.
I don’t know what I’m looking for here, I go back and forth daily. Has anyone been through this and come out the other side intact? The counselor acknowledges my feelings and also acknowledges that my husband loves and adores me and has done everything he can to be a better version of himself and at this point there’s nothing more to be done as he continues to seek guidance and do everything I’ve asked of him.
TL:DR my husband committed financial infidelity and I’ve stayed as a roommate and he wants more. Wondering if I’m being selfish for not wanting more than friendship even though I do love him and he is a wonderful dad.
Edited to make it easier to read
submitted by thrwawyneedadvice1 to relationships [link] [comments]

A Brief Introduction to Genshin Impact - AKA "That one game that looks like Breath of the Wild"

Ever since the game was announced to have a Switch port coming soon, many who have previously never heard of Genshin Impact grew intrigued. The open world in particular peaked the interest of many, especially after comparisons to Breath of the Wild were drawn. In anticipation of the port, I’d like to give a brief rundown on what the game is, and how aspects of it work. While the game is free, so there is no harm in trying it out, I’m hoping this post will serve as a guide for anyone on the fence about giving it a shot.
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What exactly is Genshin Impact?
Genshin Impact is a fantasy open world action RPG from Chinese developer studio miHoYo, responsible for a couple prior games, notably mobile game Honkai Impact 3rd. Though they aren’t strangers to games, Genshin Impact is their latest, and by far most successful title yet.
The game is set on the continent of Teyvat, a vast, completely open world consisting of 7 nations associated with a different element, and a god-like figure of said element. You play the role of a traveler from a far away world, sealed in Teyvat following a confrontation with a powerful entity who separates you from your sibling. Your main driving goal is to reunite with said lost sibling. On your journey you are accompanied by a strange floating fairy thing which accompanies you and serves as both a guide as well as a quirky sidekick.
Important thing to note at this point is that the game is not currently finished. Genshin Impact is a live service game, receiving continuous content, story, and event updates every 6 weeks. At the current point, with everything there is to do at the moment, the story is less than a quarter of the way finished. The story is expected to develop over time via game updates. Currently, only 2 of the 7 regions are available to explore. As this implies, Genshin Impact isn’t the type of game you blast through in a week. It’s a long term commitment.
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What is the gameplay?
Being an open world game, a big emphasis on exploration is present in the game. Several markers exist within the world that encourage travelling across the world to discover them all and have constant access to the entire world by warping to these markers. Materials from the world itself are everywhere, and are actually critical in the upgrading and improving of of your party members. In this regard, running around gathering any harvestable materials you see is highly rewarded. The world itself is vast, full of everything ranging from sheer cliffs, to dense forests, snowy mountains, beaches, and plains.
Domains, which are basically this game’s version of dungeons, are present, only unlike BOTW, they are almost entirely combat trial based, either having you defeat a certain amount of enemies, of defeat all enemies within a set amount of time, usually with sort of restriction or challenge aspect to them. Completion of these domains rewards loot such as weapons and artifacts (equippable items to make your party members stronger), which you can either use to improve your team, or upgrade your existing weapons/artifacts by infusing them into them. World bosses also exist in addition to regular enemies, which drop special materials required for upgrading your characters, Safe to say, you’ll be fighting these world bosses a lot.
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What About the Combat?
Combat in this game is very much team focused. Don’t expect to have success by relying on one overpowered party member destroying everything. You have 4 party member slots, and each character in the game has a unique element associated with them. Those being Pyro (fire), Hydro (Water), Cryo (ice), Geo (earth), Anemo (wind), Electro (electricity), and Dendro (nature/plants, no current playable character has this element). Switching in and out between party members in battle to cause elemental reactions of the various elements is a huge part of the game’s combat, and thus a balanced team composition of characters of varying elements is encouraged to maximize damage potential. This might sound a little confusing, but in practice it becomes much clearer. In addition, the combat isn’t turn-based. Everything happens in real time, so you’ll need to rely on quick thinking and maneuvers in combat.
Every playable character in Genshin Impact has unique attributes and skills that set them apart from the rest, all with varying playstyles and roles. This means you have lots of freedom in terms of how you set up your party based on how you like to play or what role you want someone to fill. There are four different weapon types as well, being swords, bows, polearms, claymores, and catalysts (basically ranged magic), further increasing potential avenues for teambuilding.
Now while all this may seem like a lot of work and things to keep in mind, it’s important to remember that...
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Genshin Impact is a PVE Game
You can play co-op with your friends and explore and beat dungeons together, but there is no PVP in this game at all. None. This, in essence, means there is little pressure to actually grind and make your team as good as it can possibly be. Genshin Impact isn’t a particularly difficult game. If you want, you can play with your favorites only and you’ll do fine. There’s no need to stress about using the very best characters with the very best equipped artifacts or the very best weapon. This much freedom in how you chose to build your party, and no pressure to compete in some sort of meta ultimately results in a refreshingly laid back experience, allowing one to truly experiment and see what style fits them best, at least for me.
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Unfortunately, I’d be hard pressed to not mention Genshin Impact’s big catch. I’ve been painting it in a pretty positive light thus far, but now comes the time where I talk about the thing that will unfortunately put many people off of this game.
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If Genshin Impact is free, how is it monetized?
Put bluntly, Genshin Impact uses a gacha monetization system. For those unfamiliar, gacha is a system where resources are spent on random items in a store. If it sounds like I’m describing a lootbox, it’s because I am.
Assuming you start playing right now, you’re only going to get access to 5 playable characters. You, 3 other party members to start you off, and another one you get by completing a challenge. Every other character in the game, of which there are 20 and counting, are only available via “wishes.” Wishes are the lootboxes. They take an ingame form of currency known as “primogems” which are trickle fed to the player via completing tasks in game, and in special events. They also just so happen to be in the store, purchasable with real money. Unlockable characters are categorized into 4 stars and 5 stars. 4 stars you can expect to obtain roughly every 10 wishes. 5 stars are much more rare, with less than a 1% chance to get one until you hit 75 wishes, in which case your odds increase until you roll one. Keep in mind, you have absolutely no control over what you get when you wish. This system exists for 4 and 5 star weapons as well, with the same system.
It’s gambling. Plain and simple. Please, do not play this game if you have an addictive personality and are the type to impulsively spend large amounts of money on games like this.
The other notable form of monetization is the resin system. Resin is essentially energy. Many things in this game cost resin to complete, such as domains and bosses. And given that domains and bosses drop essential materials for improving your team, you’ll be doing them very often. Resin regenerates over time, or is able to be purchased via the game’s aforementioned premium currency, primogems. As you can probably guess, the game artificially limits what you can do every day in order to keep you consistently playing day by day, in an attempt to get you addicted to the point where you’re more comfortable spending real money. Such is the sad reality of many games, and Genshin is not immune to these monetization tactics. The sliver lining is that money only accelerates the process or ensures you can get a character or weapon you want from a lootbox. As I mentioned, you get the premium currency just by playing the game, only they are very stingy with it.
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TL;DR
If you go into Genshin Impact expecting a game that provides a story you can blast through in a week, and gameplay that respect’s the player’s time, you will be disappointed. However, if you can accept the free-to-play monetization tactics, are intrigued by the battle and exploration systems I’ve described, and just want the type of game you can play for about an hour every day, give it a shot. It’s free, so it couldn’t hurt.
I hope this post helped anyone with any doubts or concerns. I have over 100 hours into the game myself, so you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try and answer them!
submitted by SolarWirelessBattery to NintendoSwitch [link] [comments]

Gamestop: Power to the Market Players (Part 2)

This writing was copied from my blog https://nope-its-lily.medium.com/. I write about the NOPE and other options and market things there and on my twitter https://twitter.com/nope_its_lily. Cheers!
Check out Part 1 first about my thoughts on the short squeeze thesis. To clarify — I do think shorts are being squeezed in Gamestop, although this is auxiliary to the main driver of the stock’s momentum (and not, in my opinion, the primary driver of Friday’s exponential rise).
So okay, let’s go to the obvious question — if hedge fund tears didn’t cause Gamestop to rocket, what did cause it?
Wew laddy, +71.25% at the peak.
Gamestop in many ways is an extraordinary story, and has all the properties of a successful meme stock (salience):
  1. Personal name recognition/Nostalgia-For better or worse, we all know/remember Gamestop (primarily from childhood), which is similarly why Hertez performed so well in the afterlife while Mallinckrodt hasn’t.
  2. A hero and a villain — Much like Tesla, Ryan Cohen represents the hero in the Gamestop narrative, where investors can paint whatever picture of the future they want and justify whatever price tag they pay. Similarly, Melvin and Citron (I mean, even the name Melvin) and the hedge fund industry are (perhaps well-deserved) villains in the arc, helping obfuscate feelings of greed or risk by presenting it as a righteous cause.
  3. A cataly-ish — For obvious reasons Gamestop is benefiting from the console cycle, but perhaps to a lesser degree than before (its massive real world presence during a pandemic doesn’t help much).
  4. Humor-What could be more funny than investing in a relic of the early 2000s? Except maybe investing billions into 3d renderings of hydrogen powered cars.
So it isn’t a surprise Gamestop captivated the attention of the internet; despite common belief, the legend of Gamestop extended far outside wallstreetbets (although the saga of DeepFuckingValue/RoaringKitty there helped bring substantial energy to the cause).
And how does the internet show some love?
Well, it buys calls.
For better or worse, most new investors have absolutely no concept outside of simple long call/put positions (probably for the best, from experience). In general, most new market positions view long options (and, let’s face it, mostly calls) as a highly leveraged bet on the underlying akin to a lotto ticket, which works beautifully for the following reasons:
  1. Long options have asymmetric risk-reward, assuming risk-loving participants.
While in prior posts I’ve touched on the expected profit of options being zero, this is only true (it’s never actually true, due to seller’s, variance risk premium, and a host of other factors) under risk-neutral measure. In the real world, investors (especially on indices) tend to be risk-averse (weighting losses more heavily than chance of gain)… at least historically. The new class of retail investors, on the other hand, partly engendered by Robinhood’s extremely gamified UI tends to be risk-loving (“yolos”), favoring chance of gain over (higher) chance of loss.
For that type of an investor, options are akin to a casino due to convexity, or in layman’s terms, “the potential to go up a lot really fast” in value. This is of course true for stocks too (albeit less so, due to the implied leverage of options), but when an individual purchases a stock they have a rather large downside (the entire stock can become worthless). This isn’t the case for a call option, which only represents a portion of the total cost of the stock, but represents the entire upside.
2. Options have to be hedged… often in the underlying.
Before I get 1000 responses telling me this isn’t always true (especially on indices, where you have futures and all sorts of nice things) — it’s more or less true on a meme stock, which basically has no beta or correlation to any other stock (except perhaps other meme stocks). In general, one can anticipate that an option written by a market maker and sold to a retail investor (who owns a long position from that transaction) is hedged in the underlying stock, which obeys the same rules of buying and selling pressure. This is even more apparent in stocks with low float, which tend to move in price substantially with relatively low volume traded. You can imagine how few option contracts it similarly takes (given the implied leverage up to 100 shares worth of delta) to actually move the price (I’ve seen call options move the spot in real time, for instance, on Del Taco stock before earnings).
3. Option buying begets option buying.
What happens when a few individuals buy options on a stock? It moves up slightly (usually in proportion to how many options were bought, what time period they were bought in, and how large the underlying’s float is). This triggers the happy centers in peoples’ brains (yay, we’re making money) and triggers more buying of calls.
More interestingly, option convexity is largely due to the Greek gamma, which simply refers to the rate delta changes in response to changes in the underlying’s spot price. Delta more formally measures how much we expect the option price to change as the spot price changes, but more usefully for this example can represent how many shares equivalent the option contract controls at the given price. This is why delta represents the hedge ratio — if you, for instance, write a 100 delta (ITM) call option and sell it, you need to equivalently own 100 shares of that stock to neutralize your risk.
Delta is interesting (my favorite Greek) because it is heavily non-linear, and changes in response to:
  1. Spot price (gamma)
  2. Time to expiration of the option (charm)
  3. Volatility of the underlying (vanna)
These are all second order derivatives, so you probably are lost by now if you didn’t take calculus at some point.
So why is gamma important here?
Source: quantik.org
Unlike controlling the equivalent delta’s worth of shares, the value of an option contract increases at a faster rate as it gets closer to in-the-money. This is (one of the reasons) why options have convexity — the value of an OTM call option contract goes up faster as it gets closer to ITM, with a potential for (5,10,100,200+)**-**baggers (multiples of how much you paid for the initial) if you play it right.
What’s even more interesting though than gamma alone, however, is pairing it with theta, the decay of an option’s value as the time-to-expiration draws closer. This tends to have a strong relationship to the implied volatility — theta represents the time value of the option (extrinsic), and implied volatility is largely the market consensus of the potential for the underlying to move in the time remaining on the option. However, as the days tick down, the time for that move to actually happen diminishes, and therefore the value of the option similarly goes down with it.
As IV increases, theta usually does (especially on short term options), and vice versa. (Helpful video by the tastytrade crew — https://www.tastytrade.com/shows/market-measures/episodes/theta-and-iv-05-17-2019)
So, given my tendency to ramble, the question is — why is this important? Let’s look at gamma and theta in the context of 0-day-to-expiration (0dte) options, and try to piece together what happened to Gamestop on January 22, 2021.

0 Days to Live

0dte options have long been a mainstay of the dopamine addicted day-trader community (including me, sometimes) given they represent the purest form of lottery ticket:
  1. They expire at the end of the day — You don’t need to go to bed and worry about your position, because it’s either closed or worthless.
  2. They’re cheap, generally-Theta in particular becomes exponential for 0dte options, and you can quickly buy positions on sale just to gamble as the end of the day grows closer.
  3. They still represent implied leverage and have that tasty convexity-Like their more respectable brethren, 0dte options still represent the underlying and have all the neat Greeks (gamma, delta, vanna, pajamas, etc.) which make their payouts non-linear and fun.
In general, the optimal strategy to capitalize on 0dte long options is to buy as late as possible in the day, to allow theta to provide as much leverage to you as cheaply as possible.

Let’s Imagine a Scenario Here

Let’s imagine you have a high implied volatility stock that has been stable/slightly declining in price for multiple days. During that time period, theta is aggressively destroying the value of long options, while IV is similarly dropping (both due to theta and due to relative lack of movement). As we get to the final day (this is a weekly, for example), much of the option’s value has now disappeared.
This impacts both put and calls open, though. And let’s say a mean orange decided to start a war on your stock in the days before, causing a flood of short-term puts to hit the market during that week, which had minimal effect (largely due to continual call buying of longer-dated options coupled with actual shares buying pressure due to belief of a short squeeze/Ryan Cohen being the second coming of Christ).
What happens when those puts start to expire? As the days and then hours tick down, the hedges of those put positions (shorted shares) start to unwind, and buying pressure picks up.
Similarly, this buying pressure is noticed by market participants, who start to capitalize on the momentum by buying 0dte call options. These at first have minimal impact, largely because the inflow and outflow of call delta are roughly equivalent (somewhat of a bias towards inflow, pushing price up alongside share buying).
But towards the middle of the day, two interesting things happen:
  1. Theta and charm become more and more prominent in both making new option positions cheaper and unwinding existing put and call positions.
  2. Gamma starts to become more dominant due to the high implied leverage versus cost of 0dtes, leading to the virtuous cycle (option buying begets option buying).
These two effects tend to be complementary — as the hedges unwind (given the weekly puts from Citron/the short seller attack) for existing option positions, new 0dte positions can be bought and bought, each time pushing up the underlying as well as increasing the value and delta of other 0dte positions.
This can be neatly observed in the option volume versus open interest for the 1/22 series on GME:
This is fine.
Although more puts traded, the delta (for obvious reasons) of calls is much higher.
As the price of the stock goes higher and higher, this continues to attract more and more speculation, hoping to capitalize on the continued momentum. This continues in a loop:
  1. The price of the underlying continues to increase as put hedges unwind, volatility spikes, and call options are bought (the initial delta hedge).
  2. The increase in price leads to gamma of existing contracts increasing the delta of those contracts.
  3. This leads to more shares being bought to hedge those increasingly higher delta positions.
  4. This leads to more speculation and momentum.
An interesting property of $GME from Friday you can neatly observe is the highest strike in the series is $60, meaning that at Friday’s close, every single call option expiring 1/22 expired ITM. More interestingly is the relationship with gamma, again observable below:
Source: quantik.org
As a contract moves further and further ITM (at one point, GME hit $76 intraday), the gamma of the contract decreases as delta hits 100 on the position. This implies a cap on the momentum from the virtuous cycle described above — while continued call buying can of course drive up the price further, not only does the cost become prohibitive (given that a deep-ITM position is basically equivalent to buying 100 shares in payout), it becomes linear (and therefore boring). Once 100 delta is reached, there is no more cycle of increasing spot price causing increasing share buying, only normal share buying.
And that’s when it drops.
It’s hard to say whether the halt caused the drop (given the mental association halts have to pump and dumps for most investors). In this case the drop assuredly coincided with the halt, but more importantly, we can observe where the drop ended:
​
57.99 is such a pretty number.
In this case, we can observe the drop in price stabilized at $58, before rapidly jumping above $60. This is largely due to gamma and continued 0dte call buying buttressing the fall — as the positions fell farther OTM, shares used to hedge those positions are sold off, further driving the price down (in this scenario, the dealers are almost assuredly short gamma). However, similarly those positions-now closeOTM and close to expiry-become cheaper at a fairly exponential rate (due to theta and charm).
Speculators again gain conviction, pushing the price up above the highest strike (to the point where gamma provides no real extra push versus the clock ticking down).
This is what we call a gamma squeeze, and isn’t a terribly uncommon phenomenon. It largely follows similar patterns:
  1. In general, gamma squeezes tend to happen closer to OPEX, due to both hedge unwinding (in the case of a previous put skew, for instance) and due to the 0dte effects mentioned.
  2. In general, there is both a rapid rise (due to gamma looping and speculators joining) with a similarly steep cliff (especially if the available strikes is exhausted, like what happened to $GME).

Can it be continued forever, though?

In general, the answer unfortunately is yes.
Gamma squeezes in generally power meme stocks, and require a few elements to be true:
  1. Continued supply of strikes and promise of convexity — Put gamma squeezes rarely happen because well, the maximum value of a put option occurs when the underlying hits 0. Calls, however, have an infinite potential payoff and strikes similarly can be added indefinitely. This allows continued creation of OTM options, which due to cheap premium and asymmetric risk-reward on longs power the gamma squeeze.
  2. Continued momentum-In general, meme stocks follow the greater fool theory, despite promise of rocket emojis. When they drop, they drop hard.
​
Oopsies.
This is because, as previously mentioned, meme stocks are powered by long calls sold by market makers, who are chronically short gamma. Any selling begets more selling. Even periods of quiescence are dangerous, because without continued inflow of call delta, hedges unwind, and the selling pressure begins.
  1. Continued attention-This is where salience shines. The major reason Tesla (the OG gamma squeeze) continued to rocket throughout 2020 was largely due to Elon Musk’s charisma and Tesla’s promise of a better world. It becomes a lot easier to stomach risk for an investor when following a strong personality with a killer story. This role was largely played in Gamestop’s saga by Ryan Cohen, and fed into (potentially unwittingly) by the battle with Citron and the mystique of DeepFuckingValue. It remains, however, to be seen if this will continue.
The moral of the story here is retail, for better or for worse, finally learned how to weaponize options. We’ll see what happens next.
submitted by the_lilypad to thecorporation [link] [comments]

How to spot a cheating man

EDIT/UPDATE:
I read some of your responses with tears. Thank you to everyone who said something encouraging! I tried to answer some questions and hope I didn't miss any. I am not able to respond very fast; I still feel some emotional hangover just from sharing what I wrote. I initially made this as a one-and-done throwaway, but now I will keep this account active and hopefully share some more in the future, since some of your responses really got me thinking. I am truly grateful that this space exists. I still received some harassment (which I blocked), but I know the mods / automod filter out a lot more, and that level of safety was what encouraged me to speak up. Thank you!!
-----
(TW for self harm and abuse.)
I am a FDS membeposter. I made an alt to tell my story as a former sugar baby. I understand this might not go through because sex work is fundamentally anti-FDS. I am now anti-sex work and I hope this post has value here.
I won't go into childhood details, but I suffered from abuse and poverty from a very young age, so everything about luxury and having a sugar daddy appealed to me. I was also raised very patriarchal, and was told since birth that certain things were only achievable via a man, even if I was deeply ambitious when young. My own family tried to "match" me at age 15 with an adult family friend they felt was wealthy. Thanks to FDS, I now realize I was groomed and it was statutory rape. It was a major breakthrough when I told my therapist for the first time two weeks ago, and what sparked my motivation to write this post.
There was no clear "beginning" to my sw journey. I have always slept around casually. I also have always had rough/kinky sex. I was exposed to porn at a very young age. Eventually I happened into sleeping with richer men. But I became successful as a SB after I unknowingly implemented very strict FDS-like ground rules and demanded more. The irony was, after I started earning more, I got banned from several sex work/sugar baby forums. People thought I was lying about my standards and earnings. Even in the sw community, you had to be a deferential pickme to be accepted. Any high standards must be a lie. I was unknowingly lifting myself out of the sw fog, becoming more outspoken, and I was alienated.
I eventually managed to make a lot of money (bought my family a house). I had strict requirements that men provide verification of their identities (passport / work profile), and ability to provide. At my peak (financial peak and self-delusion peak), I abandoned my own career to do it full time, and even considered outsourcing the admin side of vetting + marketing myself like a product, to maximize earnings.
This was also a time when my self esteem was so chipped that I only knew one avenue of building it up: male validation and monetary reward.
Looking back now, even if money was there, everything else was bad. I traveled all the time. I was burned out. I still experienced FREQUENT sexual assault and rape without recourse, which I treated as "occupational hazard." I suffered emotional damage, extreme guilt and shame, loss of sense of self, loss of friendship, loss of sense of value regarding money and life. I spiraled to a point of being constantly suicidal. I was a shell. I drank a lot.
Finally, the most prominent of all: despite what I was telling everyone in my circle, I never could fully feel pride about my "work." I had a nagging sense that I was meant for something else, something not this, except who knows what though. It was like the part of myself I locked away was knocking from its cage. So I became more and more split psychologically. I dissociated a lot, where I literally floated up to the ceiling and "saw" my body going through the motions, even if it's not sexual and just a dinner at a nice restaurant. I was potentially losing my mind. I often imagined ending my life during a dissociated phase so I wouldn't "feel' it.
Yet, I continued to justify that all that was just normal work stress, because "sex work is work." My feelings must be wrong. I must have internalized slutshaming. This is the danger of that kind of rhetoric. Even if I entered it voluntarily as an adult, seemingly benefitted financially, I gaslighted myself about leaving and delayed it for far too long. My pickme self felt I was not like the others who were traumatized, and I was fine. In reality, I was in danger mentally and physically. I still feel this eerie brush with death when I try to imagine if I had never left.
I still have a very small circle of friends in the lifestyle and I make a point of talking to them about leaving whenever possible. I don't know if some of them will ever leave, though. I have to rebuild my social life as well.
Welp, that got long. I originally wanted to share some cheating red flags here, since many of my sugar daddies were married. I hope these help confirm everything FDS already says in the handbook. So here it is:
That's all I can think of for now. I don't know if a healthy relationship with an age-appropriate man will ever happen for me. I have tried to date normally since my exit, but found that I struggle to vet as strictly as I did when I was a sugar baby. I have stopped dating. I do know I am now a radfem working on spending a life with myself if a man doesn't happen. I genuinely believe men, as a whole, abuse women, and we cannot categorically escape it, and must always watch our own backs. I am working up the courage to become more outspoken against sex work, and hopefully help younger girls out of the trap I fell in myself.
It's been 1 year since I last had a drink, and 1.5 years since I broke up with my last SD. My wish for 2021 is to rebuild my career and friendships. I start to feel low when I think of the last 5 years of a black hole, and how to explain that. I am working up the strength. When I was a young girl, I wanted to be a lawyer. I don't know if I have the gumption to follow through, but I can fantasize. I also have a couple of other fields I have interest in. I only need my self worth to catch up and open my eyes that I can achieve my dreams.
I wish you all a happy 2021.
submitted by taxthrowaway00 to FemaleDatingStrategy [link] [comments]

Should I pay my in-laws debt?

My husband and I have know each other for almost two decades (he 37 bisex, I 36 gay). I couldn't ask for a better partner honestly, and I love him to death.
We usually don't fight, but since covid hit we have been going at it constantly, and always for the same reason.
At the beginning of 2020, before covid, my husband and his entire family had the brilliant idea of trusting his older brother with what was practically all their money, because his brother convinced them he could double it just like he had done with his money through 'investments'.
Well, in February the truth came out. His brother is addicted to gambling and all the money is gone. They are left with crippling debt and the loaners (his brother tried to get the money back by gambling loaned money) want to be paid.
My husband's and I finances are completely separate, it was a decision of his to which I agreed.
We met in Italy almost 20 years ago thanks to mutual 'friends'. I am from an Eastern European country, Albania, while he is from Germany. Our backgrounds are completely different. He comes from a not quite rich but wealthy family, while my parents were immigrants that lived paycheck to paycheck well into my twenties.
I managed to attend university due to the aid and scholarships I was awarded, and there I met him again. We became became friends, and with time the relationship secretly progressed into something else. Being attracted to the same sex was even more dangerous at the time, so we were very careful about it.
I will spare you all the details of my life, but when I turned 25 I was forced to come out to my parents/family to avoid an arranged marriage. Everyone cut me out, I had to move in with my best friend to not end up in the streets, and worked odd jobs to stay afloat. Despite my degree I didn't land any significant job opportunities, my name is quite peculiar and alerts people of me being a foreigner. Me and my friend (she is a black woman from Senegal) were lucky to have a roof over our heads with all the open racism and biases the locals locals displayed.
A year passed after that event, and my husband's family told him to return to Germany after concluding his studies. To my surprise he decided to remain in Italy and continue our relationship. It eventually became quite serious between us, and after another year he gave the news to his family.
Just like mine, they didn't take it well. All the hatred was directed at me however. I was accused of turning their son gay, of using him for money (he helped both me and my friend a few times by giving us money) plus all the unnecessary insults about my ethnicity and 'class'.
My husband went low contact with them for a few months, then I convinced him to speak to them again because I didn't want him to lose his family like I did. The remarks about me didn't stop, but at least he had his family back while I ignored them.
My parents died in an accident shortly after, leaving me the little savings they had, and the properties they had in Albania to me. I didn't expect it, at all, but thanks to that I didn't have to depend as much on other people. My friend decided to return to Senegal with the idea of opening a company of her own there and asked me if I wanted to contribute to it, I said yes and gave her part of the savings my parents left me (what would amount to 2k euros now) mostly to thank her for the help she gave me. I didn't expect to see that money again if I have to be honest, but I was happy with my decision.
To cut the story short, we moved to Albania for various reasons and kept our relationship a secret (due to the severe omophobia in my country). My friend's company turned successful and the money I had 'invested' in her turned into a lot more. She even gave my husband a well paid job and allowed him to work from home. I on the other hand, don't need to work anymore. (I invested in other things and bought properties which I rent, both in Italy and my country.)
The house and the land we live in are in my name, I pay the bills and anything that has to do with the maintenance of the property. The only thing we share equally are house chores.
He is asking me, begging even, to pay his family's debt (close to half a million euros). I refused for obvious reasons. I told him that he didn't have to worry about himself, I would never leave him without money, but his family is not my family and that I would never help people that treated me like that.
I don't really want to lose him. I would do anything for him, but I really hate those people and seeing them suffer makes me feel better. I know it sounds bad, but I had to endure a lot of verbal abuse from them over the years.
I apologize about the long paragraphs and the bad English, it's not my first language. My friend suggested to write here if I want different opinions.
submitted by galbm to relationship_advice [link] [comments]

success stories of gambling addiction video

To me , joining a gambling addiction forum , even if it's only to complain about losses or how crappy your life is , indicates the start of a crack in that wall of denial . This site is great because not only can you see success stories, but you can get helpful tips. Crazy gambling stories, plenty of people have them and they are always fun to hear. Like a right of passage, gamblers live to compare their tales of triumph and woe. With the news of Floyd Mayweather’s huge sports betting victory in Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Finals, ADANAI thought it would be fun to hunt down a few other outrageous gambling situations. Here are a few such success stories. Veteran Chases Adrenalin Rush Of Combat. Like many other veterans, William faced the challenge of trying to match the adrenalin rush that combat provided after his military deployment was over. The closest thing he could find was gambling, but that got out of hand. In their own words, here are some of their stories: Roy I am a gambling (pokies) addict, the outward signs of this addiction were simple; I used every dollar I could spare (and money I could not spare) to put into the money-hungry pokie machines….read more; Elsie 12 years ago I first visited the pokies for fun and some light social entertainment. Concluding my story of overcoming gambling addiction. Addiction can happen to anyone. Judgement is not the answer; helping each other is. I never thought it could happen to me. No one wakes up and says, “I think I will become an addict today.” That’s why I wanted to share my gambling addiction story so you can see how easily it happens. Gambling could be considered mental illness. There are a lot of people that struggle with gambling addiction. Therefore, there are a lot of organizations that support online casino sites and prevent gamblers from playing too much. Same goes for land-based casinos. It takes a lot of time, but gambling addiction is curable. We've been working on his gambling addiction by helping him discover the reasons why he gambled. One of the things he's learned is that he used gambling to occupy his time and avoid things . As a result of our work, Anthony went back to school earlier this month and he's learning to use new ways to deal with the stressors in his life . 5 successful people who overcame gambling addiction Whether you’re visiting the world famous casinos in Las Vegas or trying your luck online with the casinos listed at Zamsino, the point of In one of many sad gambling stories from the UK related to addiction, Justyn Larcombe squandered a massive £750,000 in online sports bets. Previously, he had a six-figure salary and he and his wife owned a £450,000 townhouse in an idyllic Derbyshire village. Many gambling addiction stories start out innocently enough—a trip to the casino here or there, a few good wins, then a loss or two. Then something happens. The same chemicals in the brain that cause a person to become addicted to alcohol or drugs soon start to react to the act of gambling in a similar way. A person feels a “rush” when he or she

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