Is Paul Merson Right?

[NYCBlue]

It should be treated as a disease because it obviously is one. And it's also obvious that these people need help not punishment. Has Ivan Toney's 10 month ban cured him of his addiction? I doubt it. Gambling advertising, shouldn't be allowed on shirts, in stadiums or on TV. It's ridiculous.

I once worked with a bloke who gambled on his phone all day. He gambled on sports he had no idea about. He even gambled on cricket. I can't remember who he bet on, but he thought his team was going to win because they had over 100 points and the other team didn't have any. I tried to explain cricket to him, but I might as well have been speaking to him in Welsh.

[Dembe]

It should be treated as a disease because it obviously is one. And it's also obvious that these people need help not punishment. Has Ivan Toney's 10 month ban cured him of his addiction? I doubt it. Gambling advertising, shouldn't be allowed on shirts, in stadiums or on TV. It's ridiculous.

I once worked with a bloke who gambled on his phone all day. He gambled on sports he had no idea about. He even gambled on cricket. I can't remember who he bet on, but he thought his team was going to win because they had over 100 points and the other team didn't have any. I tried to explain cricket to him, but I might as well have been speaking to him in Welsh.

You can bet on things like college football/basketball etc who the **** in the UK is really going to have a clue what they're betting on?
Womens basketball league in the UK etc. People just see odds and are desperate to win. People need help, sadly there are too many ignorant idiots with opinions that think they are better than others, and its just as easy as "not betting on football"
With ignorance like that around, theres a long long way to go to getting these issues fixed sadly.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

It should be treated as a disease because it obviously is one. And it's also obvious that these people need help not punishment. Has Ivan Toney's 10 month ban cured him of his addiction? I doubt it. Gambling advertising, shouldn't be allowed on shirts, in stadiums or on TV. It's ridiculous.

I once worked with a bloke who gambled on his phone all day. He gambled on sports he had no idea about. He even gambled on cricket. I can't remember who he bet on, but he thought his team was going to win because they had over 100 points and the other team didn't have any. I tried to explain cricket to him, but I might as well have been speaking to him in Welsh.

A very good friend of mine will gamble every last penny away without fail every month. He'll message me if Surrey will win etc and he doesn't know anything about cricket. He messages my friends about snooker etc. Interesting studies have been done on it, the winning doesn't really matter, it just allows you to place another bet which is the far bigger rush. The excitement comes from thinking you might win and it completely rewires your brain. It is a really sad illness and completely changes your personality. The bookies are evil.

[Dembe]

A very good friend of mine will gamble every last penny away without fail every month. He'll message me if Surrey will win etc and he doesn't know anything about cricket. He messages my friends about snooker etc. Interesting studies have been done on it, the winning doesn't really matter, it just allows you to place another bet which is the far bigger rush. The excitement comes from thinking you might win and it completely rewires your brain. It is a really sad illness and completely changes your personality. The bookies are evil.

I know plenty of people who will gamble away their weeks wages by the Friday evening. Other mates you'd be in a round with 5 of you and 4 of them would be in the bookies and you'd manage 3 "in between" pints by the time they came back to their warm pints.. go round a mates for a few drinks and 2 of them are sat there playing bingo stood around the one phone...roulette machines in the bookies were another one, lads putting their wages in a bandit and not having enough money to buy a pint..middle aged men putting £500 on a horse and leaving the pub to go home as it inevitably doesnt win...gambling is a disease.