There are times when I hear a news story, and I actually choke on my coffee at how incredibly improbable the facts appear to be. Today was one of those days...Apparently, a man is suing a casino for "letting him gamble", even though he's addicted to it.
This made me look into the story further, and apparently he's not the first person to try this... it's happened in the past. And I find it appalling.
Is it unscrupulous, and perhaps unethical, for the casino to serve you if they knowingly take advantage of your addiction? Maybe. Should they be held responsible by the government, perhaps shut down, for operating in such a way? Quite possibly.
Should they repay you because you failed to take responsibility for your actions?
Not a chance.
Nobody put a gun to this man's head. Nobody threatened his family. So an addiction has now become a "Get out of jail free" card? Hell, no.
As a society, we need to have options for people to access for treatment. We need to have ways for them to help themselves... but this is the key. They must want to help themselves. If they never suffer any consequences for their actions, then why would they ever want to get better?
We've created a society of users and enablers, where people are either blaming someone or something else for their problems, or they're accepting this as a reason to let them off of the responsibility for the inevitable aftermath they leave in their wake.
We can't want it more than they do. It's that simple.
~Guy
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