Will kids go to doc for nicotine patches - no (Copy)
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - when is it you, not them? (our controversial strapline being 'it's not you, it's them'!)
Here the Economic Model of Addiction alive and well in this gambling article in the Wall Street Journal concluding: "Online gambling isn’t the first addictive product to hit the market, and it won’t be the last. Casinos today are following the same playbook as tobacco and alcohol companies decades ago: profit from Americans’ vices, insist on self-regulation, advocate personal responsibility and fend off oversight by supporting and pressuring politicians." They could have read our White Paper, it's so perfect a mapping!
'Responsible Gambling' ideas don't work, particularly when companies sign up to them & ignore them. Examples of Caeser's Casino here fined $13 million for their treatment of 'VIPS' (people who lose a lot). Including a guy who put himself on a banned list for on and offline gambling, but was allowed to lose $240k and a self-employed nanny allowed to lose £18,000 in a year, after she told them she “spent her savings and was borrowing from family and using her overdraft to gamble.”
What does my White Paper on the 5 models say:
THE MORAL MODEL OF ADDICTION: (a new 5th model coming soon!)
- it is totally their own fault and their responsibility. They are so weak or ignorant they even know it's harming them and they just carry on - they deserve everything they get.
THE BIOLOGICAL MODEL:
- there's something wrong with their brain, they need to be cured of this terrible disease, we can give them some drugs to help with this obvious disorder of the mind.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL:
- they have an addictive personality and deeply rooted psychological self-regulation issues. We have to get to the bottom of why they continue to do this.
THE SOCIAL MODEL :
- there are external cultural or personal external influences shaping their behaviour which need to be identified and addressed.
THE ECONOMIC MODEL:
- companies have engineered addictive products, environments and incentives which specifically identify and target vulnerable individuals. This should be prevented, the organisations, punished and the ways they undermine the individual's ability to constrain their use discontinued.
Not done this before & think it works quite well & show's the value of the distinctions, which are serious academic models - except the Economic which we just invented!
My conclusion using these models is:
1. Prioritise the restrictions to the economic model
2. With un-addiction, take a respectful and empathetic approach to individual circumstances which seeks to understand, explore and respond to the social, psychological, biological and economic drivers
3. Ditch the moralising, it's wrong & unhelpful.
Thanks again to Jonathan Andrew, PhD for bailing me out on a Friday with this helpful article!