I can’t write a better post about the Preakness than Andrew Kulha, so I’ll share this quote — then send you off to read it. He really captures it all.
Not many of us knew that we were watching greatness when I’ll Have Another first crossed the finish line at the Kentucky Derby. It was a great race and a great story, but not many could look into the future to see what was in store.
These minimalist gaming tees are kickin’ it old skool! Wear one while you kick some tush, or just to let folks know you can. *wink* The t-shirts are available in women’s and men’s sizing and styles. Drop this blog’s name and save 30%; just use this code when you checkout: damesofchance.
Gaming Girls PWN Noobs T-Shirts
In shocking news, TMZ reports that I’ll Have Another has been scratched from tomorrow’s Belmont Stakes — and the horse has been retired; due to an injury, the beauty may never run again. (More details here.)
Trainer Doug O'Neill Announces I'll Have Another's Retirement (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Thus ends dreams of the horse and rider winning The Triple Crown — and requiring many of us to change our bets.
I’ll Have Another may have had to back down from his Triple Crown challenge, but Bovada‘s not backing down from theirs; they’ve just changed their challenge to Union Rags.
Now when you bet any other horse other than Union Rags to win the Belmont Stakes, and Union Rags wins, you get your money back – up to $20.
Here’s how:
1. Go to Belmont Stakes (Race 11) in the Racebook.
2. Place a single bet on any other contender to win the race.
3. If Union Rags wins, you’ll get a bonus for the amount of your first bet, up to $20.Already have a bet on Union Rags? It’s still good. Place a second win bet on another horse and it will still be eligible for this bonus offer.
Belmont Stakes Betting Offer
I really don’t want to become “the addiction blog,” but when addiction can be a down-side to gaming and gambling and there’s so much in the news…
The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (D.S.M.), the standard reference work for psychiatric illnesses, updated definitions of substance abuse and addiction, including a new category of “behavioral addictions.” In an op-ed piece at the New York Times, Howard Markel says:
At the moment, the only disorder featured in this new category is pathological gambling, but the suggestion is that other behavioral disorders will be added in due course. Internet addiction, for instance, was initially considered for inclusion but was relegated to an appendix (as was sex addiction) pending further research.
Skeptics worry that such broad criteria for addiction will pathologize normal (if bad) behavior and lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
Great. As if the age of digital communications and it’s many voices giving the volume and appearance of “many,” wasn’t already giving rise to near hysteria on the subject of addictions and behavioral addictions, now there will be the professionals and insurance companies adding to the fray.
However, this doesn’t mean that these addictions aren’t real. While I do question the numbers, and certainly eschew the rush to decry epidemic status and the decline of mankind, I do agree with Markel that “the D.S.M.’s changes accurately reflect our evolving understanding of what it means to be an addict.”
The conclusion to draw here is that though substances like cocaine are very effective at triggering changes in the brain that lead to addictive behavior and urges, they are not the only possible triggers: just about any deeply pleasurable activity — sex, eating, Internet use — has the potential to become addictive and destructive.
But the key word here is “potential.” Things — virtually any thing or activity that gives pleasure — has the potential to become addictive and destructive; they aren’t automatically so.
The bottom line, however, is that if you have a problem, a gambling addiction or other behavior addictions, the D.S.M. now brings you that much closer to help.
A cool infographic from Bovada. (Click to enlarge!)
Triple Crown Facts
As a follow-up to my post on behavioral addictions…
Damian Thompson The Fix
In his new book, The Fix, Damian Thompson argues that “the line between consumption, habit and addiction is becoming dangerously blurred.”
When future generations look back at the early 21st century, they may well decide that its political turmoil — the collapse of the euro, the spread of Islam, the rise of China — pales into insignificance next to a far more important development: a fundamental change in the relationship between human beings and their social environment.
This was the moment in history, they may conclude, when our species mastered the art of manipulating its brain chemistry to produce intense bursts of short-term pleasure. As a result, billions of people began to have more fun than their minds and bodies could handle — and developed insidious, life-sapping addictions. I did so myself.
Already, the distinction between ‘addicts’ and ordinary people is far less clear than it was even 20 years ago.
I’ve not read the book, but it seems rather alarmist, really.
The physical biology of humans hasn’t even fully caught up to the changes of agriculture, let alone the industrial age; and I’m supposed to believe that the digital age is destroying us all?
Just as the digital age has increased the ease of access and pleasures, so has it made finding help easier. …Maybe Thompson should look up a generation in his family tree and see what genetic connections he has to addictions.
There are others, like Professor Marina Bianchi, who do not see consumption or access as inherently problematic:
Clearly there can be excess in the consumption of things as there can be in the imbibing of food or drink. But it is un-reflective to take the pursuit of variety and change, as in fashion, as due only to a search for status, or to jump from observing careless or wasteful consumption to calling for a new era of frugality and restraint. I do not see consumption as an activity that destroys rather than creates and production as something nobler.
It is true that in order to be more enjoyable and creative consumption must be skilled consumption: you must know the goods and experiences you are consuming. But, the more consumption will be thought of as inferior or wasteful, the less prepared we will be in acquiring the skills necessary for creative consumption. Fortunately things are changing, and fast. The communities of interacting consumers that form through the internet in a variety of new and ingenious ways are very important for the creation of skilled consumers. And in many ways we see them leading producers and opening up new potential for living lives of satisfaction.
Maybe Thompson should find an online support group?
The following vintage and antique fortune telling cards are all from Swirling Orange.
1940s Gypsy Fortune Telling Card Game
1926 Slim Carreras Fortune Telling Cards
1904 Congress Nile Fortune Cards
It was a big win — emotionally, and in my wallet! *wink*
I love Donald’s reaction to winning!
You may have read the recent news about “Facebook Addiction” — a subdivision of Internet addiction that pertains to social media use, which, research says, women are more at risk of developing than men because we dames are more social animals. Because I do spend time on the Internet, blogging as well as socializing and gambling; because I do like to gamble “in real life” too; I thought now would be a good time to address the subject of behavioral addictions.
Internet/computers, shopping, work, sex/pornography, cutting, exercise, food, and gambling are all considered behavioral addictions.
Behavioral addictions, sometimes referred to as “impulse control disorders,” are those compulsive actions — acts continued without consideration of their potential negative consequences — which do not rely upon chemicals, like alcohol, nicotine, &/or other drugs. But this can be a bit misleading because behavioral additions are driven by chemicals — chemicals in our brains. The “high” folks get from behavior addictions is linked to Dopamine and Serotonin, which is as chemical as it gets in our brains. And there is evidence which shows that genetics plays a role in deciding just who is more susceptible.
According to this review, published in 2006:
[T]hese results point to the complex relationship between different psychiatric conditions, such as addictions, mood disorders, and antisocial personality disorder. It is possible to hypothesize that studies on genetic vulnerability factors could help unravel not only the commonalities between substance and behavioral addictions but also the extent to which addictions, depression, and personality disorders are intertwined.
This review and neurobiology studies on pathological gambling and other behavioral addictions suggest that future studies should investigate genes involved in impulsivity and the brain’s reward system. Dopamine receptor genes should be further investigated, especially those with a higher possibility for drug development, such as DRD3.87 Serotonin receptor and transporter genes are also associated with impulse control and are important candidate genes in the study of behavioral addictions. Other genes that have been associated with conditions that are highly comorbid with behavioral addictions are also important to be investigated. One of these is the brain derived neurotrophic factor gene, which has been recently associated with depression88 and nicotine dependence,89 both conditions being frequently comorbid with pathological gambling. Of interest, brain derived neurotrophic factor and DRD3 genes have been shown to interact and this combination may be a fruitful direction to investigate in future genetic studies.
This review also pushed for additional family studies — and more studies which include female subjects. (Women are often left out of medical studies.)
But it’s important to note that the percentages of such additions are relatively small; most state the number for gambling addictions are between 2%-5%. I’m not minimizing the pain of any addiction, and even that small percentage means millions of people in the United States alone, but it’s still a small percentage of the population.
It makes me wonder why the casino industry is required to set aside funds for gambling addiction programs (efforts of which vary widely). Do shopping malls or the retail industry have to finance similar programs for shopaholics? Does the food industry have to pay into some sort of pool to help food addicts? I don’t see similar requirements for employers, computer manufacturers, etc. Why does Bally’s the casino have to pay for such things but Bally’s fitness centers do not?
Which makes me think that the requirements for casinos are really just a form of a sin tax — more directed, perhaps, but a sin tax all the same.
Perhaps no industry is as persecuted for addictions (and other issues) than the adult sex industry. But it certainly is starting to feel like gambling is being treated like porn.
Are all adult entertainment pastimes just destined to be scapegoated for “society’s ills”? Even when there’s proof that these problems are weighted by genetic factors?
That just doesn’t seem right, does it?
Didn’t we learn anything from prohibition?
How exciting that I’ll Have Another and Mario Gutierrez won the Preakness! Can they win the Triple Crown? We’ll find out on June 9th, at the Belmont Stakes, when I’ll Have Another attempts to become the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since 1978. (I’ll Have Another is favored 3-1; you can place your online bet for the Belmont here.)
And tonight, the final three dance for the mirror ball trophy on Dancing With The Stars! I’ve placed my bet on Donald Driver; who are you betting on — and have you placed your bet yet?
