lemmy - Link to source

Florida gambling helpline director sentenced to nearly 10 years over $1.4m theft to fund addiction

cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/72701129

supersquirrel

2026-10-21 18:04:02

lemmy - Link to source

Florida gambling helpline director sentenced to nearly 10 years over $1.4m theft to fund addiction


Florida gambling helpline director sentenced to nearly 10 years over $1.4m theft to fund addiction

Philip Sullivan, who sought to rebuild his life after gambling addiction, convicted of stealing from real-estate employer
Ramon Antonio Vargas (the Guardian)

#NotTheOnion
in reply to ladicius
lemmy - Link to source

givesomefucks

It's literally how we evolved.

Our brains get bored of steady reliable rewards. Because those always happen.

There's been studies on this, intermittent and random encouragement is more motivating than actually rewarding people consistently for their effort.

Because our brain desperately wants to solve the randomness. Reward someone for no reason and they just keep doing everything they think may have caused it, give them the reason and they just do that.

That's why so many gamblers are obsessed with their "system" and swear they've almost got it perfected. Gambling addiction isn't even a failing, it's exploiting things that are why we have houses let alone gambling apps.

The drive to solve something that seems random to maximize rewards.

in reply to Carlos Solís
lemmy - Link to source

givesomefucks

A Florida man who stole more than $1m from his employer to bankroll a gambling problem – before becoming the director of his state’s gambling addiction helpline in trying to make amends – was recently sentenced to nearly a decade in prison.


Ever consider reading articles instead of headlines?

in reply to inb4_FoundTheVegan
lemmy - Link to source

givesomefucks

I think "More Perfect Union" did a piece where they signed up, acted exactly like a problematic immediately, and were quickly (same day) granted VIP.

but we live in a klpeto hellscape so regulation will never come.


The solution to things moving slowly is to think on longer timelines, not give up.

2.5 years isn't tomorrow, but we can be on some real FDR shit by then, with very little actual effort.

We pried the DNC out of the neoliberals death grip, I legitimately never thought I'd see that happen. The hardest part is over but no one even noticed.