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It would be unwise for someone with Pathological Gambling (PG) to engage in any gambling of any type. I often see alcoholics or drug users who want to learn to use in moderation, rather than be entirely abstinent. I've seen this work only twice in 17+ years of practice.
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I'm a psychologist who's area of expertise is addiction, particulary gambling addiction, and even more particularly online poker addiction.
The truth is that many many people go from being addicted to something to moderate and "normal" use, be it alcohol, drugs, or forms of gambling. If you have only seen it twice in 17 years then it is because you just don't see the people who return to moderate use because they no longer go to you with a problem, or you are being disingenuous.
I believe in giving people the full facts on these matters, not promoting any spiritually based abstinence philosophy or ludicrously outdated medical disease theory of addiction.
The fellowships such as AA or GA are NOT permissive of intentioned use as their anachronistic view of addiction (which is unchanged despite decades of research which contradicts it) explicity precludes the possibility of moderate usage. This harmful view is why many addicts have 1 slip and they think "oh God that's it I've fallen off the wagon, I know an addict can't have just 1 or 2 drinks so I have no choice but to binge now"
If any of you or anyone you know may have a gambling problem then by all means use GA as a 1st stop for info but if there are alternatives then I would suggest that for many gamblers, particularly poker players choosing an option other than GA may be more suitable for you. But if GA are the only show in town then I would recommend them over nothing.
Here are some links which may be useful to you or others, feel free to PM me for any further information:
http://www.basisonline.org/toolkits/...pSite/main.htm
http://www.gamblingtherapy.org/
http://www.ncpgambling.org/about_problem/
http://www.responsiblegambling.org/
And be wary about what you read, in America many of the organisations are in the pocket of the gaming industry (eg Harvard's gambling centre) or actually set up by it.