Hope he is found. Also hoping if he is found okay, he gets an actual job. Life will always be like this if you are gambling for a living.

I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to use the police like that. Unless you believe that crap about 'serve and protect'.

utter cringefest on some of the early comments..... do you think you are smart or cool doing that? frankly it's pathetic as are many general attempts at humor on 2p2.

i hope they find brad. i would have thought that they'd be able to find his car, but who knows?

evidently he has had major financial issues...... but i would note that it seems his financial problems started AFTER he was screwed by the UB betting cheating. i think he lost most of his roll on that.

this is similar to matt marafioti disappearance a few years ago.. they found matt so let's pray they find brad alive...

Curious that his vehicle hasn't been recovered yet. Still gives some credence to the "went dark" theory. I hope that's the case.

i'm a little confused on the camping angle. too lazy to go back and maybe clarification would be good for everyone.

he said he was going camping.. did he only have camping stuff for a day or two? or did he take no camping stuff?... and i guess you could camp for a day and half with very little camping stuff

Does anyone else thing there is no way he went camping? He said in an interview he’s not played poker like 10 days out of 20 years or something ridiculous.

So this post is fine but others get posters banned? Where is the consistency? Is a mod waiting on an autopsy here?

yeah, around 75% of us

Hope he is found but there is absolutely zero chance someone like Brad gets an actual job.

Hope they find him.

Don’t be disrespectful.

Also, I wonder where people get their (obviously untrue) stats from. Jfc.

Since your post has invited a bunch of comments I will leave it for now. But, seriously, where did you get your alleged information of 25%. Thin air?

What are the locations of the American suicide forests? It’s about time someone does some investigative work.

I’m also wondering if people like Foder realize that it’s basically impossible to have meaningful data on things like that.

What % of gambling addicts do you think publicly identify themselves as one?

Apologies for the derail, but jeez...

...a few minutes with Google before you post maybe???

Major recent studies in Sweden and Hong Kong. Lots of the studies in past. Plenty of data both qualitative and quantative.

For a supposedly bright young chap, pretty naive and uniformed comment.

Not agreeing necessarily with any defined number/percentage but increased suicide rates (above the population norm) amongst degen gamblers is hardly contentious. Not thin air...just Google...and common sense.

I was just digesting the % stat when u broke my mind with the last 3 words

I apologize for the derail as well. Hope Brad is found safe and healthy.

You missed my point. Why don’t you think about why it would be impossible to ever reasonably know if “25%” of gambling addicts commit suicide at some point.

Not to mention that there’s are clear difference between “commit” and “attempt”

Yeeesh, I really hate to dignify the derail but I can't let it go, either.

Google tells you nothing. It just helps you find places that could tell you. (And in all fairness to you, I'm sure it's what you meant. But it's one of my pet peeves when people say things like "Google says..." It would be like going to the library to research a topic, but rather than citing the book, you cite the library as your source.)

Also, I'm not sure why you would go through the exercise of being so condescending about the availability of info, then not provide any of said info.

As alluded to above, there is a substantial difference between thoughts of suicide and the actual act of attempting it. How substantial? Per the CDC data, 10.7 million people "seriously thought" about it, while 1.4 million attempted the act in 2018. I just want to lead with that, in case anyone quotes numbers of suicidal thoughts rather than the attempts.

This Guardian article cited research by GambleAware, which found that 19 percent of "problem gamblers" considered suicide in the previous year, with 4.7 percent attempted it. The actual study looked at "lifetime" suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts (as opposed to just the last year), and found the prevalence to be at 42.2 percent and 27.0 percent for problem gamblers, based on a 2007 survey. [GambleAware study: http://about.gambleaware.org/news/ga...cide-research/]

So that's consistent with the 25 percent estimate above. Of course, the researchers admit some sizable flaws inherent with their research – including the aforementioned problem that problematic gambling behavior will go largely underreported. This is an important gap, too. Those who would self-identify as a problem gambler could easily fall into the most severe (and negative) end of the spectrum. As RoadToPro noted above, no one will ever know the exact numbers, and even the best studies will tend to indicate a conclusion rather than prove it.

Moving on, this University of Maryland article references a 1999 study by Macallum et al. I'll admit I haven't looked closely to that PDF but the UMD article quoted figures of 38 percent for "suicidal ideation" and eight percent as "actively suicidal."

Sort of interesting that their "actively suicidal" rate is so low compared to the GambleAware findings. I'm sure it's a difference in the way they define their terms, or the timespan used. Again, I haven't looked at it closely. One thing I did notice, though: their definition of a "problem gambler" is at least partially based on the amount of subject's debt. So again, players with larger debts are also among those who would seem to be closer to the negative pole of the disorder.

This 1-800-Gambler article quotes various sources, including a Gambler Anonymous survey that found 16 of almost 200 members surveyed attempted suicide, with another 29 forming a definite plan. That's eight percent (give or take) of the admittedly small sample attempting to go through with the act. [Note: the 800-Gambler article sourced an original article on Citizenlink.com, but that link no longer worked.]

Finally, I DO want to quickly remind people that with almost any study, the researchers are finding correlation, but not necessarily causality. In other words, having a gambling addiction does not necessarily create suicidal tendencies, as it's possible a deeper psychological condition feeds into both the addiction and the tendencies. At least one of the studies made that very clear, and I just felt a need to reiterate it here.

Anyway, the bottom line is that this is no laughing matter. For all we know, Brad just went off the grid for a little bit, and just failed to tell anyone. Pointing fingers at some past transgressions is rather fruitless when it comes to finding him, too.

I remember playing against Brad on UB waaaay back when I just started, $3/$6 NL and we were headsup. His name was Lfisgood or something like that (or I have the wrong guy completely). Anyway, he was fun and chatty at the table and I was just happy to be playing $3/6.

He’s obviously had some rough times and from what I’ve heard, he’s one of the guys that got ****ed the hardest by the UB scandal.

Hope he just got lost (on purpose), but damn .

Indeed, some version of this is my hope, too.

Curious to know from anyone close to Brad if this is something he does/did frequently. I certainly know people who do such things. Not long after we all graduated from college, one of my friends moved to Colorado and no one knew it was happening until he got there. Just up and went, as the saying goes.

Perhaps the strangest instance in my experience was on one of our sports teams. One of our student-athletes quit the team on the morning of the final game of the season. He didn't tell his coach or any of his teammates, he just didn't show up. The funny part is that the team was honoring its graduating seniors that day, and he was supposed to be one of them. They had the usual flowers and gifts and all the things that generally go on with those ceremonies. No one heard from him until the next week, when he was still in school, going to class, etc., like nothing happened.

Anyway, I don't know if Brad is someone who does that kind of thing, but in this instance, I really, really hope he is.

I think his pokerlistings interview in wsop 2014 is one of the better introspectives of what being a professional high stakes player was like for that era.

Hope he is alive and well.

I'd be interested to know how you define a gambling addict. What criteria need to be met before someone is one?

Yes, that was Brad, his handle was LFISGD. And the UB super user scandal cost him millions and millions and destroyed not only his bankroll but his confidence.

And yet even today, Russ Hamilton lives in his comfortable house in Vegas and hasn't faced the consequences one iota (except for having his portrait at the WSOP covered up). Disgusting.

If anyone hasn't seen Ultimate Beat, it's worth your time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT2KzfoEJf0

Yes and in an interview I read with Brad recently, he said he lost $2.5m on Ultimate Bet. When they did what they claimed were refunds, he got back $250k. Utter pondlife.

The leaked tapes of Russ Hamilton et al discussing the situation afterwards had them talking about just how they could limit the refunds to the smallest amount possible.

Brad has at times gone off but would have contacted family or a close friend by now. We are hopeful for good news.

Statement from the family of missing person Brad Booth:

All of our family would like to say thank you to everyone that is trying to locate Brad.

At this time, we ask that you please refrain from sharing second hand information and to please stop spreading suspicions and rumors. It is impeding the investigation instead of helping by taking valuable time away to verify all the information.

If you have any relevant information to this investigation, we ask that you contact detective Tazy Ciofalo at the Reno Police Department @ (775) 321-8372 and reference file #20-12315.

Should she not answer leave a detailed message and she will get right back to you. We are all heartbroken over this and wish for his safe return. Thank you.
-Family of Brad Booth.