Why paigow? Was it the illusion of skill?

Would you say your desire to gamble comes from seeing gambling entirely as a way to make money or for some other reason (and if so what reason)?

Without judging what you have done, thank you for coming clean and answering all questions honestly. It is a good read and insightful and there is clearly something inside you that wants to make everything ok.

http://projectturnabout.org/programs/gambling/ this is the place I attended. It saved my life. 30 days made a world of difference. It is not a magic place, and it is not a place that guarantees 100%, only you can do that. I will say it is a great place to start.

Anytime and look forward to hearing from you anytime.

Best post of this thread. Mike should seriously consider this.

So now you're back disecting my choice of words??? I admitted I have scammed people at airports and have said it a lot. At this point(as I told you the other day before this thread was briefly locked) you are only on here trolling, offering nothing but insults to make yourself feel better about yourself. I am done responding to you as well so keep the insults coming.(And you wonder why your post was deleted a few days ago).

Dude there is no magic pill to save you.

Go to GA
Get a sponsor
Work the program
Get a job, any job
Start writing every casino to get yourself banned


None of this is easy, but you dug the hole. Stop complaining about how deep the hole is and start climbing.

Only you can get you out. We'll root for you, if you establish a positive track record, people will help.

Apply for jobs, make them say no.

Work at getting work as hard you worked marks at the airport (don't lie, but be persistent)

Go back to penn state, tell them your story and beg for a job as a janitor, or as some menial labor so you can fix you.

I will consider this. Never heard of it but I will look into it tonight online.

Mike, I know nothing useful about problem gambling, but I do know something about parents, and I think it's very likely that yours have spent the last decade-plus desperately wishing that you would understand what huge mistakes you've made. I don't know if they will help you, or can help you. But the best thing you can do for that relationship is call them and tell them you know you need it.

This thread has attracted a liter of haters.....and I understand. Mike has done some bad and unlawful things and is back again doing some small time scams. But I have enjoyed reading his story. It is like a reality version of Leaving Las Vegas meets Owning Mahowny. Mike has been pretty honest about the past and is not looking to hustle anyone here.

I suggest Mike opens up a new thread in "Poker Goals and Challenges" that could be a well combined with life updates. No more haters, just people pulling for the ultimate come back story. Given that this thread has got over 350k views, I am sure there are others rooting for Mike to pull it together and get back on his feet. I am.

Well, being nice to people when they're ****ing up generally reinforces their bad behavior and doesn't help anything. It's called enabling.

If you want to help someone you think is acting like a piece of ****, they need to be treated like a piece of **** so their self-worth equalizes with how valuable they actually are, as an addict, to the people in their life and in terms of creating a healthy, happy life. Then we create motivation to become a better person.

I would guess scamming people at airports involves crossing state lines.

http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/...-nodemap-gmap0

Some people actually care about humanity. While others just sit back and do nothing.

Actually our Blogs forum is better suited.

Welcome to our new members. Quick FYI - In your option settings you can set the number of posts per page. 50 or 100 are suggested.

As a spam deterrent your private messaging capabilities wont be active till you reach a certain number of posts and days active.

And....

http://meetings.intherooms.com/ga/Sa...o-GA/all/36781

I live in the Bay Area myself. If you ever need to just talk man, let me know. I just won't be giving you any money - no offense

Best advice in entire thread^^^. I got $20 on it.

Please read my previous few posts. I noticed Mike hasn't responded to them because he knows the truth, and even though I don't know him personally, I've met MANY Mikes in my life.

What do you estimate you've paid in state and federal taxes on the years of earnings from your airport scams and what exactly did you list it as? There's a chance you don't get anything from the mark so technically it may be classified as "gambling income".

Absolutely 100% correct! Yes, there are some medications out there that will help, but that is only after you get down to some of the basics of living clean. Right now it is about getting some help. Look you are sick, if you needed a heart transplant, you wouldn't go try to fix it yourself. You would go to a Dr. that was a specialist, and was the best there was. That is exactly what you need right now. You need to be around people are that able, and qualified, and have expertise in handling this. This disease is not one you can heal by yourself. It can't be healed with money, or drugs. It needs to be worked on by experts. There are plenty of resources out there, and believe it or not, some of them are FREE!! In fact, they are paid for by the casino's due to certain laws in different states... I live in Kansas, all of my treatment was paid for 100%, and I also am receiving up to 90 FREE consultations with a gambler counselor-- all for free, all paid for by the state via the tax on casinos..

It's really satisfying to get under the skin of a scammer like you because it confirms that what I say makes you uncomfortable. Accomplishing that isn't easy because of how full of yourself you are. I've already stated the reason I'm here is because I've been scammed by your type in the past and it sickens me that you have taken a thread outing you to the community and turned it into your new playground.

It's obvious that your level of self worth compared to others is at Kanye West levels of narcissism, and I enjoy reminding you and others of that. No wonder it tilts you...

Speaking of being on Kanye West level of narcissism.......

If were going to put the people ITT into such black and white categories, it would be better to say:

There are people who are misguided and think they are helping humanity while actually enabling the ****tiest parts of humanity to be even ****tier. Then there are people who actually have been in holes like the one mike is in here (or at least understand that people in mike's situation are huge drains on society) and know what it takes to get out of them.

saying "its okay bud, you ****ed up but it's okay I'll help you" is similar to saying "your behavior up until this point has not made me stop caring about you yet, so you probably have some leeway to keep being a piece of **** and ****ing other people over"

If mike wants compassion, he should call his mom.

If he wants to get better he should stop being so defensive, stop posting on the internet, go to GA and get a job or find some other way to make legit money.

Scammers can spot a live one from miles away.

https://www.calproblemgambling.org/p...help-available since you are in California, here is another great place to look for help.