So some people have asked why we talk about addiction and mainly gambling addiction as a huge problem for companies, and the growth of a company.
So you have to understand that when you look at a business, it all starts with the owner/owners and then comes the CEO and CFO and then the workforce.
And if you have at the upper level people that are suffering from any kind of addiction that takes both time and money away from the business this is a huge problem.
But this matter is not very often discussed , because the workers are afraid of getting involved and getting the owner/CEO some help to beat the addiction.
This is understandable that a worker does not want to jeopardize their job by going to the boss and saying hi Jack i believe that you are suffering from a serious addiction and me and the rest of your employees would like you to seek help for your addiction.
Most of the times the workers and other management personal can spot what the addiction is that the owner or the CEO is suffering from.
But with gambling this is much more difficult to spot compered to alcohol and drugs where there is usually some psychical signs that you can see what is going on.
And the growth and well being of any business depends very much on the owner/management making sound and good decisions for the future.
And if you have a CEO/Owner who blows 300-500.000 dollars a year in VEGAS or at the OTB and today sadly enough, legal gambling is almost available in every state.
And as Warren Buffet says, there is no economic benefit for states and cities to legalize gambling, it is a cancer that eats away on the society.
There is a reason why a lot of countries did band gambling 100+ years ago and there is also a reason why in many European countries for many years it was state controlled(no longer) the European politicians sold out and gave in!.
And this is one of the most damaging things that a business owner can do is to gamble away money and funds that could be used to grow the business.
Instead they are taking the money out from the company and then gambling it away at casinos,sport-books or at the OTB.
Dont you think that if it was possible to win on sports-book and casinos LONG-TERM, that there would be some huge groups of investors doing this today?!.
We see a lot of addicted people when we are asked to look over a company in distress, regardless of which country it is located in these days.
We did not see in the past the gambling issue as clearly as we see it today in both Europe and America, but Asia is crazy also.
So if you are an employee of a company and you can see that your owner or CEO is struggling with addiction, the best thing you can do is to try and get all the workers together and then try and get outside council to see if an outside company or person can come in and start treating the addicted person.
The addicted person is not gonna be able to white knuckle the issue on their own(quit on their own) it always takes help to get an addict cleaned up.
And they will struggle for the rest of their life with the addiction, but they can with help fight the addiction and stay clean.
Doing nothing as an employee is stupid because the investments made in the company will affect you in a personal way.
And the lack of investments will also affect you in a bad way.
BUT THE ONE THING TO BE CAREFUL WITH, IS NOT TO DO THIS ALONE!.
YOU NEED TO GET ALL THE WORKERS TO UNITE AND SEEK OUTSIDE HELP TO HELP OUT YOUR OWNER/CEO.
Because if you do this alone , there is a risk that you can get fired for overstepping if you do this on your own.
So if you dont get other workers on board then stand down.
Because addicts when getting pushed will lash out at the person trying to help them out.
This is totally normal when dealing with an addict.
Very seldom when we from mrlifeadvise get called into a company, is it the owner/Ceo him or herself asking for our outside council and assistance.
Usually it is other family members or co-workers or investors/partners who can not take this anymore.
So the person we are coming to help, will lash out at us and usually it goes something like this, yes i like to gamble and drink but i dont have a problem with it!.
Our answer usually is, okay then you will have no problem opening up your private books and the companies books so we can establish how much % wise you have spent on your vice or vices on a yearly basis!.
Because every company is different and has different turnovers and revenues so you need to count is percentage instead of the money going out.
So usually if the clients has spent more than 20% on his or her net income on gambling then it is a huge problem.
Already at 10% there are serious WARNING flags that this is an issue that needs to be solved.
Normally we see that over 50% goes towards gambling of the net income for a gambling addict that has access to funds on a regular basis.
So there is a huge advantage if you as a company employee can have a sober owner/Ceo at the top of your company.
So do not take addiction lightly and absolutely do not take gambling addiction lightly.
Based on our wast experience we would put gambling addition side by side with opioid addiction.
And for us as advisers it is scary to see how widely available the online gambling is these days.
And we know first hand many companies that went under due to the owner being an gambling addict.
And this is just so sad when you see jobs lost and local revenues going to the bookie instead of the local city/town , because the company owner never got treatment.
And this is also where the last stand usually takes place, that once the business owner has lost his company and all of his money has been lost on gambling, he will more likely than not take his own life.
Suicide is very common when it comes to gambling addicts, because it is one of the toughest if not the toughest addiction to beat.
And the reason for this is that you brains dopamine levels have been hijacked so badly by the addiction that it is insane.
If you have ever seen a cat-scan picture of a gambling addicts brain it is down right scary to look at the photo of the brain.
So sharing is caring and if you know somebody who suffers from gambling addiction or any other addiction that affect there business or your work environment, try to solve it and nip it in the but A.S.A.P because it will only go one way which is downhill from wherever the addict is at the point that you get involved with the case!.
Thanks for reading.
Mrlifeadvise.
