Everytime I make a post like “don’t spend money on gacha” I get a bunch of angry replies to tell me “actually it’s POSSIBLE to gamble responsibly” and “mh how AM i a bad person for deciding to spend MY own money that I earned MYSELF?”
and man… I really wish that people understood that when I say “Don’t spend money on gacha, it might kickstart a gambling addiction” or “if you regularly spend money on gacha you might already have one” I don’t mean it as a moral judgement. Addiction isn’t something that solely affects “bad” or “stupid” people. Addiction isn’t some punishment that is deserved. If you suffer from any kind of addiction, you deserve help. But the first step of getting that help is acknowledging there is a problem in the first place.
also: while this applies to all addictions, gacha addictions especially suck because people keep trivializing it. There are so many memes and so much enabling like “lol just spent all my savings on gacha :p” “3000$ for my waifu, a pretty cheap price!” “lol it’s too late for me I already spend so much on it but you guys stay safe!” “Don’t spend on gacha? No, spend MORE on gacha!” which I believe only adds fuel to the virulent hostility against any post that goes “hey, this isn’t normal, please be careful.”
So yeah all this talk to say: the best way to not get a gambling addiction is to not start gambling at all, so don’t spend money on gacha. If you do spend money on gacha, be careful and watch out that “I’m just spending ten bucks and nothing else” doesn’t morph into “I just spent 140 bucks and got nothing out of it, might as well add ten more at this point.” If you have a gacha addiction and are aware of it, I wish you safety and recovery.