Now that we’re living in ‘times of austerity’, a phrase which makes me feel like vomiting violently and is a concept which has now been largely proven to be utter bullshit (although George Osborne is clinging on by his fingernails to it, regardless), I’ve noticed a few things. Firstly, the amount of adverts for ‘payday loans’ on the telly seem to have trebled. That could just be because I’m now a jobless bum and tend to have the TV on during the day, which is when these adverts are usually aired, but there’s a definite increase. (If you’re not sure what payday loans are all about, read this post by Cass).

The other thing I seem to see more and more of is adverts for gambling. Everywhere I turn, there’s online bingo, casinos that you can use on your smartphones, TV channels for roulette…it’s endless. Often, these things are combined with a ‘social’ aspect too, offering people the chance to chat to people while they piss their money up the wall, which makes the whole thing even worse, if you ask me.

Gambling can be dangerous. We all know that. The rush of endorphins when you win, no matter how small an amount can be highly addictive and those with a predilection towards addiction can end up ruined, both financially and personally. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of people are able to have a flutter on the Grand National once a year and never be bothered by gambling again, but that’s not always the case.

But here are the two things that really irk me.

1. Giving the gambling a ‘social’ aspect is preying on people’s loneliness. They’re saying “Got no friends? Come and spunk your money with us and chat to people while you’re at it!” Feelings of loneliness and fragmentation from society are really, really common when people are struggling for money, have been made redundant, have spent a long time on benefits or are generally suffering from depression. Enticing them in to gambling with the promise of a bit of company is so wrong.

2. The fact of the matter is, many people are living hand-to-mouth at the moment. Wages are criminally low in comparison with living costs, benefits are being cut, rents are going up and the cost of a weekly shop has dramatically increased in the past couple of years. The majority of people don’t have the money to gamble, however the lure and prospect of maybe winning a lump sum to help you to drag yourself and your family out of the mire is sometimes enough to make people spend money they don’t have. After all, we have the “you have to be in it to win it” message forced down our throats all the time.

I know there will be people who read this, the eternal unsympathetic, who will say that people should have more self control, don’t blame the companies or the adverts, don’t say addiction is an illness, blah blah…but think about it this way; advertising is psychology – if adverts didn’t work on people, companies wouldn’t spend BILLIONS of galactic credits a year to find creative ways to make you give them your money. These companies MUST take some responsibility for the effect that they have on people…desperate people. They won’t be happy until they’ve wrung us out and extracted the last few pennies from our pockets and I, for one, am sick of it.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about Ladbrokes casino and it occurred to me recently that by offering me free credits and asking me to write about their site, they were dragging me into their world too, asking me to tell my friends about their site, getting average people to part with their cash.

Well, screw you, Ladbrokes and all of the other gambling sites, loan companies with 3999% interest and anything else that’s trying to mug us and Gods bless Martin Lewis and Money Saving Expert and all of the other places who realise that trying to help us to SAVE money is the decent thing to do.

And while we’re at it, George Osborne can kiss my arse too.