Are you willing to sign your whole life away just for a bit of fun, are you willing to push away your family and friend for another quick game, or are you willing to lose everything just to feel like a winner? Bachmann was a housewife who was tired of her everyday life, she was bored, so she decided to do something fun. Bachmann started gambling to relive her boredom and she eventually ended up in debt losing over a million dollars just because she was bored. Even though the casinos were tempting Bachmann with trips and money I believe that Angie Bachmann if fully responsible for her debt.
The first reason why Bachmann is responsible for her debt is that she constantly made changes to the rules that she had set to allow herself to spend more and stay longer. The second reason she is responsible is that she made the initial choice to gamble when she could have done anything else. Bachmann had no reason for becoming an addict because she was living in a “rat park”, an optimal or desirable environment, which means her “ addiction” was not as serious as she made it out to be. The first reason why Angie Bachmann is fully responsible for her debt is that she would constantly change the rules she set for herself. Bachmann knew the risk of gambling which is why she set rules for herself in the first place even saying that she knew gambling could lead to trouble, yet she still chose to bend and break those rules to her will. Her rules were “no more than one hour at the blackjack table per trip, and she only gambled what was in her wallet” (Duhigg 191). She set those rules to avoid trouble,but after awhile Bachmann started to bend the rules because she felt like she could win.
She eventually hit twenty-thousand dollars in debt and declared bankruptcy. The second reason why Bachmann is responsible for her debt is that it was her the choice to gamble in the first place. To become an addict a person must choose to get high, drunk, or gamble and no one was forcing Bachmann to go to the casino. All addicts make the choice to start and Jason Good, who has been working in the field of addiction and recovery for over ten years, writes “you can’t get high (drunk) if you don’t pick up” Jason is says that this is very true and that “No one forces you to do it”. Bachmann was bored of her everyday life, her two daughters were at school and her husband would work all day leaving her home alone, so she decided to go to the casino willingly nobody forced her and no one told her to do so Bachmann chose to go and set in motion the destruction of her life.
