Ridiculous Lack of Personal Responsibility

These days it seems that you can slap the word “addiction” after any activity and escape personal responsibility for poor decision making. Moreover, in some places calling yourself an addict not only earns a free pass from consequences but it also gives you the right to sue other people for not protecting you from yourself. Take for example, Graham Calvert, a greyhound trainer in England is suing his bookmaker for failing to prevent him from losing over 2 million pounds in bad bets.

[Calvert’s] counsel, Anneliese Day, said William Hill had been guilty of “negligent encouragement and inducement” by not acting to curb Calvert’s gambling even though he had indicated he wanted them to on at least two occasions.

Far from doing that, William Hill had sought to encourage Calvert to go on huge betting sprees, breaching their own “self-exclusion” policy, she added

I feel bad that Calvert’s life is a mess, but he shouldn’t be allowed to put the blame on anyone but himself. It would be one thing if he was simply suing to clear his debts, but now Calvert has upped the ante by suing for personal damages!

On Wednesday, Mr Justice Michael Briggs granted the 28-year-old permission to widen his claim…. to include compensation for personal injuries.

By allowing these litigious shenanigans the UK has opened up a can of worms. Let us hope that the the condition isn’t contagious.