Hi Kdn! Like you I won a large amount of money the first time I went into the casino. I felt like I was stealing the money and asked my girlfriend to leave the casino with me immediately after they paid me. I knew I had a gambling problem the second time I went into the casino with my sister-in-laws. We were visiting the city as my husband’s daughter was having a wedding shower. When it came time to go to the shower, I was very reluctant to leave, as I was up $300. I shared my winnings with them and we left, even though had I had a choice, I would have stayed instead of going to a boring wedding shower. The worse thing that can happen to a person in a casino is to win the first time they go. That sets up thinking that a person will win every time they go, and it sets up greedy thinking. If a person is up with their money, they want to be up more, and they think that if they keep gambling, the machine has to hit. It took me a long time to understand the concept of what it meant chasing our losses. As compulsive gamblers, we cannot stop and will only leave the venue when we don’t have anymore access to cash to gamble with. That is why recovery is so important. Gambling addiction is a progressive disease, so unless a person gets support and gets into recovery, their life will become worse and worse, and the person will become more emotionally ill. You’ve gotten some really good advice from people that have already posted as to how to put barriers up so that you can’t gamble. Learn all you can about the disease and learn how to work recovery before this disease takes everything good from you. Wishing you a gamble free day. Carole
