Hi Mickey I am a 43 year old woman married with 2 lovely children who we have brought up the right way. My focus was always on my children. However my gambling started at a very young age around 10 years old. My family were not well off and we never went on holiday at all and my parents never drove a car so rarely took us anywhere apart from the beach. I never complained because I didn’t know any better. My mother also had a serious mental illness (which I was never told about in my youth) though it always appeared to me that my mother was strange. When we were young we had a couple of places that had arcades. I spent my young days in these arcades I was drawn to them they were exciting and I found myself helping the holiday makers win money on the slot machines and they would give me a few pound for helping them, and I then also had money to go on the machines myself. At the age of 12 I was bringing home £15 per day which was loads of money and I eventually saved up £300 in my wardrobe and purchased a new racing bike and a gold ring. I was hooked. At the age of 16 I got a decent job working in finance, my starting salary 30 years ago was £90 per week, I was earning more than my own dad. He charged me £40 per week rent which was a lot of money but it didn’t matter to me as far as I was concerned I would get this money back in the arcades. The gambling was definitely a distraction from my home life – win or lose it was exciting I loved being around the arcades. Eventually the arcades closed down however I was 18 by this time and it was my first experience of a bookie. I think I was only one of the only women to ever go in a bookie, everyone knew me but I didn’t mind I still enjoyed it even though I was a little embarrassed to be gambling being the only female. I actually remember my first bet £40EW on a 16 runner sprint handicap called Cumbrian Waltzer. I was so nervous I couldn’t watch the race. I walked back into the bookie and was so shocked to see the horse had won. In my excitement I threw my betting slip away and had to search in the ash trays. This win got me approx £670 – if it had lost who knows what would have happened but I suppose I still would have ended up in the betting shops every day. During this period I met my now husband, lovely man never bet in his life I was head over heels in love we had to be together. We were so hooked on each other that we decided to get engaged after only 6 months but made a terrible decision to move into his parents house so we could save up enough money to buy our first house. This was a destructive period for me because I was suffering from severe boredom, I spent these 5 years at work then going home to spend all my time in the bedroom. I didn’t want to interfere in my boyfriends parents space. This was the start of using teletext and spending time in the local bookies placing bets mainly on golf and football. I made many thousands and lost many thousands. My boyfriend spent many hours at work, and I spent many hours spending all of his hard earns cash and that was the pattern. We purchased our first house at the age of 23 but again this was destructive, because I spent most of the time in the house alone and this was my first experience of internet betting. This was the period of spending many thousands of pounds – we had to remortgage twice after my gambling sprees spending £70,000. I did have 2 major wins of £20,800 and £20,000 on the golf which we spent on our wedding and a new BMW however everything else I lost or wasted. I always promised my husband I would never bet again. He took me to my doctor however 18 years ago in Jersey there were no GA meetings they only started up locally 12 years ago so there was no support for me. I did manage to get a little better by taking my bank account away and restricting my cash allowance but I felt bitter about working all month and having nothing for myself. We got married 14 years ago and had our first child, with our second child 4 years later. I still gambled however not to such a heavy extent but if I got down in the dumps I would go on gambling binges not to win but just to gamble. I really just feel at my time of life I need to sort myself out it’s gone on for too long. I have attended the last 8 weeks of GA meetings but as I explained earlier they are only a tiny group of people who all say they have not gambled from week to week. I need to speak to people in a therapy type situation and feel this is the best site for me. I look forward to speaking to many people that understand where I am coming from
