[Baxter7788]

Hi all,

Its my first time on this site but I’ve finally come to terms with my addiction and truly realised the extent for the first time. I started gambling at 18 and won some money and thought it was too good to be true. Since then I’ve bet a lot sometimes winning and sometimes losing but the bets eventually became bigger and doing a smaller bet didn’t interest me at all.
I’m now 25 and in the last year the gambling has got much worse to the point where I frequently have to take out payday loans in order to pay for rent etc or borrow money from friends or family. I kept on saying just one more big win and then I’ll stop forever but in the last year I’ve had 3 occasions where I won over £10k in one bet and lost the money shortly after and felt terrible afterwards, vowing that next time I would walk away with it as if I’d learnt a lesson.
Recently my parents gave me a large sum of money in order to invest in long term shares. There is a transfer limit of £20k a day so I was left with some money sitting in my account for a few days. I stupidly bet some of it and ended up losing £20,000 recently which was not technically even my money to be betting with. Since then I have opened up more to my parents about this and am not determined to cut out gambling forever. If anyone has any advice on things they have done to make this easier. Right now the thought of betting makes me feel sick as I keep thinking about how much money I’ve lost and how I’ve let down my parents and people I love by not being open and trying to hide my gambling from them.

[Jonny123987]

First thing you HAVE to do is accept that the money is gone. My hardest part. Realize that you ultimately can’t win if you place a bet therefore every bet is a loser and you won’t just loose money but your sanity. When you’re 25 you feel like you have slot of chances and choices to make. but time does pass quick. Try to nip this now while you do have more chances. The money is gone. Are you a compulsive gambler who can’t walk away? I know I am. The only way for me is to stop. And I’ve developed a serious gambling habit so I have to take it one day at a time. And right now that’s hard but I know it’s my only hope. I’ve lost 100’s of thousands man and have gambled for over 20 years.

[Baxter7788]

Hi Jonny,

Thanks for your reply. I now haven’t bet since the weekend and there’s been football midweek so this is something i’d normally bet on. I am have some cravings to bet but I know i need to stay strong and try to ride this out. Sad to hear about your losses I hope you have managed to come to terms with this and have stopped betting

[charles]

Well done on not making those footy bets. Now, what strategies can you put in place to help you avoid them this and future weekends?

Keep posting.

[mutley]

Hi Baxter. It truly is hard not to gamble I like Jonny123987 have lost 100’s of thousands of pounds and it is very very depressing indeed but the money has gone and we ant getting it back. We have just got to stop gambling for our own sanity. In the past I have let my gambling brain win over my normal brain and continued to let myself gamble in small ways even though I was trying to convince myself I wasn’t actually gambling. I would have a couple of goes on the lottery or play on Royal Games for 35p a go or some other small form gambling but I have come to realise that if you do those things you aren’t actually switching off the gambling part of your brain. This time I have stopped all forms of gambling. I haven’t gambled on anything at all for 44 days today and this approach seems to be working better than my previous attempts. Apparently we as gamblers have got to reprogram our brains as over time they have been programmed to think gambling is good but when it gets to the point where we are compulsive gamblers gambling is obviously bad but it can be reversed. ( I hope ) We have just got to take it one day at a time and keep busy in between and fight those horrible cravings.

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