Time to admit I have a Problem!.....

alias_debt_boy

I've just broken cover tonight and come clean about my debt problem, part of which is gambling. I don't know about you but I got hooked on casino bagging, and defied odds to make some incredible wins, once turning a £100 first deposit bonus into £5000. Overall I made about £10000. Then I lost $9000 in one night at one online casino, and after a week of deciding whether to just charge it back I decided to be a man and accept what i'd done. Even then I kept losing £600 here, £250 there, and now estimate i'm about £5000 down.

If you have an addictive personality then it's probably not a good idea to try and beat this on your own. Get yourself to a GA meeting (I can give you the number of your local one if you contact me by PM)- they are great and you may find the support and help of fellow addicts in an anonymous environment helps you to stay off. If you don't want to do that then at least find a mentor who has already managed to quit, or someone who you can talk to. If nothing else you can PM me and i'll give you my email address. Lastly, you can install software called gamblock on your PC (https://www.gamblock.com) which will stop you gambling or even finding gambling related sites on your PC (it will probably stop you reading this thread mind you, it's that thorough!). If you do buy it, make sure you wipe off all casinos etc first, otherwise it has a tendancy to stop your PC from starting up at all (make sure you back up your important files etc)

Don't beat yourself up if you have a relapse. Don't stop giving up. Try not gambling for one week. Then try another week. Tell yourself that you can always have a go some other time. And don't get round to it. Phone your local casino and ask them to ban you. Do the same with the onlines. Tell your credit card companies that while you accept responsibility, you would like their help with blocking gambling transactions. Or ask someone else to do it for you. Once you do that the casinos won't let you back in and the credit cards companies won't let you play anyway. Don't worry about phoning either the casinos or the CC companies, they will be polite and happy to do it. The casinos don't like problem gamblers continuing to play, it gives them a bad image at a time when they are trying to clean up their act. And same goes for the cc companies, like most creditors they appreciate honesty.

Good luck, and keep in touch. And remember, as Tony Robbins says, "The Past does not equal the Future"!

ADB

PS- just read some of the other replies and I agree with one sentiment in particular. If you have a compulsive/ obsessive nature, and always need to be doing something, then that's just the way you are, i reckon it means people like us are more intelligent and our minds are more active/curious/need more stimulation than our working and personal lives are able to satisfy, so we fill the gap with gambling, or drugs, or whatever. I find a good idea is to get obsessed with something else instead, something that you can turn to. Perhaps get obsessed with updating MS Money, or writing a book or a blog or something. Maybe even come on here and read, or do what I do these days when I have the urge to gamble; I sit and waste time on sites like pop!!!!!.com, just as wasteful and obsessive timewise as gambling but a hell of a lot less expensive!

plymouth_janner_boy

Ah its morning, and yes i do feel sick to the stomach!!! but I know I'm about to turn the corner and the light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel, my beautiful baby boy is my inspiration as is my fiancee.

Where and what is the snowball calculator??

fatbelly

Hi PJB

Try

http://whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Ali-OK

Hi

Just read this thread and wanted to say well done to those quitting gambling. You'll get plenty of support from the DFW's!

The snowball calculator is at https://www.whatsthecost.com - you put in each debt (cc, loan, etc), the APR for each, the % min you have to pay and how much you can afford to pay overall each month.

It will then calculate the order in which you need to pay them and how much to pay each (using the figure you can afford as the overall monthly payment) and it gives you your DFD (Debt Free Date).

Hope that helps and good luck!

freebird65

Well done you for admitting you have a problem - admitting anything to oneself is always the hardest step!

I did a couple of gambling site freebies through greasypalm and won very nicely.....I was £200 up on betfair and then stuck half of it on a "certainty"...and lost....I felt soooooo sick even though it wasn't even my own money that I immediately shut down my mini a/cs and decided that gambling was not for me....but I can understand how easy it could be to get hooked.

I agree there should be a gamblers board.....although I know everyone here will be happy to help.....stay positive and keep yourself busy!

If you need another incentive to quit, just look at your lovely little boy and think what you could have done for him with £1,000!!!

All the best

FrugalJo

Dear PJB and Kaz
Think this board is a great new addiction for you ! A big slap on the back to you both for admitting it and hope you feel better for doing it.
Had my own brush with online gambling, and found it much too easy to get sucked right in, just an online 10p a card bingo site had me chucking tenners at it. The little arcade 10p lottery style games on Bookmakers websites also had me hooked for a while. I'm of an addictive nature and now stick to ebay, has the fun of the gamble in a way. The great thing about DFW is becoming addicted to saving the stuff and watch the balance grow because you've worked hard for it.
Jo

kaz250

Thanks was again to everyonefor the messages of support .It's been a weksince i last gambled and it's free great checking my bank on line and seeing the balance being what its meant to be for ounce.I will definitely keep every one informed as to my progress.

lynzpower

Fantastic that you guys are coming here for support. My mate works in internet stuff and she has been trying to get online gambling jobs as they are the most lucrative on the market. Im sure you know how much money they are making from what you guys have lost. the other thing about online gambling is you dont see those sad faces at the casino ( i used to dabble there, never any big wins, always small wins, never more than 20 quid losses cos IM so tight lol) and everytime Id come out you can see someone weeping in a corner. You dont see the devastation of gambling online as its so anonymous.

Id also suggest getting support in the real world too, gamblers anonymous is a great place to start. Sometimes online virtual support isnt enough.

Hopefully you will get addicted to moneysaving, selling on ebay or something more lucrative. I think gamblers often have very quick minds, and hopefully you guys can use your intelligences to find something more happy & productive to do with your cash. Sorry if this sounds patronising, its not meant to at all

Hugs & all the best
Lynz
x

beer2006

I've had brushes with online gambling, I played blackjack.
I was always up (about a couple of thousand) until the odd night when I'd lose, then I'd leave it, trouble is I started to put more and more money into it just to stay even, ie if I lost, I'd just keep doubling the bet until I was back to even with a small profit.
It slowly crept up.

One night I had betted a thousand just to get my money back, I was feeling sick as I pressed the button. I won, but I felt so sick at what I had done, how I was chancing spending all of our money, I stopped dead and it was one of the best things I ever did.

Now, I've beaten it, can take it or leave it, now and again have a small blackjack bet, usually 20 for a night, as i happens I usually win, but thats it, if that money goes thats it. I have to be brutal with myself in case I ever think about carrying on. But I know I won't because I have beaten it, which means you can too.

I don't mean to belittle some of the posters, what I had was a mild problem and I stopped it before it went too far.

All the best, the only advice I can give you is this, give your partners (if you are lucky enough to have one) your bank account details, move the pc where you can be seen, have a rule, no pc after a certain time at night. Little things like that will help.

Plymouth jammer boy, I have a little girl, that was one the easiest way for me to not gamble any more, think of her. Keep thinking of your lovely little boy, he deserves all of the love and the best start you can possibly give him. Its obvious you love him very much and will be a great Dad.

All the best to you all.

Edit
btw I haven't ever even opened the Gambling Introductory Offer Loopholes board, not ever going to look at it.

moggins

I've never gambled in my life, I don't even do the lottery but just wanted to add my support. My mother always had a problem with fruit machines when I was growing up.

Plymouth, if you ever have the desire to gamble again just think what you could have bought your beautiful baby boy with that grand you lost?

All my childhood was spent wearing jumble sale clothes, weird shoes that were the cheapest my mother could find in the sale, never getting to go on school trips. As a girl who longed to fit in this was horrific, instead every other girl in the school looked on me as an easy target. I often went to bed hungry at night too.

Please, please don't do this to your child. It causes scarring that you never fully recover from. Even if you cover your losses with your credit cards eventually that debt will build up and bite you on the a$$.

Please don't think I'm having a go, I'm not, just giving the view of a gamblers child.