Strange addiction - Bingo App on iphone

Silver-Cat

Not sure where the best place is to put this but I wanted to get some opinions on a bingo app I play on my iphone.

Its called bingo live 90 and you have a balance to play bingo. You never win real money but try to get as high a balance as possible. The only problem is that when you reach a zero balance you either try and get someone with credit to send you some balance as it has a sort of chat function or you go to an online store to buy credit.
For the UK, it costs about £6.99 for a balance of £5,000 which doesn't last very long if you play in the higher priced rooms.

I love this app and play it all the time but have recently started buying credit when I run out usually at £2 a time for a £1,000 balance.
I saw my monthly itunes bill last week and £35 of it was due to this one app!!!!!
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I don't know if youd call this a gambling addiction as there is nothing to win, just a higher ranking and I don't use any other sites or shops for gambling apart from the occasional £1 lottery ticket and once a month bingo hall which costs £5 so I don't consider myself a big gambler.

However I can't keep away from this app and although now I tend to play with the free balance users get every 2 hours the tempatation to buy is very strong sometimes.

Before you jump in and critisize me, I am full aware of how daft it is! I'm not sure even why I am posting this.

sooz

Delete it, both from iPhone & iTunes account.

It is an addiction, although clearly currently a relatively inexpensive one. You have nothing to show for it, other than a bill & some wasted time.

Find something else free to play if you must. I like anagram games or scrabble.

cutestkids

Get rid of the App find something else to do there are loads of free Apps out there that are fun to play.

The thing about gambling addiction it's not so much about how much you win, more the thrill of winning / seeing the balance go up.

Person_one

I agree with the suggestion to replace it with a free addiction, download Tetris or Sporcle, maybe take up comping using the competitions board on here, that's a more positive addiction!

Also, stay away from online/app gambling now that you know you have this tendency, don't put yourself in that position.

tea_lover

Money aside, how much of your time is this taking up? If it's not much then the suggestions to replace the app with a free-to-play one could work. However, if it's a total time-stealer it may be worth trying to break the habit altogether rather than replacing one game with another one.

Good luck!

Silver-Cat

I probably spend at least 2 hours on it each day and sometimes more but not all of the time is playing in the bingo rooms as it has a chat feature too.

Its massively popular from all over the world although it seems to be the same user ids online all of the time.
No matter what time I go on they tend to be there too but a lot claim they never buy credit but tht seems impossible to me.

tyllwyd

I would say that the fact that you have posted here shows that you are not comfortable about the way that you are using this app. And if you are feeling vulnerable to this site, you might be even more tempted by a paid-for app in the future.

I agree with the others, it's probably a lot easier to go cold-turkey on this one now, rather than waiting to see if it becomes a real problem in the future.