My win and the end of the story

chevalier

Hi there
As other have seen I had a very surprising win on a gambling site, see here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=546757

Well two weeks later I will tell you the rest of the story.

I was absolutely in shock about the win. And over the next week I started taking out the money at the max you can a day without having to prove your identity.
And that was what undone me. I really couldn't lose that week (I thought ha ha). Any time I got a bit near the intitial win total I had another relatively big win and off we would go again. Each day I would take out a bit of money and I am so glad I did.

In the end I came out with just over £400. Which is great BUT at one point my account had over £2k in it plus about £300 I had taken out already.

It is a weird feeling really, and I can understand how people get hooked. You forget you are playing with money, it's just a number. I really wish now I had done the id stuff because then I could have withdrawn it all in one go and the temptation to 'just see if I can win a bit more' wouldn't have been there.

Anyway the upshot was that from just over £2k in the account I lost £500 in one morning:eek: :eek: . And then a bit more and a bit more.

The end of the story is that I got £400 for a £1 so I can't really complain, BUT I can't help wishing I had been more careful and not got caught up in the euphoria of winning.

On the other hand, the money has paid for after school club, 3 extra sessions at nursery to help me do my project, and after school football. I will also have enough to send some to my sis who is raising funds to go to Africa in December on christian charity work stuff.

So I guess the moral of the story is that even the strongest will can get swept along. I have no desire to 'win back what I lost (but really didn't have in the first place)'. So I am truely thank ful for that. It has also made me realise that I have at least that much money locked up in 'stuff' so you know what my job will be after my project is in:D .

Thanks for reading. I just needed to tell someone as I have been beating myself up for being such an idiot. Which means I haven't been studying or sleeping like I should. So now I have a clear conscience (you didn't know the DFW was a confessional did you!!!?), and feel much better so back to work for me.

chev

madmoney_2

well done chev:T
Its amazing how addictive it can get tho isnt it? i got seriously hooked at the beginning of this year, but unlike you (and because i wasnt aware of mse:rolleyes:), i just carried on, it feels like youre not playing with real money, until you win of course!!! I had no idea just how much I had spent, and tbh i still dont now, upshot is that i will never go on an internet site again, i was thinking of going bingo with the girls on a night out, altho i will only take a small amount with me. I remember I got chatting to a woman in one of the chat rooms n she sed she was sat there in tears because she had just got a credit card and spent the 1000 quid limit on the internet bingo!!:eek:

Just be thankful it didnt get you in the end, and welll done for coming out of it 400 quid better off, glad to see youre using it well xxxxxx

(Land_of)_Maz

Chev, i can totally relate to what you're saying. I had a £520 win on a bingo site whilst playing my minimum deposit to get the cashback, thankfully i was able to withdraw £499 of it as a deposit back to my DC (allbeit, it took 5 days!)

The remaining money just got sucked back in, thinking i would win something again, but to no avail. I have since played again with real money and found myself putting in a tenner and later that evening a tenner again! This is not good when you are striving to be debt free! with a long way to go like me!

So now i have to make myself stay away from the bingo sites, i don't play free games or anything as A) they are actually boring, real bingo once a month is better it's too easy to spend money and C) i have an addcitive personality and don't know when to stop.

Well done you for realising the slippery slope, and having your confessional here. You're right it definately helps!

Maz

Seaxwyn

Wow chev, it sounds like you have had a brush with the dangerous world of gambling. Well done for getting out when you did, and with £400 intact - excellent work!

Now you've confessed, don't think about it another moment! Just feel good about the things you can pay for with the extra money.

How are you getting on with the course?

Money~Bunny_3

I've only won little amounts, like the odd £15 or so. And then I think that it's 'free cash' so I should 'invest' some of it in trying to win again! And the £15 becomes £10, then £5, and I kick myself for not stopping and withdrawing sooner!

I also don't touch blackjack - I've found playing it with the strategy tables is very very adictive, and the dealer voices and sound effects are almost hypnotic.

So you are not the only one! But better £400 than a kick in the teeth, as my mum would say :T :T :T

Crown

Hi Chev, You dont have to tell me about how addictive it is. What you posted before and now this follow up reminds me so much of my own situation. I gambled and won and used the money to pay towards my debts. The problem was after the first few times of doing it and withdrawing the money it became a habit and a year on I had to admit that it had become a problem. I wasnt born a problem gambler and when I started it was a £10 deposit playing at 1p/2p tables on the poker sites. The thing with gambling is you ALWAYS think you can win more and this is what these companies know and rely on. I was already a sworn MSE so it wasnt that I am weak or lack willpower. So dont feel bad about it.. as you say it happens to the best of us.

Well done on being £400 up in the end and try to make sure thats it. Try not to think about the £2000 balance as it was never yours in the first place. Trust me that trying to become debt free with gambling backfires massively if given a chance!

You already know your on the right track with your DFW journey so please dont get distracted like I did. Thanks for sharing

chevalier

Thanks guys I do feel better about it. The win also meant that I could do the gala bingo sign up on quidco, which will net me £30 cashback. I didn't win on the site, but had no temptation to carry on. I have well and truely learned! So I will have another £30 to come in December. I wouldn't have done this with MY money, but with my winnings it seemed ok!

Seax Well the course is going ok. I am doing my project in fits and starts and the OU forum have been great for picking up tips. I also found out that one of the questions in the project is also one we did for an essay! So easy points! The funny thing was I didn't do it very well (though I used the right formula) so my dear lecturer put an answer on the bottom of my script. Now all I have to do is put into my own words and that will be that bit sorted! How lucky is that.

I know that really I have done well with the win and all. I won't be tempted again for a very long time if ever. So lucky to learn the lesson before I lost all of it.
chev

immoral_angeluk

Don't worry about what you 'lost'. technically you didn't lose anything and still came out of it much better off than you were so well done!!! :T

baxgttdi

been there myself. Had £500 on a similar site and it wouldn't let me withdraw for 5 days. In that time, it slowly but surely went =o/

HairyHandofDartmoor

I think the people that run these sites are really evil! All they care about are their profits, not how dangerous they are to people!

I'm so glad you got out with some money intact. Sucks to them, I bet they hated that!

ZTD

You came out of gambling having learned what a problem it is, without being poorer than when you went into it in the first place. That to me is a good outcome.

Spend the money - but keep the lesson.