Cripplng gambling debt, no idea where to make savings

TheAble

Abandon said:

I was on the phone with Sanji last night and he suggested getting a loan and hitting the "matched betting" hard. He is of the opinion that you can make £500 a month out of it, which by my calculations is £6k a year, would pay off the lot in 5 years. I'm going to look into this further. 

 Very good   

cymruchris

TheAble said:

Abandon said:

I was on the phone with Sanji last night and he suggested getting a loan and hitting the "matched betting" hard. He is of the opinion that you can make £500 a month out of it, which by my calculations is £6k a year, would pay off the lot in 5 years. I'm going to look into this further. 

 Very good   

He’s obviously an expert in how to beat gambling addictions and getting out of debt 😳

ryanm8655

In fairness matched betting isn’t gambling but I would not be taking out a loan to do it in any situation. Plus at the moment there aren’t going to be the offers to make it viable. I was never tempted to gamble but I’ve never had a gambling problem. I’d focus on getting help for your addiction.

I used to do it years ago and did make a fair bit out of it. Around £500 a month on average but I had software to help and any mistake would wipe out your earnings, plus it took a lot of time, effort and knowledge. 

Likewise, as a gambler what offers would you even have available even if it was viable (which it isn’t right now)? I also got banned pretty quickly from a lot of the bookmakers so it became harder and harder to make anything, and if not banned I was at least banned from any promotions. Hence I don’t bother anymore. Casino offers can be lucrative but not guaranteed, you’re just following the expected value, in the long term things are in your favour but a few bad breaks and you end up wiping out your bank pretty quickly. Plus you need to know which slots etc. To use  to maximise the expected value and again, as a gambler I doubt you’ll have any sign up offers left anyway and there would always be that temptation to gamble.

In your situation I’d avoid.

There isn’t any magical solution out there unfortunately.

theoretica

If you are willing to hit something hard why not choose to put the effort into something without risk attached?  What would you need to do to get your bonuses at work?  Get a second job for evenings/weekends.

monetxchange

Good luck in the future. You don't want to take on advice from people who have been in your shoes, nor make the effort to work your way out of this situation, so there's nothing more anyone on here can say to you.

Hope you realise there's no way easy way out of debt and addiction before it gets much worse. 

cymruchris

monetxchange said:

Good luck in the future. You don't want to take on advice from people who have been in your shoes, nor make the effort to work your way out of this situation, so there's nothing more anyone on here can say to you.

Hope you realise there's no way easy way out of debt and addiction before it gets much worse. 

Agreed - taking action now would be much better than taking action later. If the debt balloons more, and a degree of irresponsibility is established - the OP may end up with a BRO for 15 years rather than the considerably shorter options available to them today. But that's ok - as they'll evidently gamble their way out successfully in a few months following the expert advice they received from 'Sanji'.

onwards&upwards

I'm saddened to hear that you aren't yet ready to face up to this and that you intend to carry on gambling. 

When you are ready, this forum will be here for you to help you with the even deeper financial hole you will be in by then.  If you ever want to pm me for support feel free, or better still use the supports in the NHS link I posted a few pages back. 

At least you aren't going to be taking your parents' money anymore.  That's one positive.  Oh and don't lie on your loan application, that's fraud and a criminal offence and you really don't want to be in more trouble. 

Abandon

I think I've been misunderstood so I'm going to make two brief points. 

A. My dad has made clear that due to the family reputation bankruptcy is out of the question.

B. from my understanding matched betting is not gambling. There is no risk. If I'm wrong then I won't be doing it. 

onwards&upwards

Abandon said:

I think I've been misunderstood so I'm going to make two brief points. 

A. My dad has made clear that due to the family reputation bankruptcy is out of the question.

B. from my understanding matched betting is not gambling. There is no risk. If I'm wrong then I won't be doing it. 

A. Its not your dad's choice, you are a grown adult you make your own financial decisions. 

B.  Its betting, the clue is in the name.  It takes an extraordinary amount of discipline and organisation and anybody with a history of problem gambling should not touch it with a bargepole.  I don't do it for that very reason.  Its like if I were a recovering alcoholic, going to the pub every night and trying to stick to non alcoholic beer while everybody around me offered me free drinks and told me how great alcohol is.  Its just not a good idea. 

cymruchris

Abandon said:

I think I've been misunderstood so I'm going to make two brief points. 

A. My dad has made clear that due to the family reputation bankruptcy is out of the question.

B. from my understanding matched betting is not gambling. There is no risk. If I'm wrong then I won't be doing it. 

A. I would love to make a flippant comment such as 'Does he tie your shoelaces too?', but it's probably not appropriate. Didn't I read that you were 37? It's not his decision, it's yours. It's your debts, your responsibility, your decision. Family reputation? As I mentioned previously - nobody will know you've gone through bankruptcy unless YOU tell them. None of his extended family and friends will ever find out. You have the opportunity to take action, get help, and clear up the mess, instead you're going to let it toll on for the next few years, and without help, so likely the problem isn't going to improve, and you'll go month to month just about paying off your debt contractual minimum payments. Does that sound appealing?