Experiences with self exclusion?

Hi

I believe it boils down to knowing deep down whether it will work for you or not.. I advise people to do it with pride and let them know who you are.

However if you have tested yourself and broken these exclusions it has to be said that many cashiers wont bother checking. The addiction is powerful and many gamblers will walk in whether self excluded or not

Therefore those blocks are not for you and are NOT effective blocks. You will have to find other ways of blocking access to cash and telling people close so you can be monitored.

Self exclusions drew a line for me but they will not necessarily work for everyone. Yes the gambling dens are lazy and lax but lets be frank that they are not the ideal people to police their own operation like they are never really going to admit to the misery they cause

If you are strongly addicted you will be looking for people to blame but most of the responsibility does lie with us to deal with it. I dont believe we are entirely to blame but we cant look for much help from the bookies and casinos.

Ive never seen them help a problem gambler and Ive seen men wailing, crying for help in obvious ways ,waving their remaining money over their heads but still gambling on. The gambling dens want your money and it is a them and us situation. I wouldnt expect them to care much even though they have funded gamcare

I work on a bar now and I will refuse those who are too drunk. This is difficult as they often arrive very drunk. The signs are very clear but they dont want to stop and neither does a gambling addict

Gambling gets treated differently because they want the problem gamblers and the signs are easier for them to brush off. I reckon they are told to allow people to carry on losing all their money to maximise profits. Gambling is a drug addiction but doesnt get treated as seriously as other addictions

Best wishes

Agree with joydiver here.

I self excluded from all betting shops in my area in May and havent set foot in one since. For me it is a question of pride, I dont want to be embarrased by being asked to leave on say a busy Saturday afternoon so I just dont bother.

I agree though the system is just a lip service system to social responsibility, as I understand it once you do the self exclusion and send your picture in they simply send it to each shop in the area and they then basically file it, the cashiers are meant to review the folder on a regular basis but they wont and as such are highly unlikely to know if your SE.

The shops nearest you should be the hardest to break the SE as the staff in there will know you by sight but once you go 15-20 miles away your just another face in the crowd.

My own experience was initally that land SE just drove me to roulette online until I signed up for GAMSTOP where I used the reasoning I would be devasted if I managed to sign up and win £££££ only to find at the verification stage they made my "winnings" forefit as I had signed up for SE.

Heres why self exclusion works for me. I have self excluded from all shops within an hour of me and the times I have slipped I have driven further afield to gamble. Self exclusion has saved me a lot of money as the times I have the odd 50 on me and may have nipped to the local bookies don't happen and I wouldn't travel an hour to blow 50 in a few minutes. I know I could probably slip under the radar at a few local bookies, but what prevents me trying it on is one of two things. Firstly the embarrassment of being told to leave and secondly the fear of not being paid out if I was to win. It wouldn't surprise me to be allowed in to lose as much as I like and then if I did get a win to be told they have just noticed I was self excluded and my winning bet was now void. So best for me to stay away! I'm 93 days into recovery and enjoying it.

Surely part of the whole " Self exclusion " thing is taking back some sort of control with the important part being the word " Self " ?

I self excluded from all bookies on any route I knew I would walk or drive , that way I didn't have to deviate from any route I'd usually find myself on .

I did it the old fashioned way as well and can remember the shame of crossing that first bookie's threashold , passport photo's in hand asking for a SE form from people who'd served me for years, it felt like the walk of dread to the old headmasters office back in the day :((.

I can't begin to tell you of the feeling of power I took from that first one and I've not crossed the door of a gambling establishment since and that was 3yrs ago :)) .

Fortunately it worked for me but you have to accept any exclusion's not the " Magic pill " and if you still want to get around it and gamble then you will ?

Self exculusions. I also have them in place at all near by casinos. Yes, it's easy to slip by radar but NO, I'm not doing that anymore. I had a wake up call where I was embarrassed by being dicovered by security in the middle to a hugely destructive gambling relapse. Since that day 5 months ago I went out and gambled at further away casinos 3 times . Now, I have 3 months clean time. odaat. I would recommend self exclusions to anyone and everyone as a safe measure . It's not worth it to try to go back while self excluded and be under the radar, believe ME. tara2

Nowasays cashiers say they have seen your se form and have to sighn a piece paper but yes i think its still easy to put bets. These turnover so many staff they dont recognise x

While i see everyones points that the responsibility really does lay with us - the gambler. But this is a system the industry have put in place, and it is just not working. I can tell you now i could walk into anyone of the 15 or so bookies i am excluded from and place a bet. Now i understand that you have to want to stop yourself, but there is some people who genuinly cannot. In my eyes the whole system needs reviewing and maybe even time to introduce a membership style system. Im not trying to get under anyones skin here, just i am convinced it does not work.

Al

I see your point also Al and No it doesn't work and despite exclusions you could travel further afield with absolutely no risk of being identified and place a bet , that I'm sure but I feel that as with yourself youv'e been active for the last 7 yrs despite these blocks in place , then it's time to look at why your trying to get around exclusions rather than saying they don't work ? , Ga won't work unless you follow the steps , just as counciling and therapy won't work if your not open to them .

I'm not trying to have ago but if it's not working for anyone then it's surely time to look for something that will , everyone's individual in their needs so It stand's to reason that in stopping gambling no one size fits all and it's the long term big picture that really matters ?.

The membership system would be a great idea though , if you had a photo Id card that you had to have scanned before you were allowed to gamble in any establishment ? , that would make it so much easier to block your account if you wished to self exclude , no ID, no bet :))

Alan .

Alan, i take your point. its time for me to realise why its not working for me and why im trying to get around it.

The membership is good, but will never work. Does anyone have any idea when the £2 max bet is being enforced?

All the best everyone.

Al

I believe it's anywhere upto 2 yrs before it's implemented ? but in all honesty I don't thnk that will alter much .

My problem was alway's the fobt's but had they brought that in when I was active I'd have just switched to something else to throw my money away on , it's not the weapon of choice that matters it's the person pulling the trigger or in the case of the fob't pushing the button .

All the best :))

I 100% agree, untill they have membership cards for bookies, and they wont because they want our money, these schemes wont work, the government needs to enforce this.

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Yes I would like to add that it drew a line of the shame of being asked to leave.

However I feel the true reason in the early days was that I couldnt guarantee they would pay out so I saw it as pointless. I also need to keep anonymous in my escape trance and having my picture on file spoilt that feeling so I didnt go in

The honest truth is that they often wont or hardly ever check that file. I made sure a few of the staff knew of me and I wanted to abstain from gambling

It still relied on me and my feelings. It was a test for me. A test I passed as I found that I wouldnt go in. Im not saying Im some sort of hero but the exclusions did create a barrier for me.

I agree that it should be a membership card scheme if it is not to be banned altogether. That membership card scheme should include income details and the card should be presented at signing in.

At the very least it should set formal limits on what is being gambled....nowhere near enough on its own but I will take any measure as a step in the right direction

There has to be some form of regulation there and if people want to gamble a formal process between the gambling dens and gamblers. Im not sure how that would work as the high street dens have no intention of introducing it. I also believe the banks should be more involved in preventing an irresponsible act with money.

Best wishes to everyone on the forum

Self exclusion is no more than one small physical barrier which gives me, a compulsive gambler thinking time, time to come to my senses, play the tape through to the end & realise that it only ends one way! I also handed over my finances & put monitoring systems in place so my now husband could check up on me for his own peace of mind. My gambling is my responsibility & if I wanted to, I would have found a way regardless of what barriers I had in or what memberships were required. Aside from the odd fleeting urge now, I no longer want to & that’s because with the help of GC & GA I have worked on changing my mindset - ODAAT