Feel sick at the thought of my losses

Plenty of people here will disagree with me but betting can be profitable if you're extremely disciplined with it, and people can make sustained profits with it. I'm talking extremely shrewd horse racing punters, experienced traders who know what they're doing on betting exchanges etc. Won't get anyone who calls themselves a pro betting on football accumulators and greyhounds, stuff like that.

The fact that you've checked your account and are £5,000 down tells me that you're not disciplined and/or don't have the expertise required and as such are just betting 'recreationally' or 'for fun'.

You need to ask yourself seriously what fun are you getting from it. The fact you're on here tells me, like myself, that it is indeed no fun. The whole 'when the fun stops, stop' adverts are lies. Betting is not 'fun' - the way betting works is that your brain releases dopamine because it's a thrill/excitement when you bet... this is different to actual fun that you get through attending comedy shows or having a good partner in bed etc! You will get used to the dopamine and then have to bet bigger and bigger to get the same rush.

There is literally no point to betting recreationally. In my experience of 10 years betting even when I went small stakes so I could 'enjoy the racing' I find myself getting stressed and annoyed when my football accumulator would fall 1 team short or horse would lose by a short head.

You haven't actually identified as a gambling addict as such in that post so I would say yes if you get invited to the races on the very rare occasion and can feel like you can stay in control by doing a tenner a race when you are there, and it's a social gathering then yes that's fine. But betting ''for fun'' is a lie if you find yourself feeling the need to get bets on every weekend on football and racing, because at the end of the day it's just about your body needing a thrill. You can get feel good energy by things like exercise or holidays etc, if the gambling takes over then the future is bleak (read some other threads and diaries on this forum).

My advice would be to block all online accounts, it's far too easy to succumb to slots/casino and this is really where the trouble begins for most. And do your best to put your losses in the past. Chasing losses is the worst thing you can do now.

It hurts massively, but it sounds like the urges are stronger. Unfortunately for many people, they don't get that urge to really quit until they actually hit a serious loss, I fear you will not gain the impetus until that rock bottom hits you.

Hi

Thanks very much to the both of you’s for your reply I really do appreciate it. I don’t bet at all on slots or casinos this betting is just off football and horse racing. I’m massively into racing as a sport and I think that’s why the losses are so big because it’s genuinely a big interest of mine just a shame that my hobby is so expensive when you start gambling on it

I definitely think the first step is getting rid of online and excluding myself, I will start by doing that and hopefully I’ve got this. I totally agree with you when you say I need to start looking forward and cut my losses, but as you say it’s easier said than done

I found removing the temptation helped, as did putting up real blocks to limit your gambling should you slip off the wagon.

Put your spare cash into a separate account that you can't take out of without notice, or put it into a separate account from a separate provider to your main bank account. I've got the bulk of my savings tied up on a bond, tough chance for me to get to that!