GAMBLING ON GAMSTOP

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 DC99
(@dc99)
Posts: 1
Topic starter
 

Hi Guys,

I’m 19 years old and have been gambling frequently since the age of 17 losing over 10-15k with loans/wages etc! I’ve been to GA and nothing seems to work 🙁

I went onto GAMSTOP in September last year for 5 years and went through to March without a bet! However in recent weeks set up a sky account in my dads name but with my card and have lost over 2k - luckily sky have suspended my account! 

Sky didn’t ask for any verification which I found odd! 

Does GAMSTOP link to my cards? I’m really trying to sort my life out! Can I complain to sky or would they class it fraudulent?

cheers 

 
Posted : 8th April 2020 8:08 am
(@livelysoul)
Posts: 403
 

Hi dc

I don’t believe Gamstop links to your cards but it links to your DOB, personal details and email address. 

If you set up an account in someone else’s name then Gamstop will not pick any of that up and in all honesty, you went out of your way to get round it, therefore I would imagine that they won’t accept a complaint and will see it as fraudulent because technically it is. You pretended to be someone else to access their services so I’m not sure you can complain.

So this doesn’t happen in future I would look into whether your bank has a gambling block feature so that you can’t use your cards for any gambling transactions. I wish you all the best in your recovery. 

Lively

 
Posted : 8th April 2020 10:30 am
Chris.UK
(@chris-uk)
Posts: 882
 

Dc99,

What Lively said re Gamstop and the banks.

There is no magic cure for stopping gambling. It might seem like a miracle but it involves work. When you say that you went to GA, how long did you go for and what did you do there?

You'll only get out of this what you put in. Unless you put an absolute airtight gambling proof amount of blocks in place, if you want to gamble you will find a way to gamble. For me it's about finding peace of mind so that I don't want to gamble or when the urge is too strong, I pick up the phone and talk to someone who understands and won't judge me, or I attend GA meetings regularly plus I have blocks in place which make it difficult to gamble. Not impossible but with my network of support I can get through a week or a day at a time.

If you have a problem then you also need to know that you can't put gambling down and pick it up when you like, it's literally all or nothing.

As the GA meetings are currently closed, pick up the phone to the Gamcare adviser and talk about yourself. You will know when you have had enough and then you can start to get better. 

On a separate note, your dad could probably complain to sky that you defrauded him. You would be in trouble with the police but he could probably get his money back. It's time to start being responsible for your actions. Maybe that will start you doing the right thing.

Before you say I don't know what it's like, I did the same thing many times, stealing money from my mum so that I could continue to gamble. I always promised that I wouldn't do it again, I went to GA and it was all full of old people who didn't understand what it was like to be me. I got away with so much for so long until one day I had to face my consequences. I wish I could have got it that it wasn't GA or my mums fault or any other excuse. It was me and I was a compulsive gambler and I didn't want help at that moment in time. The point of this isn't to seem hard and non caring, it's to say that until you accept that your gambling or your recovery is on you, nothing will work. 

Remember this. Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

Chris.

 
Posted : 8th April 2020 10:54 am
Lost and Found
(@lost-and-found)
Posts: 146
 

Hi there. It is the nature of addiction to try to find ways around bets. You mentioned that you went a considerable amount of time without a bet, but you also say that nothing seems to work. You managed a very long time without a bet and you can do that again.

There must be a very good reason why you felt the need to sign up to Gamstop in the first place. You have lost a lot of money in the past which indicates that your gambling has become a problem. This will have affected your mental health and well being. Since then, you have been looking for ways round your exclusion. Gamstop is there to protect you. You asked for it to do just that, but you have deliberately gone around it and tried to circumvent your exclusion by using your dad's name. You will have been allowed to make the account since you signed up to Sky with details that differ from those registered with gamstop. That was, after all, the reason why you used them. 

Yes, it is fraudulent and yes, I did it too. Not with gamstop, just with having my own account self excluded and making another in my partner's name. I made multiple accounts in my partner's name and my efforts to circumvent my exclusion cost us thousands in debt. I took both of us down with this addiction and ran both our credit scores into the ground. This addiction knows no bound. Not even the fear of getting calls from the banks and fraud staff would stop me. I was in a very bad place. 

You have no grounds to complain because you deliberately circumvented your gamstop exclusion which means you tried to sign up with Sky with false details. Gamstop is not linked to your cards. It is linked to the name, address and email address of the account information you sign up with. It is important to keep these up to date so that you are protected. 

Sky do not always verify the accounts immediately. Sometimes, they are only screened when you make your first withdrawal. If I remember correctly, there are steps for you to go through to verify your account and upload documents. Often though, you are still free to deposit money and gamble, you just can't take it out till you verify. That has always been a gripe of mine with the industry as they aren't therefore preventing vulnerable or underage people from gambling, they are preventing people from withdrawing and in the meantime, people, especially young people can get seriously hooked. Probably only 3 or 4 of the 70 odd accounts that I had made me verify before I could bet. It really annoyed me at the time as an addict because I needed the hit and didn't want to wait. That right there, is the reason they let you make the account and get right on to betting. Some even use it as a selling point! Now, I wish all of them would make people do this because looking back it was so easy to just pretend to be someone else and run up thousands. I was trying desperately to manage my addiction. I would self exclude and then need to bet. I would go crazy without it and after shutting off all my own avenues to bet, I then opened them all up again in my partners name and because we had a joint account, It didn't matter as I could still access the money. 

It was a serious mistake and something I deeply regret. 

 

The staff there have probably noticed that the name on the card does not match the name you signed up with and suspended your account.

More and more banks are now starting to offer gambling blocks on cards. If they don't offer it. Ask them to. 

Get back on track and remember why you put those blocks in place in the first instance. They are there to protect you. Don't let your right hand undo what your left hand is doing. If you had got away with this and won, would you still be complaining? Relapse is relapse whether you win or whether you lose and the outcome of betting is irrelevant.

 

 

 
Posted : 8th April 2020 10:55 am

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