Hi, I'm Ryan and I'm 20years old.
i have always been a keen gambler, about a year ago I took out a £3200 loan after losing £1500 of my saving on gambling to try win this back and unfortunately I lost all of that too.. I had quit for about 6 months and then I started to get my finances back in shape so I started placing small bets, nothing big.
abour a week ago I lost about £200 on a bet and tried to win it back with another £200 and again lost.. This hit me hard and I only have about £400 of my wages left which I then used the win a bet that won me around £1200, now this is where I kept £200 in my account and started to withdraw £1000 and I placed a £200 bet.. this bet started to lose and I ended up cancelling the £1000 withdraw and put it on a bet which then lost aswell and I had left myself with 0.. I was gutted.
with bills to pay etc I decided to take out another loan which paid of my current loan and gave me £3500.. I then placed £300 worth of bets and actually won myself £1500.. so I though great back on track. I placed this on a bet which I thought was a sure thing and lost and I got annoyed, I then placed ANOTHER £2000 on a 1/2 odd team which again lost.. at this point I was fuming and used the last £1200 of my loan on a bet to try get my money back and again.. this lost but I cashed out for £200 and this it where I realised I needed to stop.. granted I should've realised before this but this was the point in my head where I thought life was over. I withdraw this as I actually needed it to cover bills I had to pay and then sat up all night worrying.
I have now blocked all gambling sites and realised that I'm still young and yes I now have nearly £6000 worth of debt but I also have a regular income and a fiancГ©e that loves me and more importantly my life..
this is is the first time talking about my loses and it took a lot for me, I recognise my mistakes and I'm petrified about losing all this money but I know I will have a lot of years to make more and pay off my debt.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the forum. That does take some courage to come on here and talk about what's happened, so well done for doing so. It sounds like you've got some good insight into your gambling behaviour already, and are recognizing how it's not worked out very well for you. Hopefully you've looked around the forum a bit by now and have seen how gambling's affected some people here quite a bit older than you.
A couple important things to remember are that yes, you're still young and you've got a lot of years left ahead of you to have a very nice life and make some money, and that's going to be a lot easier and less stressful if gambling isn't a part of it. Try to think about gambling as one little thing in the world that isn't going to work out for you, but there are a lot of other things that will, and will bring more lasting enjoyment to your life. Your challenge now is to find those things and engage with them, and build a life that you'll be proud of that doesn't involve gambling. What hobbies do you enjoy? What goals do you have? Are there things that you want to learn that could give your life more meaning? These might be things to consider as you move away from gambling.
Don't beat yourself up too much over your gambling and losses. Everyone makes mistakes when they're young; now you've just got to think about what you're going to do to be more effective and keep yourself on track. I think one thing that everybody on this forum would agree with is that life is easier and more peaceful without gambling. If you need any support or want to chat to any of us on the team about things, feel free to call us on the Helpline or Netline which you'll find at the top of the page.
Hang in there, Ryan, you can do this.
All the best,
Travis
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