I want a life without gambling

Rocky7 wrote:

I done it again myself last night £320

I woke up this morning at 6.15am and for some unknown reason just knew that today I had to make a huge attempt to stop gambling. I started reading some of the threads on this site and was amazed at just how many other people felt the same way and had the same urges, but what really struck me was how supportive people were.

My addiction is betting on football and online casinos, primarily video poker and slots. I've pretty much self-excluded myself from every available online casino and betting site available, but I always manage to find a new site, create a new account and then start a new journey toward losing money.

I've tried restricting the amount I can deposit, so I can feed my addiction, but seriously restrict it. But, last night I deposited £5 into an online casino and within an hour, I had won £260. I then lost the whole lot, found another online casino where I hadn't any restrictions yet, deposited multiples of £20 and eventually lost a further £200 trying to recover the £260. This has been the cycle for years.

The crazy thing is, I could list a number of things I would much rather be doing than gambling that I enjoy more, but I still find myself wasting my evenings and weekends gambling online. However, I do feel lucky in a strange way as my addiction only really kicks in at night. My job is quite demanding, so during the day I am generally too busy to even consider taking time out to gamble, but as soon as the evening or weekend is here, my attentions turn to gambling.

This is the hardest part for me to write and to admit to, but I now genuinely believe that this addiction has a total grip of me and if I do not do something about it now, it will destroy me and my family.

I am hoping that by writing this diary, other people will identify and offer some advice and share tips of how they are managing their lives without gambling, whether it be their day 1 or day 100. My day one starts today and as its a Saturday and I have no work to distract me, I know it's going to be really tough as there's a lot of football on the TV and I cannot remember a match in the last 10 years I have watched without having a bet on it, which then opens the door to trying to turn my winnings into bigger winnings or trying to recover my losses in the online casinos. Any advice you have will be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

Rocky7 wrote:

I done it again myself last night £320

I woke up this morning at 6.15am and for some unknown reason just knew that today I had to make a huge attempt to stop gambling. I started reading some of the threads on this site and was amazed at just how many other people felt the same way and had the same urges, but what really struck me was how supportive people were.

My addiction is betting on football and online casinos, primarily video poker and slots. I've pretty much self-excluded myself from every available online casino and betting site available, but I always manage to find a new site, create a new account and then start a new journey toward losing money.

I've tried restricting the amount I can deposit, so I can feed my addiction, but seriously restrict it. But, last night I deposited £5 into an online casino and within an hour, I had won £260. I then lost the whole lot, found another online casino where I hadn't any restrictions yet, deposited multiples of £20 and eventually lost a further £200 trying to recover the £260. This has been the cycle for years.

The crazy thing is, I could list a number of things I would much rather be doing than gambling that I enjoy more, but I still find myself wasting my evenings and weekends gambling online. However, I do feel lucky in a strange way as my addiction only really kicks in at night. My job is quite demanding, so during the day I am generally too busy to even consider taking time out to gamble, but as soon as the evening or weekend is here, my attentions turn to gambling.

This is the hardest part for me to write and to admit to, but I now genuinely believe that this addiction has a total grip of me and if I do not do something about it now, it will destroy me and my family.

I am hoping that by writing this diary, other people will identify and offer some advice and share tips of how they are managing their lives without gambling, whether it be their day 1 or day 100. My day one starts today and as its a Saturday and I have no work to distract me, I know it's going to be really tough as there's a lot of football on the TV and I cannot remember a match in the last 10 years I have watched without having a bet on it, which then opens the door to trying to turn my winnings into bigger winnings or trying to recover my losses in the online casinos. Any advice you have will be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

Mazza1212 wrote:

[quote=Rocky7]

I done it again myself last night £320

I woke up this morning at 6.15am and for some unknown reason just knew that today I had to make a huge attempt to stop gambling. I started reading some of the threads on this site and was amazed at just how many other people felt the same way and had the same urges, but what really struck me was how supportive people were.

My addiction is betting on football and online casinos, primarily video poker and slots. I've pretty much self-excluded myself from every available online casino and betting site available, but I always manage to find a new site, create a new account and then start a new journey toward losing money.

I've tried restricting the amount I can deposit, so I can feed my addiction, but seriously restrict it. But, last night I deposited £5 into an online casino and within an hour, I had won £260. I then lost the whole lot, found another online casino where I hadn't any restrictions yet, deposited multiples of £20 and eventually lost a further £200 trying to recover the £260. This has been the cycle for years.

The crazy thing is, I could list a number of things I would much rather be doing than gambling that I enjoy more, but I still find myself wasting my evenings and weekends gambling online. However, I do feel lucky in a strange way as my addiction only really kicks in at night. My job is quite demanding, so during the day I am generally too busy to even consider taking time out to gamble, but as soon as the evening or weekend is here, my attentions turn to gambling.

This is the hardest part for me to write and to admit to, but I now genuinely believe that this addiction has a total grip of me and if I do not do something about it now, it will destroy me and my family.

I am hoping that by writing this diary, other people will identify and offer some advice and share tips of how they are managing their lives without gambling, whether it be their day 1 or day 100. My day one starts today and as its a Saturday and I have no work to distract me, I know it's going to be really tough as there's a lot of football on the TV and I cannot remember a match in the last 10 years I have watched without having a bet on it, which then opens the door to trying to turn my winnings into bigger winnings or trying to recover my losses in the online casinos. Any advice you have will be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

I think they should stop advertising it t v I was ok until this advert came on last night and like a foul I joined £20 £50 £50 £100 £100 I feel so bad I've lost over £40 thousand

Cheers Phil. On the days I havent gambled, I have woke up feeling great, which makes it even more worrying why I then feel the need to gamble again. It makes no sense. I will definetly look into blocking software for my ipad and phone, but unfortuanetly I have access to a number of company owned laptops that do not allow external programs to be downloaded, but I guess at least I can reduce the opportunity. Good luck to you and thanks for replying.