Hi all,
I’m 20 years old and like many of you, I struggle with gambling. Thankfully to a much lesser extent this year but it’s not always been this way...
In 2017 I signed up to (A gambling website) - my first ever gambling site. That first night at 3am I won (X amount) and was over the moon. It seemed so simple, I’d put in £10 and suddenly I was “rich”. From then on until spring 2018 I’d gamble once or twice a week, starting with bingo games and then moving onto the casino games on other platforms. I’d probably signed up to over 40 websites.
Roulette became my favourite and I started upping my stakes; instead of 50p - £5 I went to the other end of the scale and put (Larger stakes) Typing that number sickens me if I’m honest now. At the time though it felt like a 50/50 chance, black or red and I’d either win or lose.
In that time period I was fairly successful, I’d raised my bank savings (An amount) but I just couldn’t stop. Bets went higher, I was playing as often as possible, signing up to more and more sites.
Eventually I started losing though. Hundreds, then thousands until I was left with only £200, a loan of £500 that I wasn’t able to pay off at the time and a mental breakdown with major physical stress symptoms. This on top of my long term depression was too much so I knew I had to stop. I spoke to my family about it all which was extremely difficult & they weren’t exactly pleased but they helped me out with a third 1/4 of the loan and I paid the rest off over the summer via my pt job.
I signed up to Gamblock which has been super helpful, it blocked all my usual accounts and I can’t sign up to new ones because of the requirement to use correct name, address, dob.
I’ve been able to heal my bank balance to my pre gambling period and I haven’t gone on other websites. However, on the weekend I blew £30 at an arcade place and feel irritated with myself as some of the urges to gamble have awoken again and I also regret the actual act of gambling on the day because it was a fair chunk of money for nothing.
You are very young so decide now if you want a future because gambling will take it away from you.
Sorry to be blunt but it will. Choose to stop now and you will have a great life.carry on and you won't.
Good luck
Stop now.
If I had stopped at 20 I would genuinely be one of, if not the wealthiest of my friends and family.
Honestly, stop now. Stop and go and enjoy your life. Start a bookclub, join a football team, go surfing. It doesn't matter, find something you can pour your heart and soul into but not this. Coming from the family member of a CG. If I could go back to his 20 year-old self, I would grab him by the collar, shake him and tell him that if he wouldn't stop he would lose everything. He'd lose his partner, his children, the roof over his head and all love and respect he'd ever known. It's simply not worth it. It's great you've come on here for help, wishing you all the best.
We are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can also contact us for free on 0808 80 20 133. If you would like to find out more about the service before you start, including information on confidentiality, please click below. Call recordings and chat transcripts are saved for 28 days for quality assurance.
