New member

Hello @sussex1972,

Welcome to the Forum! 

Well done on recognising the problem with your gambling and reaching out for support with this. The Forum is a great place to get advice and understanding from people who have been through the same situation. It's brilliant to hear you've already taken steps to limit your access to gambling with your online self-exclusion.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to contact our team of advisers on the helpline (0808 8020 133) or netline. They are trained to talk through your circumstances with you and offer support and advice tailored to your needs, such as discussing tools and strategies to help you and looking at the options for further treatment.

Kind regards,

Elizabeth

Forum Admin

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Those fruit machines are addictive. I suppose there is a reason they call it the crack C*****e for gambling addicts. You are in the right place to talk to people with similar experiences to your own so try and use all the help you can get here. So the Internet gambling options for gambling are blocked now but not the machines you walk passed every day. I would say it is a time-waster, isn't it? I mean the normal slots they give you a small jackpot but you won't retire on that money will you, so that part of gambling is just "keep on going money"

The thing is that gambling on those machines are just a way of losing track of your everyday stress and worries you go into "the zone" within 10-15 mins and you get stranded there for hours sometimes. 

Sometimes one has dive in and look at why you want to go into "the zone". In many cases, there is something else keeping you there and if you can find that reason you can start to address the problem but you will need some help to look for that reason.

You have already come far as the Internet slots are the real problems. Find the courage to take the next step on your recovery and you ill see real personal progress that you really deserve to experience.

Good luck in your recovery!

Hi.. am the same. The slots just take you away from yourself, your stress and your life... "for a while".. "whilst in action" and then when you have run out of money... real life comes back. Sometimes I have blown all of my money because I know whats coming and I want to delay it for as long as possible... 

The only solution is not to play. Hard I know

It is very hard to not play...every 7 weeks I have to do a week of nights . That is the hardest, there are 2 machines in the mess room and I am all alone with not a lot to do for 9 hours. That is where I struggle the most. I can easily do £100+ in a night.

I think its really irresponsible for your employer to put slot machines at your place of work. Could it be an option to ask them to be removed or at least switched off and so you can't use them??

Rock-bottom. Normally change comes when you have fallen so low that you have no other choice but to change. If you have access to 100 pounds, well you still have access to money and you may need to look at someone else looking after your wallet for a while till you can handle the economy again. I do not know if you have parents or a partner that could help you with this but the advice right now is don't bring any cash to work, use an oyster card to travel and leave your wallet at home. Now the big question is how you react to this. Because if you are not ready you will find every excuse under the sun on why you should bring money to work and if you are ready to change you will perhaps start to entertain the idea. Regardless of what you decide ( And you should think about it) You are going to have a discussion about a real-life change here and now or a few weeks or months time into the future. All recovering addicts have been there and you are or will be there at some stage too. You just need to come to terms with when that life change is supposed to happen.

I have tried leaving  my wallet at home and just using Google pay, but like you said.....I still look for excuses.

Hi,

It seems you may have to restrict access to ALL finances. For me i gave up access to cash and cards for a period of 9 months. If (on the odd occassion) i was given cash i provided receipts to the penny.

I acknowledge the above is not feasible for everyone but discipline in respect of ready money and the non access to it helped me as a slots gambler.

Best