Playing with fire

Hi lee

My situation isn't dissimilar to yours - a accumulator on at the weekend but never much more. About a year ago I started playing arcade games when bored. I've managed to spend thousands although luckily managed to avoid debt. I have just been in the exact situation as you and won enough to recoup my losses. The feeling of losing the money and having to tell my partner again spurred me to self exclude from everything. I'm hoping today was the last time I gambled, hopefully it's your last time too!

Hi Danielle

I'm sorry to hear your in a similar situation to me, the reason why I started gambling online was due to money problems but now I'm doing it for no other reason than to be reckless as my life is spiralling out of control, anyway I hope you can beat the problem and move on with your life, good luck !

Hi, I've been a heavy gambler for around 10 years and you have not by far "gotten away with it" if anything, you will be MORE likely to do the same again BUT next time you will lose. You will always lose. The only thing that will change is the amount. Please please self exclude from anything you can.

I agree with Skinofmyteeth - it isn't always helpful to think of getting away with it. Financially, the bookie hasn't taken you for everything on this occasion, but you probably liked the feeling of winning and may feel that you're better than others in how you gamble (that was absolutely me!) and this can let the parasitic gambling bug get deep in to you.

The bookie lets you have your money back sometimes because they want you to chase. Then the big losses come, it hurts so much that you have to win it back and your soul is gone, the bookie wins.

I'm not trying to preach - I've lost a lot and it took a lot for me to wake up to what I was doing. If you can see the danger BEFORE you've given everything to the bookie, you're smarter than me!! You've come to the right place before I ever did so that may well be the case anyway. Good luck to you.

Hey Lee my story is much like yours however rather than stop at the stage you are at I kept going. Stop now I too thought of roulette as easy money. Two months ago online I won £9000 playing live dealer roulette after depositing £200 but guess what? Its all gone and then some. I could have walked away with that money and had a few holidays or decorating my house but no i got greedy and lost the lot and I now have £4000 of gambling debts chasing that money. The only way to make money at roulette is to own the casino.

Hi Lee,

You've been lucky this time! You had already lost £1200 one night that you admit you couldn't afford to lose. The with "luck" with what I think roulette is you won back losses of £1000, which could have easily been £1500. Probably it would have been easier to "knock this thing on it's head" if you'd have lost that £500 as well. I hit my rock-bottom chasing loses on a football match, only needed a goal to be scored, but "NO"...... however it was my wake-up call. If it had of won, I wouldn't have stopped I'd of had a healthy balance in my account ready for the next bet that same day.

If you chase large amounts like you did (and also me) you have a gambling problem. The good guys can walk away, we cannot.

Own up to family and friends again before it is too late, seek the help and great advice on this web-site. GA meetings are nothing to worry about, they work for me.

All the best.

First time here guys, I have had a problem with gambling for a few years now. It got bad 2 years ago to the point where I got into around 7k worth of debt from football, horse and routlette betting. I did manage to stop for around 6 months before I slpiied back into the routine again. Recently I have been able to go maybe a few days or weeks without gambling but then when I do I get gripped for a few weeks and the loses mount up. I just want to get to a place where I don't need to gamble ever, is that possible?