Stopping From Now (FOBT)

Been reading alot of posts since joining a few hours ago, and it helps allot. Been doing some thinking about my life and know I now need to start working on myself and some goals. I dont necessary gamble cause Im desperated for money its more of a boredom/stress mechanism.

The way that if a smoker is stressed he will light up, or if a drinker is stressed he will pour a beveridge. Just that for me I hit the machines.

This is now the final time I will try and do this by myself. If I touch these machines again I will need to get proper help. Even if I WON 1000 pounds I would still rather not have it, than take it from a loan from the thieves.

Self Exclusion is an option its just that betting shops are in such high circulation that even if I banned myself from sixty I would still stumble across one.

I will make sure to just take five or ten pounds into work a day and leave my debit card at home. Apart from when I been on holiday I dont think I ever went more than a week without setting foot in a shop

one question though do you think its ok to still buy a weekly lotto tikect? I always buy one for the friday and staurday draw. I done this for years and never bought more than maybe five a week.

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Just read that back obviously it makes sence to self exclude and at least limit my options. I still wont be though as I do not want to set foot in a betting shop again. If I relapse then I will, im pretty confident that I will beat this

Hi

Definitely self exclude. I believe the info is here

https://self-exclusion.co.uk/

I too have been putting this off so let’s both do it today.

As for the **** ticket I don’t buy them. Had a bit of a problem with their online scratchers so self excluded. What a nightmare that was they aren’t very helpful wanting ID sending in. Why don’t they ask for it before you sign up? I complained to my MP about that.

Take care

Iain

Since we are compulsive gamblers and we all loving chasing our losses, I'd say self excluding from all kind of gambling would be a good start. Your story is similar to mine. I got hooked so bad on roulette that I didn't care about anything else. I would put small bets on football accas on saturdays but that's all and just focus on the roulette wheel. After 10 years or so I've finally said enough is enough and now trying to start a gamble free life. I'm on day 8 today. I've self excluded myself from all online bookies for at least 5 years. Even got our broadband provider to block access to gambling sites and the account holder is the missus so I won't be able to change that. Let's kill this horrible illness for good. May the force be with you stormtrooper.

Thank you guys. Your advice is very helpful. I been educating myself over the last 24 hour watching as many anti fobt videos on YouTube as I can. I really feel as this this helps and shows the dangers

On my first meeting at GA I remember being told “you can’t ever gamble again and that means playing a raffle or buying a lottery ticket” as plain and simple as that! I thought, surely not! But two years on I have never done any of these and I know why it is said. These simple harmless punts that many of the public enjoy are dangerous to us compulsive gamblers. The brain ticking with the excitement of the “harmless punt” that would be made better “if we won”. There is no harmless punt being CG, these feelings either win, lose or even the near miss, make us want to play again and again and ......

I was a terrible gambler and even worse chaser! If my wager for a win was lost by a last minute goal (near miss) I would feel I had won that money and it had been robbed from me so I had to win it back. If I lost (which I did most of the time) I thought my next selection couldn’t be as bad so I bet again. If I won, then it was funds ready for my next bet, why should I stop cos I was on a roll!?

So my friend if you can live without the FOBTs in your daily life then you can the lottery ticket. Your number one goal in recovery is never to gamble again on anything, because it’s something we cannot control.

All the best.

well said mate they should be banned peices of shiits dispise them

I dont mean to sound pessimistic although how do you self exclude when there is a bookie in every corner of the high street in every part of the country.

Self exclusion is a lot easier thanks to the M.O.S.E.S scheme, which was introduced last year. (Multi Operator Self Exclusion Scheme). All the info is on this site https://self-exclusion.co.uk/ .

They can get you excluded from ALL bookies in any particular area. You don’t personally have to enter any gambling premises to set it up.

So whether there’s a bookies on every corner, or every other shop on your high street is a bookies you can get excluded fairly easily.

I hope you do go for self-exclusion Stormtrooper.

With regards to the footy bets and lottery, it’s all gambling man, life is much better without it.

There are not many gambling activities I havnt participated in over the years, I don’t partake in any at all these days. I prefer working for a living and keeping hold of my money, gambling has taken so much from me over the last 35 years it ain’t getting one penny more. Not today.

Welcome to the forum stormtrooper,

Firstly a big well done on seeking help with your addiction. Just been reading through your post and all the replies so I will give you my advice on whats kept me 96 days gamble free. Bits of your story and the concerns you have all sound familar to me.

I couldn'nt stay away from the FOBT machines whenever i went in the bookies. Like yourself i never seen football betting as a big problem as i only used to do £20 worth of bets every saturday which wasn't a problem to me, but soon as i was on that dreaded machine them £20 notes used to pour in. I kidded myself that i could enter the bookies and just do my footy bets and leave. This never happened. I've lost count the amount of times i went in to put my acca's on and either spent all my money on the machines first or collect football winnings and then pile it into the machine. I once won £618 of £10 once and managed to put £500 of it into the machine after collecting it.

So in order to quit the FOBT's you will have to quit all forms of gambling as you will only be drawn back somehow. There is blocks you will need to put in place to help. You cant do it on just willpower.

1. Self exclude from every bookmaker in the areas you live, work, parents live, friends live, places you could drive too in a 30minutes or so and any other ones you may know of, delete any temptation. This may seem a lot but you can do it in one hit. Grab a pen and paper and write down all the bookmakers address via google search then ring the national self exclusion line on 0800 294 2060. The staff are friendly and won't judge you. Also a tip to stay out of the bookies if you ever think "I'll try that one, the staff wont recognize me" is to think how embarassed you will feel if they do and ask you to leave. Also it could get someone into trouble.

2. Self exclude from any online accounts you have and also open up new ones then ban youself right away. They are planning to bring out a new system in spring what allows you to ban from all gambling sites. In the meantime just do that.

3. This block works well with point 2. Order a new bank card and then hand it to a trusted loved one so you cant go online if you find a new site. I'd also ask someone to monitor your bank statements to show whats going in and out and explain what you need your card for etc. This may seem extreme but it does help.

They were the first three things I did and it has been a big part of why i'm 96 days gamble free.

Unfortunatley the lottery/scratchcards can be placed in your local shop with no opion to self exclude. You will need strong willpower to help you with that. A few things what helped me was to think how rubbish it all is. The odds of winning almost seem impossible, try and think why should you give X amount of money to someone for free with nothing in return. Dont check results either to see if "you would of won, my numbers came out". That wont help just try to forget about it.

Please take advice on what myself and others have said. Life without gambling is so much better. I have noticed the positives already and ive only been stopped for 3 months.

All the best mate,

Embracing

I am new today and also feel reading all your comments helps, ESPECIALLY concrete step by step plans to deal with it. I am tomorrow excluding myself and the google-address thing is a great suggestion. Thanks!