Hi,
I’m 28, and have a very very bad issue with gambling, finally realising after 8+ years it needs curbed. I’ve decided to try and do something about it now, as I haven’t gambled for a few days and feel my head is clear and its not just a ‘ah no ive lost never doing it again’ thing.
I dropped out of uni when I was 21 having maxed out 5 student overdrafts by January, most notably walking in to an RBS to open my account, going to the counter and taking the £1,200 to the B*****d next door and having nothing 15-20 mins later.
I’ve always had a problem with it, I’m quite successful in sales, I’ve had years in earning less than 15K a month and more recently I’ve had successful times where I’ve earned 70k plus per year, yet the more i earn the more i see i have to gamble, I don’t think I’ve ever got past the 10th of the month without having to count down to my next pay day, usually lying to the people closest to me to manipulate and gamble their money. Nobody around me trusts a word I say and I don’t really blame them.
I’ve lost jobs because of gambling, I could never work with a job handling money, as I found out the hard way when I was arrested for theft by employee for ‘borrowing’ £500 a number of years ago. I told myself at the time I’d win and put it back in, obviously I didn’t.
Although my family don’t trust anything I say or do, again rightly so, my mam and dad have bailed me out of every situation I’ve been in, yet again something I’ve took advantage of and it’s not something I want to do anymore, at 28 I live with my fiancГ© and 2 year old son who even when im out I have a bet on and I’ll be watching or following it on my phone.
I should be able to take my family on holiday and buy them nice things except id rather place a bet. Constantly.
Thanks
I feel your pain, I'm in a very similar situation and it's only been just over a day since I last gambled. Have you looked at blocking software if it's mainly online you gamble?
Does your partner know about your problem and are you losing money you don't have? You should speak to your partner, maybe have her take care of your money for you and give it to you as and when you need it because believe me, for a gambler, having money is a bad idea, maybe snap your bank cards, order a new one that's just cash only so you can't use it online for anything.
There's lots of things you can do but you need to do them now because it sounds to me like you've accepted the problem but you almost know it's going to happen again, you'll never win them losses back, they're in the past, draw a line under them and look to the future.
Good luck mate
Cheers mate,
Yeah mainly online, although its not uncommon for me to go and sit in the bookies for a few hours betting on every horse/dog race going.
She knows about it, but i tend to be very good at lying or manipulating my way out of it. The handing over of my accounts is the next step as i feel this is the only way forward.
Thanks for the response and i hope your doing well.
Try to have as little money on you as possible just for what you need, let her take care of your finances, come clean to her if you feel like you can then you'll feel much better for it and surely she'll want to help you through and by seeing you're trying to do something about it will reassure her. I've had so many urges these last couple of days but I've literally had enough money in my pocket for food, nothing more, no bank card nothing, it's frustrating but going cold turkey is the only way, it gets easier and you'll feel like you've achieved something the longer you manage to stick at it.
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