For a long time I have been saying to myself that today is day one, the day I give up gambling for good. I thought that I was capable of doing it alone but I have proved to myself many times that I was wrong. Today is the first time I've braved signing up to gamcare to admit that I have a problem and hoping that I can try to track my own progress.
Like so many, it began with a small football bet that I was introduced to me while at university, it won and thus the devil inside was awoken. For a long time I was well in control of my gambling because I knew so little about bet types and casino games etc. Then after university I got a job in a bookies and that was where things really started to turn. As I learned more about gambling and saw people winning I wanted a piece of the action. 50p weekend football bets became daily horse bets and feeding the fobt and neighbouring bookies over the course of 3-4 years. I used to hide it well from everyone. But my friends and colleagues never knew how much I was struggling each month, sometimes doing all my wages within the first few days of being paid. Then came a reliance of payday loans and borrowing from wherever I could.
After leaving this job I wound up working in a casino. I know, not the greatest choice for a self confessed gambler but it was a good pay rise at the time (not that I saw much of that anyway). Things got worse when I started to gamble online. I'd do all my wages and more, maxing credit cards and sending my accounts way overdrawn to rack up more charges. I once even had a £4300 win which would have cleared up all of my debts and payday loans with some left over but that wasn't enough for me. I wanted more and the inevitable happened. I had never felt so sick.
To this day my debts have never been higher and I have just had enough. I need this to be gone from my life forever. I know a change of job would probably help me too. Today is my day one. I will beat this.
MrHar
Hello Mr. h*r., You say you've never felt so sick? and I understand. I don't go to Gambler anonomous but their slogans really hit home. There is one, have you heard it? It goes , "I'm sick and tied of being sick and tired." Totally sick and tired of it all, that is me for sure. Sounds like you are also ready. I don't know what it would be like to work in a casino but I have spoken with compulsive gamblers who works in casinos and say that it's is more of reinforcement of why not to gamble than a temptation. If you have to change your job to feel better then by all means! Maybe even a drop in pay would not be bad if you ended up not gambling anything. All the best!!!!!!!!!! tara2
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