Hi all,
Apologies if this subject has been done to death but I'm not a regular forum user and I'm genuinely interested - how many of you think your problem started with fobt's?
I gambled on horses and football for about ten years without any problems, I would pop in a bookies when i had a bit of spare time and place a few bets but never more than I could afford and it was good entertainment. But then the fobt's appeared in every shop and I made the biggest mistake of my life by playing them and within a matter of weeks I was hooked and lost absolutely everything.
Now years later I have had to give up gambling and have started looking into ways to help prevent others falling into the same trap I did with these machines but the whole thing stinks! The only research done is by the betting industry and they are very reluctant to let any outside research take place, in fact they have refused Cambridge Universities requests to borrow a machine for research purposes. It also appears that all the big betting industry bosses are very friendly with the government (much like the bankers) so no tough action will be taken.
But the thing I hear over and over again is the betting industry claiming that fobt's aren't more addictive than other forms of gambling but from my own experiences and from being in shops around these machines over the last few years and witnessing the problems that they cause first hand I have a very different view!
Before these machines were installed i played fruit machines with 10 quid jackpots in the arcades / bookies after work, i guess they were addictive and you could never win long term but at least you couldnt realistically lose hundreds upon hundreds of pounds at a time.
then of course new technology of whatever meant that the bookies were in a position to really fleece everyone. Funny how no bookies in the country have normal fruit machines in then anymore and when the managing directors have tv interviews all they say time after time after time is that for the vast majority of customers these machines are a form of betting entertainment. No there not - there a quick and easy way for the industry to make massive annual profits. They all fully know how addictive they are!!
I wish they would could all be banned - they belong in a casino environment. Ive lost thousands and have had to ban myself from my local bookies on a number of occasions as i cant trust myself not to be tempted onto them.
Pitchy or pitch and toss, played it a lot as a teenager with my mates then I liked a shot on the bandits in the pub and yeah I could lose but not that much money. Then I done the grand national one year and got an interest in the horses, not big stakes but doing a lot of studying form to try and get that big payout L15 up. It never quite happened probably started doing a fixed odds around this time. Then when online betting appeared I got involved, I knew it was dodgy and dangerous but I could stay in control!! This is when the lies and deceit to my wife started around 10 years ago and just stopped last week.
I have played fobts but only on the odd occasion and I could limit myself, it's online sports betting which has been my downfall.
Onwards and upwards, no more betting = no more dark clouds following me about!
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