FOBT's

Those FOTBs have ruined my life but now I'm gonna battle to get my life back

Hi Paul and Gr4y - thanks for adding to the thread.

If you do not stop they will destroy you - the great think is everyone can stop now by not putting any more in.

Unfortunately despite losing 1000's people still think they can win. If there is one sure bet, it is you will never win long-term on the FOBT's.

Dave

These things have ruined the last few years of my life and will do for the next few years while I pay off the damage. I hate them so much. Lost another wedge today. I was gone and the people in the shop must of seen this yet they still take my card. I even had one lady say 'do you like the new machines'!!!

I know it is down to us but surely these people have a duty of care?

Thanks for your post Deansdone. With respect if the lady had refused to serve you then you would have insisted or gone elsewhere hell bent on chasing your loses.

It's a bit mean blaming those who work in the shop - best you self-exclude then you won't be able to hand them anything ever again.

I will tell you for nothing while you keep giving there will always be someone happy to take. Look - you haven't won and won't will so just knock it on the head.

Best wishes for whatever you decide.

Dave

So hard to walk away from those FOBTs all day feeling low why all day my mind keeps saying to me GO ON HAVE ONE LAST GO ON THE FOBTs WIN BACK YOUR LAST LOST!! Which by the way I never did I stayed strong for once.

Thing is its so scary to know how evil those bullsh#t FOBTs really are

GR4Y 3 days GF

Ok folks - maybe time you took responsibility for your actions rather than losing and putting yourself in a muddle. It's your arm feeding the machine and if you can choose to play you also have the freedom to choose not to play.

Hi DaveUK,

At the risk of sounding like I'm trolling, I don't think your last post will go down well with people who want to blame their shortcomings on an 'illness'. (IE it's not their fault).

I stopped gambling in mid 09 - and yes, FOBT's were my poison. (online Roulette too). I nearly lost everything. And I mean everything. I finally found the strength to stop through coming on here and reading other people's stories and from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, but I only stayed stopped by using my own willpower muscle.

I've recently started dieting because after knocking gambling on the head I was looking for a new challenge and I realised I'd become a beer-bellied bastad. So since the new year I've been calorie counting and exercising daily. My god it's hell! But I'm seeing a difference in my face and gut already. It's hard because food is a more natural addiction than gambling as we need food to survive, so it's even harder to fight. But how am I doing this crazy unbelievable thing? Well, unfashionably, just through will-power, self-discipline and every time I get the urge to shove a cream cake in my gob I stop, reflect on whether it will really make me feel good beyond the 50 second buzz while eating it, and the answer is always no.

(Please don't get me wrong, not everyone has willpower when they're in the depths of a gambling problem, but if I can find it in time, then ANYONE can - trust me on that).

So here's to anyone who finds themselves reading this, struggling with a momentary urge to s**nk all their money into a machine that only has one long term outcome. Don't do it. Find your own willpower and stop blaming others, industry, life, boredom, lack of willpower, 'illness', time of the month, evil god gamblor, etc, for your decision to open your wallet and feed the beast that never stops eating.

Tough love, maybe, but it comes down to us to ultimately either stop or not stop - and there'll always be people here to listen to you bleat on about it until you finally take responsibility and find the willpower to stop. It's d**n hard though, and even after nearly 5 years I still get the odd twinge and urge to try my luck. But then I remember where it left me, and I don't want to be that person anymore.

Be well,

Molehole

Hi Molehole

Absolutely superb post. Well done for having the sense to call it a day, it isn't easy and may there never be any going back.

I agree with all you are saying. Very very very few people can blame it on illness and if I am honest some people just what to keep hearing it's ok it's ok ! It's not ok to keep feeding a machine with money which is needed for other things or money they simply cannot afford to lose.

The diet sounds excellent - well done for again recognising you needed to take responsibility and take action and doing it.

I hope people reading will realise they need to grow up, take personal responsibility and stop blaming everything other than their weak-willed attitudes for their stupid actions.

Well done again on an excellent and amusing post. I am glad I am not alone in speaking out.

For anyone one still playing the FOBTs - you won't win, you won't win, you won't win! Feel free to keep trying but don't act surprised and seek sympathy when it all goes wrong..........again!

I would love the FOBTs banned but if you don't play them it makes little difference if they are there or not.

Dave

Hi Dave/Molehole great posts, loads to agree with liking taking responsibility for feeding the machine etc ............. just a couple of points it can take a long long time to re-alise that the machine that paid/gave you £400.00 say in twenty minutes gambling, then the next day takes £1000.00 off you, wont give you the £600.00 overall loss back the following day, you think having won once you can over a period of time make a profit, for the mind set to re-alise this and do something about it can take ages (five years in my case).

My second MOST IMPORTANT POINT IS - before the fotb's were there, and the levels of gambling were raised to £100.00 @ spin, no-one except casino goers, (in the uk at the time of fotb inception there were not so many) had to travel a fair distance to lose a lot of money. SO NO FOTB'S - no lunchtime massive gambling, many countries don't legalise them due to the massive problems we are seeing in the uk and much noted on this site. One last point how many of us would not be here to-day if the fotb had not existed. mm.......................mm

Bring in Ed Milliband, with his plans to reduce the £100.00 @ spin and if necessary ban them from certain areas. THE FOTB'S ARE A FORM OF CAPITALISM WE DO NOT NEED.

Nice post Spaingone - thank you.

I have to agree access to £100 a spin on the high street was always going to lead to trouble. I am not sure Ed Milliband would reduce the spin levels and is probably using a different type of spin to gain favour. Would be fantastic if it was reduced though.

I for one would not be on here if it wasn't for FOBT's as I never gambled much before I found them and since I gave them up gamble on nothing now.

Also agree after a win it takes time before you realise you can't win long term. They have been around a while now and lots of people have horror stories to tell so hopefully those who still play will see common sense and keep their money firmly in their pockets!

I am pretty sure I wouldn't be on this site had fobts not been introduced. I remember before the fobts I did have a problem with fruit machines. As a child I won £20 from £1 and I think this was the catalyst for my future addiction. However I could never blow the 1000's of pounds on the fruit machines that the fobts allowed me too. I lost on the fruit machines but never to the extent of the fobts, which are the reason I now have £15k debt. You will see from my diary that I have now not played on the fobts since Nov last year and my life is so much better already. I am spending more quality time with my family,am less anxious and finally have some money in my bank! I am at present allowing myself the odd football bet, when time allows, and this is working for me so far. I am extremely conscious however of the danger of still gambling (albeit to a much lesser extent, £10 per week as opposed to 1,2,3 thousand) and am simply focusing my thoughts on where my life will head should I return to the destructive days of my out of control gambling.

Is this a familiar story? If it is you have the choice to stop it now!

One, two, three, four, zero and twenty-six

They are the numbers that will give me my fix

I’ll start very low, just a small bet

No need to worry, won’t get caught in their net

I hit the button it’s not a win

You see I know where the ball lands, as soon as I spin

Never mind it means I can play longer

Me versus the machine - surely I’m stronger

Hit repeat spin I go again

This ones close, nope its number ten

Ah well it means I can play longer

Me versus the machine - surely I’m stronger

One more go then my credit has gone

I have more in my wallet, this loss won’t last long

What the hell anyway it means I can play longer

Me versus the machine - surely I’m stronger

I feed in a twenty I have fifty left

It’s taken with pleasure I’m now on a quest

I now start to realise I need to play longer

Me versus the machine - I’m sure I am stronger

At last it’s a winner I knew it would fall

I’m now almost even, I feel ten feet tall

I can’t walk away now, I’m staying longer

See, I told you, I knew I was stronger

My wallet feels lighter, lost almost a ton

The numbers are loaded its losing its fun

My bank card will help me to top up the wonger

I'm starting to doubt that I am the stronger

Please put us a hundred on number four

Just win it back then I’ll head for the door

Need to bet big now to get out of jail

But I am the stronger, I will prevail

Well that went so badly need more funds to stake

I punch in my pin, my hand starts to shake

For the gathering crowd, it’s a free show

Just prove I am stronger, my confidence will grow

Another one fifty this is the last

I’m 600 down, just a half-hour has past

My wallet is full now - full with receipts

No longer feel stronger I think I am beat

A smile on my face I’ll not let it show

Inside I’m so gutted, I now feel so low

Those who are watching, just think its funny

Not so strong now, I've lost all that money

I now feel embarrassed, could blow a fuse

Those bloody spectators willed me to lose

Never again will I do such a thing

Me versus the machine - I’ve let them win

Can’t even be bothered to bid my farewell

As I trudge so slowly towards the stairwell

I count the receipts - I feel totally shattered

They haven’t just beat me - I have been battered

I get in the car, life feels at an end

My excuses are ready, I bumped into a friend

I just feel so guilty - run through the mill

If only she knew I’d lossed 600 nil

So now off to Gamcare - I feel so lame

The posters forgive me, I need someone to blame

But it's time to grow up, it's just one big con

So stop now and stay stopped before everything's gone

Fantastic story Dave this was me 6 and a bit months ago!!! If only we realised then what we know now, but dwelling in the past is no good in recovery.

This post would be a great addition to the new members section.

Good work pal.

Del 191 GF days 🙂

Amazing post Dave. I lost £600 yesterday after staying off the machines for nearly 3 months, so fits my story quite well! Every word will ring true with any CG who has ever played these machines I'm sure. I am determined to beast them by avoiding playing them at all costs. For me at the minute it is through boredom as work is quiet this week, why I see them as a way of trying to make money I will never know, even when I do make money it just goesd straight back in!

Thanks Delboy and well done for deciding to stop and sticking to it. 6 months is really good. You will be tempted back time and time again but just remember how it always ends, read and re-read the horror stories on here and you will do very well.

Thank you to Ron - I am sorry you lost but can't say I am surprised as it always ends in a loss. 3 months was great though.

I think boredom has a large part to pay but the real attraction (albeit false) is that you may win some money. And here lies the problem - if you do win, it eggs you on to go back for more until 'that' big loss. if you lose, you then chase and end up losing more.

However you cut it, whatever strategies you use it is mathematically impossible to win long term as the odds are mathematically against you. Effectively people are trying to do the impossible. Make yesterdays mistake your last Ron.

Two big turning points for me were self-exclusion from all the local bookies (removes the in the moment temptations) and the other thing was accepting I will never stop finding gaming machines tempting (as I find them fun to play and always have since I was a little lad) Instead I needed to put as many blocks in place to bat away the temptations when they come along. I suppose an analogy would be 'do you still find other women attractive even though you are married?'.

I accept I am just one spin from disaster just like the recovering / recovered alcoholic is one drink away from being found blind drunk. My motto is 'I cannot play as I cannot stop'.

As for the poem I wrote it about 3 years ago and did a couple of others which I will post if I can find them. As I read the one I posted earlier today it brought all those old feelings back - I won't be going there again.