Gamstop couldnt verify me

Hi Jacob6, I guess there is only one win and that is not going back.

At least I keep telling myself that. As I can't change the past.

You have to hang in there.

Hi

Abstaining by pure willpower is a tough job. Maybe you should try some hypnosis? The point is that no options of help are of the table when you need to pull on that hand-brake of gambling urges. I will always recommend Allen Carr's book The easy way to give up gambling. For me, I used the audiobook version and he has a way to get through to the gambler in you. I am sure you will get some more help during the day from other people here. Try and keep a positive outlook. You can say that you can or you can't and you would be right in both statements so it is up to you to make that right decision for yourself. Never give up and never surrender. You can beat this. Many people already have.

Good luck in your recovery!

Hi Jacob... have you contacted Gamstop directly. Keep persevering, cos once you are signed up, it will stop your gambling in its tracks. 

Hi, sorry you are having problems signing up to Gamstop. You can contact them via the Live chat function or by email or telephone which can be found on their webpage. The number to ring is 0800 1386518.

You can ask them to email you a registration form which you can fill in. It is a manual way of signing up because some people have encountered problems with the system and not been able to secure their registration in the usual way.

Once they receive your completed form, they will send you a secure link where you can upload your documents and ID for manual verification. The whole process will take about 4 to 5 days from start to finish.

Do not mess around with Paypal. Paypal let me bury myself in debt. They allowed me to spend money I did not even have. Get rid of the account straight away. You cannot block gambling transactions with Paypal. It is just a middle man for sending money and payments when it comes to gambling and is far too easy to lose thousands in seconds by sending and moving money around in this way. Please get rid of it. You are left very exposed with Paypal, believe me. I would get such a glint in my eye when I would see Paypal accepted on gambling sites because I seen a way round. With £40,000 losses, I don't see the fun side anymore. Don't think for a second that Paypal could not see those transactions whizzing through, one after the other....hundreds of pounds every few minutes. They did nothing to stop me. The only person who cared was my own bank who rung in the middle of a horrendous session once, to ask if everything was okay and to let me know that they had blocked my card for me. 

Take care.

Hi Jacob, 

If you do not mind sharing, what was it that started the urge and got you to creep back. 

Many Thanks

When you say freezing gambling transactions is that because you can unfreeze them within 24 hours? Open a Monzo account. They will freeze gambling transactions for you. You have to contact them via chat to unfreeze and then it takes 48 hours to work. if you did ask them to unfreeze hopefully within the 48 hours you would change your mind and freeze the card again etc . This card works for me as i am too embarrassed to ask them to unfreeze the card!! 

I would agree to staying away from Paypal, and getting rid of the account if you have one, for two reasons.

First, Paypal seems to be a "secret" source of cash for many gamblers. Even after confessing to my wife and giving her full access to my bank accounts, as soon as a smallish amount hit my paypal account from a friend I immediately got thoughts of gambling it and this eventually led to my first relapse. I have now closed the Paypal account which was inconvenient but necessary.

Secondly, whilst I was an active gambler I several times got into situations where I deposited via Paypal to online casinos money I never had in my linked bank account when in a trance like session. I once woke up a day or two later to urgent messages from my bank to say I was about to go overdraft to a 5 figure amount and that they needed me to resolve it that day or some fairly heavy fees and interest would start accruing and they would not be able to process any of my direct debits including my mortgage payments. To say that was a stressful day is a slight understatement. I don't ever want to be that person again.   

It is really important that you get to the bottom of why you gamble and so you can try and reduce the urges but, in my opinion, it is even more important, especially in the early stages of trying to stop, to just put as many practical blocks in place as possible - Gamstop, no access to sources of money, get a non-smartphone, whatever it takes. You may still get the urges, mine usually came late at night, but at least you won't be making your financial situation any worse.  

Good luck

Muststop123

Muststop, I hear you with regard to Paypal. The day I realised I could spend money without actually having it there and then in my account was the start of a very long and painful journey. I am literally still playing catch up because of all the mess that I made by depositing money in this way. It should not be accepted, or at least, they should check that you actually have the money before allowing the deposit. Only after several thousand using my linked bank account, would they start asking me to deposit using my card instead, which of course ended the session because I knew I didn't have anything in there to gamble with. About 2 or 3 days after the binge session, all the deposits would exit my account and I would be well into an unarranged overdraft and desperately scared of my partner finding out what I had done. I would then have to sell lots of stuff on sites like ebay, buy stuff from my catalogues on credit and sell them to make cash to put in the bank. It was just horrendous. I NEVER want to be that person anymore either. I am done with gambling. It has made a fool out of me for the last time. I am happy to report nearly 2 years clean in May, but I am still paying off the debt.

I think that as well as not being able to pay with credit cards, you should also only be able to deposit money using a bank card, not the kind of linked bank transfer methods that caused me so much pain and worry.

It's one thing to lose money in the bank, it's completely another thing to lose money that you don't even have and that reality hits really hard a couple of days later when you just don't want to wake up and are afraid to look at the mail or answer the phone.

I can't be that person anymore. I can't live like that anymore. I am happy now, even though I have nothing because at least I know where I stand.

Best wishes to you Muststop123 and I wish you well moving forward.