How much have you lost gambling?

I consider myself quite fortunate here.
As others have said, I have lost a lot more than money.

However, from a purely financial point of view. I am in debt by about 25k.

Now considering I was feeding my habit on 5 credit cards, I've had 2 yearly card statements through that's show turnover on those 2 cards was 25k each means I turned over about 125k in a year.

Considering I only earn around 30k and have a car on finance and a mortgage, I consider that a massive let off from a purely financial outlook.

Im £92,000 (in about 14 months) in debt as we speak from gambling, currently on DMP, but thinking of IVA route now. Its sickening but whats done is done, I try to stay positive, it's nice to know your not alone though. What is daylight robbery richest women in UK owns b****5. They take advantage of people like us who have gambling problems.

Currently paying £1700 a month on my DMP. I have a good job that pays well, my own house etc, however unfortunately I have an addictive personality.

For me it is all about the money and getting the money back. The biggest problem that lead me to gambling was debt, which sounds ridiculous. But I had a small, but impossible to manage amount of debt. In years previous I had been in same situation, and a nice win in roulette (a complete beginers luck as I never gambled, taking £100 to £40,000) saw me not only get out of debt, but get a deposit for a mortgage, moved my family and all was hunky dory for a while. I had some problems in life and was off work for a while and my debts skyrocketed. The bank refused to help me and I was forced to gofor those stupid pay day loans and even worse. I kept pleading with the bank that I get paid, pay off these debts, then need to reborrow, and needed help from them. They wouldn't listen. One night like an idiot I thought hey roulette fixed this the last time. I chucked in my last 100 quid and got to 19 grand. I lost that 19 trying to make it to 20. Ever since then (9 years ago) Ive been losing anything from 100-1000 a month. Taking out more payday loans and depositing the lot of them and losin them very quickly. The debt is now not small and the APR means I will be broke my entire life. I have a house which has not had one penny spent on it. This means I can never sell my house. I now work some distance from my house. Obviously I can't afford a car because that would require a loan, so I lose a fortune in bus fares. My bus runs every hour, if I miss it, I have my pick of about 20 bookies within 10 yards of the bus stop, Many months Ive spent the last of my money and left not even enough for the bus fares back, the need to go sleep rough with my works laptop as a pillow. I have 2 kids who are no longer kids who have had nothing in their life and now have very little friends because weve never been able to pay our share, hosting birthday parties or offering to look after others kids etc. No one in my family talks to each other. I managed to geta better job earning much more money, which is exactly what I told the bank would happen and have shown them on paper multiple times how I could have not only afforded to repay the consolidation loan they should have given me, I should be buying a bigger house nearer my work by now (new mortgage, more money for bank) but nobody listens. EVery stupid gamble I make is with a view to making back about the 150k ive probably lost of the last 10 years. Ironically thats way more than I would have needed to repay my debts and sort my house and life out, but struggling in debt with the delusion of a winfall that isn't coming is easier to take than struggling to debt with no end in sight for 6 years while you claw your way back.

THERE NEEDS TO BE financial support for people who have lost everything through gambling. The equivilant of PPI rebates. Im in a situation now where all my debt is in other peoples name because I cant even get payday loans. So even bankruptcy woudn't solve my issues. My home has about 50k worth of repairs needing done, one of which threatens to wipe out the entire house (water damage to bathroom floorboards) I really would rather burn the place down with me inside it.

xangel11x wrote:

[quote=ODAAT]

Numbers are irrelevant, gambling is a mind problem, not a money problem & you can’t put a price on sanity.

Totally agree with you on that one, thanks for sharing those encouraging words.

I think the thread starters intention was to show how much we have lost money wise on gambling. For me it's too scary to even think about, I do have loans though adding up to 6.5K because of gambling which I am paying off for another year and half, but at least I'm paying them off and not making things worse I guess. It is a scary thought when you look at it as a figure like that.

Can't agree....if I ever won a five figure sum again I would quit gambling straight away. The problem is you pick a point of no return, I've lost xxxxx, so another 200 isn't exactly going to kill me. These all add up. Only a big win can stop it.

I watch youtube videos of people who win 50k and are back losing it all the next day, this is the reason I will never go to GA, I can not relate to people like that and would not like to be in the same room as people like that. I can only imagine its because theyve lost 6 figure sums in their lifetime.

Personally I think you should try and know to the penny what you've lost...then do some maths to see whether you are past the point of no return or whether you can claw it back. But there NEEDS to be financial support to people who have lost everything due to gambling. It is not normal, and the companies who thrive on this don't need to put guns to our heads to make us gamble any less than drug dealers dont need to force people to take drugs, doesn't stop drug dealers being the absolute s**m of the earth though, same goes for gambling companies....if our government took a tougher stance on them it would end. They need to set it like the US where gamblers need to declare all their gambling earnings and pay taxes. I know I certainly would not want the bother of doing that and that would be a strong detterent. That money could help people whose lives are ruined.

Good luck finding anyone else to take responsibility for what is solely your responsibility.

Got into Bitcoin and crypto, threw about 20k+ at it all in all, saw it go to about 80k, didn't take any profit off the table, thought I was a genius, thought it would just keep on going, then long story short, it dumped hard, I thought I could trade my way back, but f****** that up, then thought I could take on risky margin trading because I was getting desperate, f***** that up harder and quicker than I could possibly imagine, then eventually walked out with nothing.

On paper I lost 80k in unrealised total profit+capital, but in real terms 20k+ plus the time I should have spent working to earn [more] money, so maybe 40-50k lost in real terms; or, if I'd taken say 50k profit out and also focused on a real f***** job, maybe I would be about 70-80k real terms better off today.

I lost so, so much money, and time, and all self-respect, and realised I was gambler all too late.

Azrar wrote:

I have lost in total of gambling this year 5.5k in total including this easy 18 thousand pounds. I had managed to save just over ten grand. And I lost 5 and a half this year on gambling when I came to my sense and thought w*f was I doing. I just wanted to spend the rest on something I always wanted. Which was a Bmw 330d lci m sport. I love my cars and wanted one of these so I decided to spend 5k on this and your not going to believe what had happend I bought the car with all checks done and paper work with two keys. I payed cash for this car. Two weeks down the line police came n said I had bought a stolen car and this car that I had bought was reported stolen 2 weeks after I had bought it. Basically I had been scammed out of 5k this is my f*k in luck. This left me so depressed and feeling low. People done this to me. They took away something which when I decided to spend money on that tunred out to be a scam. And they guys I had bought the car off had ran off turn thier phones off everything. This is my luck. I hope gods help me on this situation..

Really sorry to hear this, what's the latest have the police tracked them down

For me, this thread helps me to see and reinforce that it was not just myself or a choice few that lost lots of money to gambling. I know that there are other better focuses for us recoverying cg's and I know that there are more dear /greater losses to add to the total than just the money itself. But having most likely put in around $100,000 over the years if not a bit more ( I really have no idea), I find some strange relief in knowing that I was not solely just out of my mind but this is nasty addiction. In the case of casino slot play it's addiction by design and that makes it sinister. Take the focus off financial losses of coarse but if seeing the amounts that the collective group has lost helps anyone then this thread is worth while. I mean, it's the only thread on here of its sort.right? tara2

I'm looking to never again see a day when my wages which represent blood sweat and tears ... get burned up and lost . I pray to God and I'm working on day to day surrender. amen

tara2 wrote:

For me, this thread helps me to see and reinforce that it was not just myself or a choice few that lost lots of money to gambling. I know that there are other better focuses for us recoverying cg's and I know that there are more dear /greater losses to add to the total than just the money itself. But having most likely put in around $100,000 over the years if not a bit more ( I really have no idea), I find some strange relief in knowing that I was not solely just out of my mind but this is nasty addiction. In the case of casino slot play it's addiction by design and that makes it sinister. Take the focus off financial losses of coarse but if seeing the amounts that the collective group has lost helps anyone then this thread is worth while. I mean, it's the only thread on here of its sort.right? tara2

I'm looking to never again see a day when my wages which represent blood sweat and tears ... get burned up and lost . I pray to God and I'm working on day to day surrender. amen

It would be useful - vital? - for children/teenagers to be fully aware of the dangers of gambling, casinos, risky investments, etc. This might prevent (or at least reduce) them becoming adults with addictive behaviour later on.

The financial cost can be massive, and on the surface seems to be the biggest issue, but the psychological devastation to the mind is underestimated and often unseen.

Getting over it requires a multitude of steps, one of which may be a perspective (self-delusion) that the amount itself represents X spent over a longer period, e.g. "I choose to see it as 10k/50k/100k spread over 50 years, which works out at X per year." It's hard to take when comprehending the full extent reality of the relatively short time span and relatively large amounts lost.

I don't have exact figure in record but probably around $6000 in last 5 years. big loss was 2000 in a sigle night. I am so much regrete when my wife told me she has no money for daily expense. So, much regret.

I reckon I have lost about £10,000 in the last 12 years, that figure could be higher but I've no way of knowing for certain. All this started with pub fruits, then I was encouraged to go and play the FBOT's by mates who are also into gambling. Then moved onto online slots and thats when I began to lose control. The odd rare decent win in amongst fairly heavy losses each month. Luckilly I'm not in any debt other that struggling until next pay day. I've had enough, gamstop registered and excluded from bingo halls, high street bookies and online casinos and betting companies.

Hey all ,
Well all new to this today I took the first step and the feeling of just breathing was amazing ,

Reading through comments I really am not alone (It's how you feel being a gambler I'm sure you all feel/felt it ) the sickness , sleepless nights guilt etc . First steps I'm jumping straight in I'm desperate to get control and feel happy again so I'm opting in for a site blocker and counselling

I've gambled around 4 years and probably done 20k , 8k in debt and it's really smacked me in the face today

Starting the route to walk through that tunnel . And I have every ounce of commitment to see the light at the end

Thank you for sharing. This thread clearly shows the path I´m heading down unless I quit.

Past month I have lost roughly 2500-3000 EUR gambling, past year since I picked up gambling again after a 10 year break (with a few slipups along the way) probably around break even or a slight winner (I played a lot of live poker where I won considerably more than I lost, and also hit a 2500 EUR jackpot on a slot machine, and after each winning session I put part of the winnings into the family budget).

While the money luckily isn´t a big deal at the current moment, my mentality is - I have gone from casual gambler to a pathological degenerate in my mindset, also playing online slots etc. and lately upping the stakes to where losses really start to sting, and while I haven´t openly lied to my partner, I haven´t told the whole story either and I have broken our agreements on gambling.

So it is time to quit before I find myself without my family and/or business, indebted and lonely with nothing to my name.

Hi all,

Over the many years I gambled I lost huge sums of money (due to the fact I have a very wealthy family who were on the side of enabling rather than helping).

I spent much of my life comparing myself to others in every way including gambling losses. I quite often justified my actions by comparing my losses to others who appear to have lost more.

The reality is that I gambled for the emotional effect that gambling gave me and the money just bought me the amount of time I could feel the euphoria. For me the amounts people have lost doesn't determine whether they have a more severe gambling addiction because it's just a case of how much money is available to each individual.

I used to blame the industry for my destructive life cycle but the reality is that there is something wrong with me that requires change. I'm very blessed that I've not felt the need to have gambling as part of my life for sometime even though the gambling industry is thriving.

Kind regards.

Hi everyone ,not posted here for a good while. I’ve had some big gambling issues lately only stopped cos when your left with

0.00 in your bank you aint got a choice. I was left 5k from my Nan after she passed months ago so and I planned on using it to invest in bitcoin and other crypto currencies but being a weak minded loser gambler I started betting on betway football bets won 900 twice then started losing and 2 weeks ago ended up playing online slots and got annihilated an extra 2k within a hour then chased that with my last 1k + then that was that. Now I’m finding it hard to accept as I’m unemployed and left completely broken I wish I could see a way forward but I’m just like a zombie everyday cos I can’t stop thinking about what I have done and why and how I could have been so f**** stupid.

I don’t even have the urge to gamble no more, just don’t think I’ll ever get over these loses.