Hi all,
I'm so angry at myself.
About an hour ago I googled gam care because I wanted to update my recovery diary as today I am 19 days gf which is the longest I've ever gone.
Anyway so I googled gamcare and the first site to pop up that was advertised read 'gambling sites not on gamban' I stupidly clicked on the link and four hundred pound later here I am!
The fact its an absolute con has also really got to me. When you click on the link it shows some of the well known classic slot games however when you actually deposit there are absolutely no popular games on there? They literally all dissappear and replaced with absolutey awful games I have never even heard of let alone played.
I went straight into the withdrawal page after noticing the above because I really felt like it was all a con. But you're not allowed to withdraw anything under one hundred and at the time I had less than that so just played with it as I couldn't get it back anyway.
Of course when that ran out I started chasing my losses even though the games were unbelievablely rubbish and shocking and I wasn't having even the slightest bit of fun.
I'm really annoyed at myself! I was doing so well and gambling genuinely hasn't even crossed my mind over the last three weeks until I saw that stupid advertisement.
Feeling disappointed.
Hi Shantel,
We learn on mistakes.. U can't undo the situation now, and there is no point getting angrier at yourself now as this may be another trigger. But thinking for the future, maybe a good idea would be changing bank to one that can block gambling transactions or not having bank card at all? If you have made deposits with a credit card, maybe not having one wouldn't allow you to take action after seeing advertisement, unfortunately the ads are everywhere online now, and having credit card to hand, makes it impossible to resist at an early stage of recovery.
Don't feel stupid, cause your not stupid Shantel,
Instead think about it, that you have paid for a lesson for the future.
Put this anger into productive research of different bank cards that can block online transactions or Credit Unions:)
All the best Shantel.
Artur
Hi Shantel17,
Firstly well done for going 19 days gf. Secondly dont feel stupid, we are only human and will make mistakes. The important thing is to remember this feeling you have tonight and use it to drive you forward. If you haven’t done so already I’d recommend signing up to Gamstop, it took awhile for me to do it but it’s been the best decision I’ve made!
hang in on there and don’t let the negatives pull you back. We’ve all been there and are all here to support you!
You are not stupid, you have more inner strength and resolve than you know, you just have to look upon your lapse as a spur to dig deeper into that inner strength and focus your resolve into destroying the fortunes of the gaming crooks and instead keep your money so as you can better yourself, you'll get much more pleasure from pleasing those closest and dearest to you than you ever got from feeding the casino owners pockets.
Hello, sorry to read that this has happened to you when you're looking for exactly the opposite. Online is my vice and I have convinced myself that gamban covers all sites even though I know it doesn't really but by keeping that in my head then I don't even try and look for stuff (around 20 months for me now) so having it thrust in your face is an absolute disgrace. You have done the right thing to have a moan on here, I wish you the best of luck for your future.
Hi Shantel17
I noticed that search result last week when I was looking to come on this site.
Absolutely sickening that result should should come up first but we have to realise that we are dealing with a totally immoral industry that will do anything to drag us back into the life of despair that gambling offers us. I am sure someone paid a lot of money to get that search result to come up first when people are instead looking for a site to help them stop gambling.
No, you definitely are not stupid, but we are fighting against an powerful group of businesses with a lot of very intelligent people working for them whose only motive is to drag as much money out of us as possible with no interest in the damage they cause. We have to just completely eliminate any contact with them.
As for the sites being a con, unfortunately the ones not covered by Gamstop or Gamban are going to be the worse as they are probably operating either illegally or at least blurring the rules substantially. The thought of this did help me early on after I signed up to Gamstop as the thought of giving these websites any of my financial details online scared me more than the urge to gamble. I have relapsed a couple of times since due to other loopholes I uncovered which I will not share for obvious reasons. Final solution (I hope) for me is to have Gamstop in place but also eliminate the access to money to spend online so got rid of things like Paypal. This was inconvenient but in my case necessary. Getting a bank account that does not allow payments to online casinos is probably another option.
Good luck
Hi all
Many thanks for your replies.
I really appreciate it.
I have contacted the site I stupidly joined and requested I am blocked immediately from their site and any sister sites and on 3 occasions they have just replied with 'we don't want to see you go' or 'we don't want to lose you' and 'here's a bonus'
I have since been searching for contact details for alpha interactive solutions who own these sites and I can't find any.
It's unbelievable I actually find it quite sickening what they are doing to people battling addictions.
I have now practically begged to be excluded for the fourth time so will see what they come back with.
Ps I'm happy to say that vile site no longer pops up.
We are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can also contact us for free on 0808 80 20 133. If you would like to find out more about the service before you start, including information on confidentiality, please click below. Call recordings and chat transcripts are saved for 28 days for quality assurance.
