Lessons learnt in gambling

Hi all,

Just thought I would share some thoughts on my experience of problem gambling. I think the worse thing that happened to me was that I won my first bet. I won £700 and I bought a new TV and a new bed. I remember lying in my bed watching something on my new TV feeling rather pleased with myself... little did I know what was to come.

I had a big winning streak betting on random football teams winning by 2 or so goals after the 70th minute in leagues and teams I had never heard of. I would choose 3 to 7 matches at once as to get better odds and I must have won 16 in a row. In conjunction with this, I used to check betting prediction sites trying to find value bets to bet on. I thought I was on to a winner, easy money... I couldn’t believe how easy all of this was.

Then came the losses... at first I was only losing my winnings and as such didn’t feel like it was really my own money at first but the problem was, I was wrong. I was feeling like it was my own money and the feeling was horrible. I chased losses and losses and I won the money back, I broke even. I thought when I got to this stage that I would feel awesome and call it quits as I wasn’t up or down but no... instead I felt like. I had wasted my time doing all of this and needed to get something back for my time I wanted to do one last bet and then stop. So, I won £1000 and that was pure profit but when I got that, yet again I was thinking that I could keep this going and I lost it and then some. Yet again I wanted to just break even and I would feel like quitting for sure. I was wrong.

I guess that was my biggest take home from all of this, I didn’t feel like what I thought I would or at least it didn’t take long for me to feel different and want more, I would be greedy when I thought I would just be happy to break even. The mistake was placing a bet full stop, my psychology wouldn’t allow me to simply be happy losing a few quid or making a few quid. I had to create a mental note that any suggestion of placing a bet was simply not going to work.

I remember losing a £5 once and I couldn’t even accept this, I used to lay on smarkets results that just should happen like its 3-1 to a team and the opposition has a red card and then hey won 4-3 and I lost £400... all over £5. My last two bets were trying to recover a £700 loss. I won them both and yet it made me almost physically sick waiting for the results to come in. I put £5000 on those bets to get back £700. This was the final straw for me, I wanted to finish for good more than ever.

I haven’t placed a bet in over 6 months since these 2 bets. I know I simply cannot bet at all, I will never win if I bet. I am so relieved that I finally realised this without it destroying my life completely.