Quitting, relapsing, quitting, relapsing. Happens all the time but I’m not going to let it happen this time.
I’m 20, this has been running my life now for nearly 3 years. Sportsbetting has destroyed me. Tried to justify my big bets on random sports at 4am as “I’m investing”, “I’m trading”, load of rubbish. I was gambling, and I was losing.
I had a big, big chance to turn this all around - but as gamblers know, when things start to get better, it’s so easy to just fall back into the trap. So, instead of owing thousands in payday loans, I now owe thousands in bank loans. They have much less interest and I am allowed more time to pay them off which is a positive. I have around £600 in credit card debt, too.
The blocks have been placed. My card has been frozen from gambling, most my accounts have been closed (the ones I can remember). How does GamCare work? I suppose that would add an extra level of security, I have never tried it before. I have never gone into a casino or a bookies so I’m not too worried about me starting now, but if I did want to self exclude from those too, how would I go about it?
I’m 21 later this year, I’m working a minimum wage job. I should have thousands in savings but instead I have thousands in debt. I want to look back at this post in a years or so time and be happy with my progression. I’m going to fix this now.
How do you stay sane? How do you keep the motivation? If you’re in the same boat as me and are in the mindset of wanting to quit, shoot me a message, we’ll do it together??
Have a great week, thanks for reading
Welcome to the Forum Unconquerable,
I'm sorry to hear about your experiences with gambling but it is great to read about the steps you are taking to recovery from this.
In answer to your questions.... How does GamCare work?
You can talk to one of our Advisers 24/7 on either our Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or via our NetLine they would be happy to talk you through all the options of support that are available to you, including tools to help prevent you from gambling, strategies to help deal with the urges to gamble and options for a referral for a variety of free treatment support that is available to you.
You can self exclude from all betting shops in your local area through a scheme known as MOSES
To self-exclude from more than one Bookmaker in your area
www.self-exclusion.co.uk 0800 294 2060 8am to midnight, 7 days a week.
To self-exclude from casinos you can do so through a scheme known as SENSE:
To self- exclude from all land-based casinos in the UK.
www.nationalcasinoforum.co.uk/voluntary-self-exclusion-sense
Finally, there is a lot of support available to in regards to your situation with debt, we can recommend you calling one of these numbers should you feel some free financial advice would benefit you:
We wish you all the best with your recovery, but please don't forget our Advisers are available 24/7
Kind regards
ChrisK
Forum Admin
think i was in about 10K worth of debt at 22 not all from gambling but the majority of it , i decided i was just going around in circles getting more credit and losing in the casino so the only option was to remove all lending facilities
went into an IVA a temporary form of insolvency at 23 that meant no more credit cards no more overdrafts and no more loans
i had to financially stand on my own 2 feet and at times it was tough i remember in the early stages struggling to get £3 together for a costa
fast forward 5 years to today and i make my last repayment on that debt next week i have several thousand saved and several thousand stored in real investments
im not going to pretend its been easy and theres been several relapses in that time but ive ploughed through
i dont know how much debt you have but i would seriously consider cancelling all lending facilities, its one thing gambling with your own money but an entirely different kettle of fish when gambling with the banks money
Hi Unconquerable,
I was in a very similar situation to yourself. For years I had hidden the extent of my gambling through accessing funds from the credit union, friends and most of all pay day loans. I had a decent paying job so I ticked all the criteria for the pay day loans, even having as much as 4/5 pay day loans on the go at once. I was paying back 125/150 euros a week on these loans and it was completely unsustainable. I had to get more loans out just to finance these. Then I got a new job, I started working a lot of overtime and I cleared all the pay day loans (I still had a bank loan and credit card that were sustainable to manage). It was my chance to get away from all the ducking and diving. However I didn't see it that way, I thought I knew better. I reapplied for more pay day loans and things completely spiralled for me until I was caught last July and the extent of the monetary damage was realised. I had to take out a very large loan (in excess of 10K) to pay off all my loans and put them in one place. End result I've no savings (still renting) and I have this loan plus more money I have to pay back to friends and family. My friends who would not have the same income as me all have their own houses and are building families and I have to pay back everything before I can start to save and worst of all the missus is so untrusting of me (and rightly so), so kids aren't on the horizon for me. I haven't spent a cent on gambling in the last 11 months but I haven't eaten too much into my debt yet as other things surfaced that were out of my control. There were also some extra debt I had to sort out too which were not covered by the consolidation loan I spoke of above. I'd say I can relate to you from what you have said and if you do need to talk to anyone on this, please give me a shout. I hope you're starting to feel a bit better as you put a plan in place for you to get back on track.
All the best,
Happy
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