Some advice for problem gamblers

I have been a problem gambler for over a year and lost £10,000. Everytime I got paid, I would pay my utility bills and pay for food. Usually it wasn't bad that I would use my bill money or take items out of my food shopping but sometimes it was. when I started gambling I played roulette and blackjack. After I found out about the house advantage of 3% I decided to move to different means of playing. I started playing ******* poker because I figured I would be playing against other real players and thus it's a fair game and my "skills" would play a part in making money. I was incredibly ignorant and let me tell you why:

With online poker, you have no idea who you're up against. Professionals, problem gamblers, fishes, bots, all sorts. Because it's all anonymous, there is all kinds of trickery going on behind the scenes. I mean there's money up for grabs, why wouldn't there be foul play? Not only that but there is speculation that the games itself are rigged with the community cards causing the player with the worst hand to win. I played for a whole year and lost quite a sizable amount. It's taken me all this time to try out every variation of every game possible to figure out that even poker is not a winning game for problem gamblers. Even if you play small stakes and slowly build up your bankroll the problem is, we don't know when to stop and the urge to increase stakes is too much for us. We eventually get to a breaking point where we risk all out money on 1 game and lose. Even if we resist the uge to increase stakes, we eventually get tired if we weren't already and that causes us to make bad decisions or maybe we get frustrated after a string of "bad beats" and as a result we start making impulsive bets. In the long run it's always better to not gamble. The irony is that if you don't gamble, you have more money. It's as simple as that. Gambling companies will always win. There is no secret to winning, it's based on pure chance and luck. Even with *******. If you watch the professional tournaments, even the best players suffer from bad beats and variance. With games such as roulette, blackjack, casino ****** there is a house advantage and the electronic games such as video poker and fruit machines, well they're the worst because they are programmed to make you lose no matter what.

Just remember that having money at all is better than not having any. Having money means having the freedom to make choices like going on holiday, meeting your friends for drinks and a meal, seeing your favourite band. It's financial security and when you gamble you're taking away those choices that could in the long run improve your mental health, happiness and relationships. Just remember that you will never be able to make back what you lost and you should accept that as reality and move on to greater things!

I hope you all beat this!