Throwing away money every month.

I am a 32 year old male who has always had the odd flutter on the footy and on the horses and thought it was a bit of craic. I then stopped going to the bookies and started playing online and thats where things started to spiral. 

about 7 years ago I put £20 into my l*******s account and managed to get up to £8500. Tried going for the £10k and eventually cashed out at  £6k. 

A few years later the now wife and I started to struggle financially a little bit and my mind automatically trigger that winning feeling I had and i thought to myself, I've done it before i can do this again. So this time I put £200 into my ***** account and went onto the roulette machine and I managed to get up to £15k and i was on cloud 9. Within 20 minutes of playing that £15k was gone.

Last December my wife starting asking all these questions that I just didn't have the lies for anymore and I knew this was my time to confess. 

She was so disappointed in me and i felt awful for potentially ruining our future together however she has stood by me and supported me. I immediately went to work and got my self excluded from ***** whoo in turn offered me a 6 months subscription to Gamban which i have installed on all my devices. I also registered with Gamstop who self excludes from every UK site registered on their database. I self excluded for 5 years. Best to go all in. 

Today I am 291 days gamble free and I can not my more proud of myself. Each day is a new struggle but waking up and seeing my wife still by my side gives me the strength to beat this addiction. We will always be addicts and that will never go away. I have done 6 weeks therapy/counselling and this really helped. 

Hi

Sadly being a compulsive gambler I finished up working for nothing.

I did not value money and I did not value myself.

Every time gambled I just made things worse.

Just for today only I will not gamble.

Love and peace to everyone

Dave L

AKA Dave of Beckenham UK

Yes and many gamblers are in the cycle of riding, hiding and coping with the losses while not knowing how addicted they are.

It's a progressive addiction and only gets worse

Please tell someone close and speak to non gamblers

Throwing your money away is exactly what you are doing....someone needs to give you the reality checks that your addiction blocks out for It's own dopamine fix....you need to have the image in your mind  of money hovering over a kerbside grid for that is the gambling scam they drug you with.

It's NOT an income scheme and never was. It's a random and highly irresponsible act which makes the gambling dens rich. You can't beat the system and its not set up for any considered or long term gains

You will lose and gambling addicts brains are not set up to cope with that....indeed we should never have been gambling in the first place

If somebody took money from me in the street conned me, scammed me or short changed me I would be mortified!!.......why then was I risking it on crazy machines and gambling dens praying on the vulnerable.

I know why now and it's because I was a lonely empty soul trying to escape depression and feeling my life was worthless......gambling was the main drug I turned to and it caught me in a way smoking and drinking never did. 

I stopped smoking and drinking but gambling I needed help with and for the rest of my life now I tell girlfriends and parents that I am a gambling addict in recovery.

Don't be too hard on yourself as you have been pushed a drug hiding under the name of legality. It's not really our fault but we have to accept responsibility to recover properly

Best wishes to start a gamble free life