So this i my first thread and hopefully my start to something i have never done and that is stopping gambling. Im 36 years old and started gambling on 2p fruit machines at the age of 10, i used to steal my grannies 20ps to fund this, then lead to stealing in secondary school still for machines. At 16 i placed my first £1 bet on dogs, left school and went straight into employment.My bets steadily rose to £100 on the horses and footie. Got money when i was 18, £1700 of savings and another 2k of a claim which i blew in matter of weeks.I seriously knew i had a problem then, so at 19 i took myself to live in amsterdam were the excitment of other luxuries kept my mind away from gambling and there was no bookies. Five years i spent there but everytime i would come home to visit id end up spending thousands. Then i returned home became a father, got a decent job earning around 21000 for the past 10 years most of which has went to the bookies along with a £20,000 claim for as serious accident which i wasted in 5 weeks.Then we have xmas just gone were i managed to blow 2k in 2 days all my xmas money and didnt get any presents. I now have 4 weeks to pay day, borrowed money for my travel to work in which i gambled, borrowed more money which i gambled, now i have £15 in my pocket, went to bookies today, but i didnt do the bet. I have never not had a gamble when ive had money, so if i last today it will be a big achievement. Have to add i havent seen my 11 year old daughter in 4 months, as she moved to england and everytime i get paid i blow the cash instead of booking flights. She should be my incentive, but the gambling so far has won.
Thank you NT, its not the losing of the money that bothers me, because i earned that money, its the promises i make to my daughter and dont keep, like i was meant to take her to disney and i blew the 4k in a matter of hours. I have got to half 9 tonight when the bookies shut and in northern ireland they dont open on a sunday, so hopefully come monday that will be 2 full days without gambling
Yea, GA on wednesday night, ive been before and never give them a chance, just thought what a bunch of depressed saddos, ive self excluded myself from all uk online bookies, so now the shops are my biggest fight because every town has them. Shes 11 and thing is she knows i spent all my xmas cash on gambling but just said to me she didnt want a present just for me to fly over and i couldnt even do that.
Your story mirrors my own in a lot of ways. Good luck on your journey and keep posting on here. Be strong and don't give in to temptation and I'm sure you'll soon see a massive improvement in your life and will be able to spend time with your daughter. Good luck and best wishes for 2015.
thanks new start, went down to bookies there couple of hours ago to self exclude myself, manager behind the counter said to me"are you serious"? i said yea, handed over2 photocopies of my DL and passport, then she says oh we need original passport and a photo, what a load of s**t. I says jokingly i can place a bet then she of course, on that note i walked out with cash still in pocket, thats the first test over anyway, upwards and onwards!!
str7836, people can never quite believe how difficult it can be to self exclude in some places...It's crazy coz I don't know you but I'm so proud of you that you stuck 2 fingers up to them & walked out without placing a bet (wish I had done that in some of the places I tried)!
I spent a fortune on photos to self exclude, driving further & further afield to find somewhere new! @ the time, it seems fairly pointless as I could generally find somewhere, this was because I had no other blocks in place! Now I am in recovery (& don't intend to ever go back to the miserable existence I had when every spare moment was consumed with gambling) I have on occasion found myself in places that I would usually gamble & knowing I am excluded has really helped me kick the urges!
Keep strong & keep sticking your fingers up to the tests - ODAAT
thanks ODAAT joing this site has helped, and usually i only think about not gambling when i have lost a fortune and felt down, but i didn't gamble yesterday and i can't gamble today because im self excluded from every uk online site and bookies arent open here on a sunday. Last night i had no urge to gamble and today i fell good. For once i feel happy about not gambling i have even deleted all my fantasy footie teams. But the big test is later in the month when i have a lot more money when payday arrives.
Get on here & read, read, read...Hopefully with a few more gamble free days under your belt, you will start to enjoy your life again instead of being consumed by throwing money away & you will chose to win by keeping your hard earned money when it arrives.
So glad to hear you feeling good so quickly...I guess the decision to stop has been a weight off of your shoulders 🙂
thanks Odaat, i started to read your diary but haven't time to read all as i have to goto work, will finish tomorrow, if i can go 1 month not gambling that will be my longest time ever when ive been back home living in uk and im now home 10 years. It would be a dream to do 155 days like yourself thats amazing.
Hi Str, keep posting on here and have your daughter always at thr front your mind.
Join the 2015 challenge if you haven't already has helped me no end stay motivated.
Thanks for posting on my diary you will see how I have slowly clawed my way back, but if I read correct you don't have any debt to your name so no extra pressure, just please steer clear of the bookies as there is no way of winning if we cannot stop.
Hey str, just checking in to say thanks again for your words of support at the weekend and finding out how you're going so far this week?
x
Thanks somethingsgottagive, so day 7 still no gambling, made easier by the fact that any money ive had ive spent on travel to work, Been working nights all week as usual so havent had time to think about gambling, have been sleeping and working all week and im now off for the weekend. Funds are low until payday so i cant see myself gambling over the weekend when im off either.
Have a great weekend. Same for me with the money situation, I will have some again on 28th so that's going to be my biggest challenge but in the same situation in previous months I might even have got a payday loan to gamble so thankful and proud that I am not even tempted at present to do that. Catch up next week!
Rachel x
Well once again, lack of will power let me down, had 40mins to kill for the train to work, so i decided to take a walk across to bookies and place couple of bets, £70 in 15 mins. On the positive side it made me feel sick losing that much, were as before i wouldn't have cared. I'm determined to stay gamble free, so things can only get better!!!!
Make the choice to give this another go, you can still check in to the challenge and start again!
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