Boxing Day 1

Hi Clare,

Advertising does appear to be reduced in the payday loans sector but Im not seeing any changes with gambling. There must be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of non gamblers out there who just want to watch football on ITV but are constantly bombarded with half time adverts. It must really annoy them as im pretty sure it must do for us problem gamblers.

Amyway, I cant see how the Bingo companies really want us to gamble responsibily... What does that term actually mean from their side?? I guess if they wanted to be different to the 'norm' they would only say allow 3 deposits per 24 hours or only allow any person to spend xxx pounds during a 24 hour period.

Doing that though would lose some customers as they would just use another site to deposit on.

They want YOUR money so there not gonna compromise that by introducing stuff like that.

What I think the Gambling Commision does need to indroduce is the ability of these companies to offer 'free money' i.e deposit ВЈ10 and get £50 to play with.

One advert that really gets on my nerves is the lad brooks life advert. So so wrong!!

Yeah I'd not noticed till you pointed that out but the pay day loans ads I think they're much less frequent now. That's good. Never used one myself and glad I never went down that route. The percentage rates in the hundreds sounded too scary !

Yeah it would be good if they did responsible things like limiting deposits but possibly too impractical to implement as well as like you say they'd lose business. I think there should be investment by the government in permanent self exclusion from all online gambling establishments and maybe bookmakers so that if you sign on a central register you cannot be allowed to gamble with them or they break the law.

Would also help if they only allowed gambling firms based in the uk so they could regulate it more effectively.

Sadly these things will not happen or be thought about - why would the government prioritise gambling as something to invest in preventing ? They won't.

We have to instead find inner strength and the help of these forums to get us through it.

I think you are maybe onto something there with getting rid of the 'free money' promotions. Thus would at least make them seem less attractive to new customers. Not seen the ad you mentioned by the way.

Once again, thank you for your support! I am an idiot putting myself through that withdrawal so many times. It's a bit crazy but in a strange way I like that I can link these physical repercussions to the caffeine. What I haven't documented in my diary is the crazy mood swings that came with quitting gambling & the abject fear that I had when I realised I could never control it. Forever is a long time & as well as not wanting to wish my life away, I have to deal with the gambling ODAAT. Whatever thoughts you may have of a 'little play' banish them now! You are still extremely vulnerable & even if the 1st play is successful & you manage some control, it is no longer a slippery slope. It's now a big fat hill straight back into the pit of despair, just read the diaries of people with months clean who have decided to try again. There are, I hear, people who 'recover' but I am assured that it with years of hard work & I'm still wondering if these are just fairytales.

Please don't reset your counter Clare, we are safer here in recovery, living - ODAAT

Hi Clare.. ive just 'bumped up' a topic in the Overcoming Problem Gambling forum that you may find an interesting read - Gambling Adverts & Abstinence

Good evening diary.

Day 10 and I am happy to say no gambling. Thankfully not had any withdrawal symptoms too bad and the moods have diminished.

Feeling positive. Going back to work tomorrow so been busy getting prepared for that. Took mind off things.

Yes NT I am all about getting rich in the way you speak of. No more lining their pockets. Just my own with cash I've earned too. Looking back it's such a daft idea to think you will ever win by gambling. I guess there comes a time we all realise this.

It is scary ODAAT to think how people who've had hundreds of gamble free days can still go back to it in a moment of weakness. I guess it simply means the battle is never won but each day we abstain we get closer and closer to it.

Hope you Sonic are still doing well. I've read the topics you've mentioned. Thanks was interesting read. Let's hope we do follow suit of America and all TV gambling is banned in five years.

Hope everyone else doing well with their journeys

Clare x

Amazed lasted this long. Tonight id have definitely have gambled before. Day 11 and still going strong... very tired from first day back at work .

Well done for staying strong! You are doing so well 🙂

We still haven't had a gamble this year!! Yay!! Xx

Hi Claire,

Well done on 12 days today, stay strong and keep going forwards

Suzanne xx

Thanks Suzanne and Mel.

So nice to see the days going past and I'm quite close to becoming more financially stable on a day to day basis at least but long term debts will get paid off eventually (5 years ).

Clare x

Well - I've had an email off a bingo place I had already sent a message to asking to close account and self exclude. It seems they ignored that and instead have allocated me an advisor to hassle me and remind me my last gamble was Christmas day.

I've obviously messaged them and said:

Please can you close my account - I no longer gamble of any kind.
Please self exclude me from your site and any other sites on the ***_ _ _ bingo network.

Thank you

Their reply:

Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
I am sorry to hear that you wish to close the account. There is a dedicated team to action your Account Closure
requests.
In order to close your account please raise a SUPPORT TICKET after logging in to your BINGO Account. Steps are as
follows:-
1) Please login to your account.
2) Then Contact us
3) Then Open ticket
4) Write your query/reason for closure and Submit.
Also, in order to self exclude your account from all website, please follow the below steps:
1. Login to your account
2. Then go the bottom of the Home Page and click on Responsible Gaming link.
3. Then go to Self exclusion policy section and click on the given link of "Click here".
4. It will ask for password once again. Enter the password and click on submit.
5.You can select the desired steps and follow the on screen instruction.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Stephen

Nothing like making it difficult for us is there??

My reply:

Please just close my account - I no longer have the password or the inclination to log into my account.

Let's see what happens - I think it is disgusting making you log in to close the account. Aside from anything else I have genuinely no recollection of the password as I only signed up on Christmas Eve.

I'm fuming - they really shouldn't make it this difficult to close/self exclude.

Their reply:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

I can completely understand. If that happened to me I'd be really upset too. I can imagine how frustrating that must be.

However, there is a dedicated department to deal with account closure requests. You can contact them through email at account@..... I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Stephen

Bless Stephen,

(I'm not entirely sure what he is referring to as I only said close my account I don't want to gamble) but I can only assume Stephen feels a little bit of sympathy for us who (try to) self exclude!!!!

Aargh...How frustrating! There should be a responsible gambling ombudsman for us to report all this grief to! How dare they?!? If it were anything else, we'd be taking to the streets in protest but the industry knows this is a secretive world where many of us are loath to stand up & be identified! If that were a shop, I would never set foot inside again! Obviously, you won't be using it again anyway, but excluded or not, if they are capable of this, I expect you will hear from them again! Maybe then it will be necessary to suggest that they are harassing you & see how that takes them!

Fantastic work staying so strong & hopefully this has served to strengthen your resolve!

Keep @ it - ODAAT

Keep it up the good work . Maybe you could set up a new email account which will avoid the spam mails from the gambling sites?