Casino apps

@sportsfan88 How are things going?

Chris.

I have been off any real money bets for 2 weeks now. It’s early days I relapsed many times after thinking I was cured. I have been doing free sports bets. I don’t have any gambling issues with football betting. My issue was the apps and getting into slot machines. I am very keen to not give the bookie any money I mean who knows how long these free offers will last the government are clamping down on all this. So yes I keep going but the difference is I don’t think I’m cured as i can easily take a day where I get into them. I have not had any urge to find u turns round my gambling off so that’s good days but early days 

@sportsfan88 Well done on not gambling any real money but please be careful with the free bets as well as betting you are “okay” with. It’s easy enough to kid yourself that you’ve got it under control, especially as free bets tend to win for some reason, so why not just a little bet with cash..next thing you know you’re chasing your own money. Same with “non problem “ bets. It tricks your mind that if you can control football bets, for example, then you should be okay with something else.

Just be careful. Mines a tale of thinking this many times and if you can use my bad experience to do you good it won’t have been a waste of time.

Try and post on the page, just to update your own progress. You seem to be doing okay so far.

Chris.

At one point I mixed low value football bets in 2020 had upto 50 coupons on a Saturday tried £5 bets ect but I got bored. I could often get 3-4 bets up small value for £5 but the satisfaction wasn’t there. The slots were giving instant wins. So yeah my point is I don’t think football betting is something I would want to go down with addiction. I now do under ten coupons or free bets max not 50 and usually free bets. 

I had been doing well 3 weeks off it but sadly I am still managing to get round my bank gambling block. I bought a paysafe card I did win but lost it days later. I get pleasure doing free bets but this urge comes to waste real money? I wonder how I can fully beat it? After a large loss I use it less but within a few weeks I’m back on it?

@sportsfan88 Have you considered the fact that you have a problem and that you are kidding yourself that the free bets aren’t a problem?

For me it has to be total abstinence. That means no bets, free or otherwise.

I also couldn’t do it on my own, so my help comes from Gambler’s Anonymous meetings. As an addict I don’t have willpower to control it but with help from GA I keep away from that first bet.

Why do you only come back on here when you have gambled again? Why not start a diary and pop on every day or couple of days just to get your thoughts out onto here. It might help you be accountable and help remind you what happens when you gamble.

Chris.

I shut everything down six months ago and I still got onto sites without free bets. The issue isn’t football betting. I have a few questions is it normal to feel anxiety wobbly neck pain or other ones after a big loss? The free ones don’t cause me anxiety. I blocked all deposit methods for the way I was finding round gambling block. I can certainly try that. I closed a few family members ones where I was going on too. I am willing to shut all down again if I can’t stop myself. I went 3 weeks off these sites but I can’t seem to last any longer. Past few weeks I’ve found the urge bad. 

I managed 3 weeks quite often without playing real cash. Then I find a way my wife’s bank card even if it’s a £5 limit on a site I signed her up to a new one then I found another way to get past the banking block. In the 3 weeks I feel fine without doing it no temptation. Then I play odd £5 then it rolls onto next day until I play 3 days thinking that’s ok then rack up a big loss. After 3 weeks I think I’m done then I forget the losses I make. It some how becomes a good idea to play again. As has been said you can always find ways to play despite all the blocks. When these urges come you want to play. How can get past the 3 week mark? 

@sportsfan88 One of the biggest things to accept is that you can’t do it on your own with just willpower.

You also haven’t accepted that you can’t control your gambling which is why you’re kidding yourself that a fun £5 bet is all you will do. If you are like me I couldn’t place one bet because if I won I thought I could win again, and if I lost then I chased my losses. I’m a compulsive gambler and I cannot control my gambling. I accept that. I don’t place any bets, big or small, on anything.

You’re getting to the 3 week mark and then the urge gets too much. Again and again and again. Unless you change something else, you’ll continue to get the same result.

I’ve suggested to you to go to Gambler’s Anonymous and I’ve also suggested you keep a regular diary on here for two reasons. Firstly to keep you connected to yourself and how you are feeling. When it starts to feel tough, write about it and get it out of you. Secondly, to remind yourself of where you are and how you are getting on. Betting isn’t just about the money but the mental stress it causes us too. If you keep a diary, say every couple of days, you’ll be able to see how much your mental health improves.

Is there any reason you can’t do either of those things?

Chris.

I get CBT and write things down doesn’t help. I get I can track how I feel maybe will help? I had the urge in that 3 weeks but never got money in. I have self excluded so many now there’s very few sites to try. So maybe that’s key making sure I self exclude most. Some free offers have been withdrawn as I set my limit and loss at £1 so they removed the free deals. That made me want to try more real cash. I also forget that I can lose £100 a time. So often I get back into it that’s the issue. For weeks I can feel fine at what point do you know you have beat it? I know I have a problem and I try and avoid any real money going in. I could easily find another site that I can access but I have to avoid that. 

@sportsfan88 I’m not talking about CBT, and in your case it’s clearly not working, especially as the reason you go three weeks is because you don’t have any money. GA is very different to CBT, the biggest difference is everyone at GA knows what you’re going through. By sharing with others and identifying similar traits in others a lot of people have managed to stay off a bet for a long time.

You say that writing things down doesn’t help but even if it’s just how you feel each day it will give you something to be accountable to.

Finally, you asked at what point do you know you’ve beat it? For me I’ve never beat it. I can’t beat gambling. One bet sets me off on a path to destruction. If you mean at what point do the urges go, for me, even after nearly five years clean, I still get urges but I’ve learned how to deal with them. Apart from Gamstop and a bank block, it’s regular GA attendance plus the extra step of working the 12 steps, which is a program within GA looking at yourself and making changes where needed. It’s not unique to GA, lots of addiction groups have it. To say GA and the steps have saved my life isn’t an understatement. It works and that’s why I keep onto you about it. 

Chris.

I use to bet sports betting football ect but never high value so never had a problem. I actually stopped any real money bets a year ago on football so it can be done. Also you can actually request the casino part of the app is blocked and payment methods with work around too. And breaking it down the addiction is actually mostly one single game I am addicted too! I don’t think the free ones matter too much. I either get access via my wife’s card as she doesn’t have gambling block or new sites which you can deposit without card. I believe I can beat this habit. I know it’s not acceptable to lose hundreds of pounds. Football wise I went from £1 bets at bookie shops to sometimes £10 bets or more. I managed to quit when I realised it was a waste of money. Problem with casino is I have had a few big wins this makes you addicted and you forget the loses. But surely it’s beatable? 

@sportsfan88 Why try and fight the fact that you can’t beat it? 

You just have something about you that makes gambling a problem, it’s that simple. Once you have an acceptance of that you might stop fighting it and trying to prove that you can do it yourself. It’s not a weakness, it’s an addiction. 
GA talks about not thinking of it as a lifetime illness but just not doing it for 12 hours a day, basically take it a day at a time. Maybe your problem is when you get access to your money, after three weeks or so, you go back to it, so why not give all access to your money over to your wife and  ask her to put the blocker on her card as well?

I hope you can get a diary going. Good luck.

Chris.

How did I beat football betting then? Are u saying accepting it means I have to accept I could lose some money if I have a bad day? Do I have to accept I could lose money? I don’t come here much are yourself or others still losing money or do you manage to keep it under control? I do believe it’s beatable as people can quit smoking and people can lose weight and stay slim and smoke free. I don’t believe you accept you are a gambler as such. Everybody likes the odd bet on lottery or Grand National. I accept it’s hard to go from compulsive gambler to sensible and I agree spending no real money on a bookie is what’s required if you get hooked on these slots like myself. 

@sportsfan88 If you think of gambling as a whole, there may well be parts of it which aren’t so bad. In your case maybe the football bets were something that you managed to stop on your own once you realised you were getting out of hand. I’m guessing slots or online casinos were what caused you bigger problems, but they are all linked. Your mind kids itself into thinking that if I can control/sort out/stop football bets then I should be able to control/sort out/stop other types of gambling. But you obviously can’t. 
You’ve also likened it to smoking or dieting but a more accurate comparison would be alcoholics. They don’t drink beer because their problems are spirits. One drink leads onto another drink. Beer might not be the problem but at a point it’s not enough to give the desired affect and that’s when the spirits come out. They get better by total abstinence, no alcohol at all. There’s also not a lot of them that can do it on their own, they’ve reached out for help, normally at AA. There’s about five times as many AA meetings in the country as GA, which means to me more people recognise that’s where the help can be found.

As for me, if I read your statement correctly, I accept I’m a compulsive gambler completely. I’ve been one my entire life. The only thing that never really bothered me was scratch cards or the lottery. Everything else, be it fruit machines or slots, the bookies, casinos, online, sports betting, all of these caused me massive problems from spending all my wages week after week or month after month, stealing to gamble, losing my family and various jobs because of my gambling as well as other problems. I’ve tried to do it on my own and I’ve tried to limit myself. It just didn’t work for me nor the thousands of people that I’ve spoken to at meetings. 
The only way I can stay clean is to not bet on anything. As I said I don’t think the lottery would be a problem but if I did that then potentially I could kid myself that if I can control that type of gambling then I could control other types of gambling. Before you know it I’d be back in the mess that gambling takes me, not just financially but mentally and I would lose everything that I have. I can’t take that risk.

I can’t remember if I have said this before but one of the best things I heard in a GA room was “I don’t care what you think, I care what you did”. I listen to what others have done to help themselves, not just their opinion. Likewise, it would be a waste of my time telling you what to do, all I can tell you is what I did to help myself. Everything I’m suggesting I have done.

Chris.