Dear Bookmakers
I am on day 51 GF today. Up to 51 days ago you pretended to be my friends for 44 years. You asked me to spend more and more time with you. The excitement each time got less and less but you just asked for one more bet each time. You made me not care about the amount of time I was spending with you, the money I was spending and the harm I was doing to myself, family, loved ones and friends. I lost so many girlfriends and friends over the years because of you. I spent time with you when I should have been working. You stopped me talking to people. I told lies to be with you and much more. You took my sanity away from me. You have done worse to other people on and off this site and continue to do so. You do nothing to protect compulsive gamblers but continue to draw us in with your offers, adverts and VIP handlers. I thought I needed you in my life to cope with real life. At no point in 44 years did I realise what you were doing to me, well it was that you helped me to become a bad person to the point at which I did not know who I was. Well, 51 days ago I realised that you aren't my friends. You were only in it for the money. I understand now that you have customers who aren't friends but they can control their relationship with you but I can't. The feelings that you made me feel like a someone, that I had friends, that I felt good when placing a bet were all fake. I don't feel angry about you and the money I have given you but I pity you instead as you live off misery and it's you that doesn't have friends not me. Your friends who are customers aren't real friends as they have been sucked into your fake relationship. No more. Every day I am determined to move one day further away from my last ever bet with you. I will not be defined by my relationship with you, I will not forget but I will not dwell on it. I will use it to be a better person each day. You have made me forget who I am but I will work that out through help and learn to like myself again. I am genuinely a good person. I have a lot to offer the world. Once I have spent enough time in recovery to know I will never go back to my relationship with you then I will spend the rest of my life helping vunerable people to break the addiction of the relationship with you. I have hit rock bottom so many times over the last 44 years but you bought me back to you, only to hit a worse rock bottom. I will do my best to help people end the relationship with you at their first rock bottom so it doesn't get worse. If I can help one person to do that, just one, then my life will become worthwhile. You will never have a bet from me again. You took me to the absolute rock bottom and jeopardised everything in my life and you won't do that to me again. So this is a goodbye to every bookmaker from me and I can only hope from many people who are on this site and come in the future. I am only one step up a very tall mountain. I will spend the rest of my life walking another step each day knowing I will never reach the summit in my life time as I will always be in recovery and only one bet away from coming back to you.
51 days ago was the final end to our relationship and I am in a much much better place now and am a better person each day
Stuart
Amazing post Stuart 44 years is a very long time to be stuck in any addiction let alone gambling addiction i am very proud of you after all this time u are making these changes it show no matter how deep u are in addiction change is possible and if u think u are not as bad i pitty u because this addiction wants u think to think their a way out the truth is it never is all it does it take you into more destruction path and leave u with regrets i sometime comes accross as being overly catious but the truth is with this this addiction u give an inch to this addiction it will take a mile of your life the journey starts today not tomarrow
Hi Taz, thank you for your reply and i agree, it's never going to go away so I am also cautious
@lp5vut869c Lovely read Stuart. My advice - stick with your “real” friends! 👍.
Well done on 51 days. A great achievement 👏👏👏👏.
Pink Lady 🩷🍎
I can so relate to alot of what you have wrote here stuart. The broken relationships. The aftermath destruction it creates it’s insane. Nothing destroys your mental health like gambling. And only a compulsive gambler will understand this. Keep it up. Put all the blocks in place.
Firstly well done for your time away from gambling and may it continue for you I can relate to your post in so many ways but you have now entered the other side of the fence and already helping people in the chatroom your there every evening with good advice and I'm happy and proud to call you my friend even tho we had never met keep up the good work
Hi Henry
Thank you for the message and I couldn't have done this without you, Adam, Johnny, Ann and Taz. You keep it real, keep it on track, gave me so much good advice on the chatrooms and most importantly have the proof that it can be done. Yes I consider you a dear friend as well
Stuart
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