fresh start

Yeah that’s what I’m holding onto next week. £1500 not in debt but ffs man. Even me brother says you only have a few days to hold on. He knows what I’m like when it comes to fobt I have had help been to docs they were useless and counciling which didn’t really help. It will be interesting how I handle the stake reduction but at the moment I feel like I’m letting me mam down she 69 and can’t take it.

Maybe you are letting your mam down but from April onwards the opportunity is there to make her proud and your future is in your hands. Take the opportunity with both hands and make her proud mate.

Boro wrote:

I have been a gambler for the last 15 years but the last 5 have been really bad. I have got myself into 15 grand worth of debt threw it. The last 2 months have been really bad with me losing about 8 grand which has left me penny less and feeling sick and depressed. I am addicted to playing the machines in betting shops especially roulette. When i go on i wont come out until i have won, or lost everything. I have come to the point were i have to change. Yesterday i went round all my local betting shops and self excluded myself and phoned neca to get councelling. Feeling slightly better but still cant get over what i have lost threw it. MONEY,GIRLFRIEND AND DAUGHTER. Gambling had taken over my life. But no more i must fight back

nothing has really changed the only thing that had is I don’t have any debt. But my addiction to fobt is beyond believable I just chase losses

Hey mate

Thinking of you this weekend. Hope you can battle through. Just a couple more days. I hope things really turn around for you from here. No need to go into a bookie again ever after Monday right?

Look after yourself

Just thinking about the stake reduction... You definitely think it will work for you once it comes in? It's just that I was thinking about fruit machines today, and how I could blitz hundreds in them over the course of an evening, yes it took time but once your heads gone, your heads gone so to speak... Fruities have roughly the same sort of stake/returns than a £2 roulette machine would. So it wasnt the roulette I was addicted to, it was the thrill associated with gambling.

Would be interested to know what you think about this mate

Signalman, Boro - I think a lot of people on the forum believe that the £2 stake reduction on Monday will be a game-changer. I really hope so too.

But like you Signalman, I do have some doubts. £2 is still £2 at the end of the day. It’s all relative. If you were to put £50 in, for example, you would still possibly harbour hopes of making a profit, relative to your orginal stake. I think for a lot of people, gambling in general is not about how much you win, it’s the amount you can multiply your original stake.

Speaking from experience, I used to get more of a ‘buzz’ winning £40 from a £2 stake than winning £200 from a £100 stake.

I think it’s because I felt a sense of pride and achievement (very silly I know!) in winning 20 times my orginal stake than winning 2 times my orginal stake. It was never really about the profit. But more about the amount I’d multiplied my orginal stake by.

I just fear that this £2 FOBT reduction, won’t have as big an impact as some people may think.

I really hope I’m wrong though as at the end of the day, we’re all on the same side. I’d love it so much if you kicked this addiction into touch once and for all.

I have no doubt about it. It will change my life for the better because yes I like playing the fruit machines aswell like deal or no deal on proper bandits not on these computerised ones. But the most I have put in 1 is about £30 and I can’t believe I did that. The thing is now if I backed a horse and it fell when it looked like it was going to win or just got beat my first thought would be to go and try and win it back on the fobt. Where as £2 a stake on roulette is a complete waste of time I’m not going to win big. Slots on fobt I have no interest. There is something about them fobt that just make you lose control but I never lose control at £2 a stake. It’s a game changer in my view

I just hope my addiction doesn’t go into some other form of gambling. I can’t see it like. But signalman I can’t say I never gamble again. But I really appreciate yours and determined dans comments. I do read your diary’s but don’t comment I read most people diary’s tbh

DeterminedDan wrote:

Speaking from experience, I used to get more of a ‘buzz' winning ВЈ40 from a ВЈ2 stake than winning ВЈ200 from a £100 stake.

Reading this sent shivers down my spine. It's SO true Dan. So true. The mark of a problem gambler who no longer gambles to kill a bit of time or for leisure but one who gambles distinctly for the buzz and the psychological/physiological effect associated with that buzz... sometimes not even realising they've crossed that line at one point or another.

Well final day to hold out. No intentions of going any wear near a betting shop today. Fobt are finished for me

Goodbye and good riddance to those evil machines, eh?

Happy April 1st to you when it comes tomorrow, I know that you have been waiting for that day for a while now.

NT

Good riddance thank god for that. I have been waiting a long time for this in them 18 years them machines have destroyed people lives not just the gambler but the families of the gambler as well. Yeah I feel sorry for people losing jobs with shop closures but if it wasn’t for these shops wanting another 4 fobt they wouldn’t have been opened anyway. Why have so many betting shops so close to each other it all been about fobt. Close as many as you want but these machines had to be stopped for people like me unable to control myself on them. But I’m pleased that should put a stop to me playing them nt. you lost a lot on them aswell didn’t you nt?

Wow what a momentous day for you. I did think of you this morning. Now let's smash this gamble free life good and proper... Let's be the best father and person we can be from here on in. We have the potential.... The path is laid out for us now. Don't stray from it

I tell you what you do get some idiots in this world. A lot of talk on Facebook about fobt you get people unhappy with the £2 stake and you get people saying we should be able to control the way we play them. These people have obviously never had an addiction in there life’s. Angry as f**k

Boro wrote:

A lot of talk on Facebook about fobt you get people unhappy with the £2 stake and you get people saying we should be able to control the way we play them. These people have obviously never had an addiction in there life's.

On the contrary mate... On the contrary :o) LOOOOL

The only difference between them and you is that you have a *** of what addiction is and what *** it has over you ;o)

Don't be angry mate. Be grateful that you have an understanding of your addiction, and you know what, don't even be angry with them if you can help it - spare a thought for them and their struggles before you go to bed at night - you will probably sleep easier than them these days ;o)