Out in the open

What a shocking amount of waste that is...waste that the company can ill afford it seems.

Still gamble free and no real urges. Couldn’t if I wanted to, as no money! Still haven’t received funds yet for withdrawals on 18th and 19th Dec, despite them taking money out same day. Despite them saying it had been processed a week ago, they apparently now mean my ID has been processed and still with payment team to approve payment .... suspect of might have had it long ago if I hadn’t closed the account! They also refuse to provide a number or email for contact team ... ‘all we can do is raise a ticket and ask them to pay you’ ... at least they didn’t offer to put it back as chips in the meantime on this occasion ... outrageous and will report them to ombudsman once I have it back (can’t risk any delay by upsetting them as owe it to builders) ... good job I fesses up to wife as she’d have spotted gaping hole in joint account by now!!

Anyway, work was ok ... my ‘we’re going to have a great 2018’ presentation to whole company was a masterpiece of the kind (only if David Brent is your role model). Still, another day down ... must only be about 12 now, but seems like a different lifetime. Looking forward to first 2018 challenge sign in on weekend.

How long have you been waiting for that withdrawal now? I agree it’s a good job it can’t go back on the site to be used for more potential gambling.

Well done RSmith on another day done

Thanks Frozen.

Scott - been waiting since 18th December and I seem to have gone backwards in the last week, from "the money is on the way", to "its with the payment team from approval". Decided I'm not going to chase again ... to some extent the longer the better, as long as the builders are willing to wait a little longer (which they seem happy to do ... I know them quite well, and they know the score) .... the longer the take, the more trouble I can hopefully cause them subsequently. If my account was still open, I'm sure I'd have it by now - the fact they know I can't regamble it with them has, I assume, led to this attitude. Baffles me .... how on the one hand can they say they needed to verify the bank account with ID to put funds back in, but they can quite happily take out £50k in less than an hour, without any question about the source of the funds?? One of the many questions I will be asking them and the Ombudsman. I don't blame them for my losses, entirely my fault, but shows how the industry works. Ombudsman won't do anything either, as govt and the industry are too closely linked (which is why the whole FOBT maximum bet hasn't been resolved), and they won't do anything about making offshore betting companies pay tax, limit TV advertising etc. Cheers. Richard

So my last ever settled bet has happened and it summarises a glorious betting career .... hopefully an amusing anecdote to look back on ...just to clarify, this bet was placed in Nov, so I’m not resetting the counter!!

Had a silly accumulator on the Ashes .. Anderson top eng wicket taker, Smith top batsman, Aussies to win etc... all won before last night with 1 result still open ... needed Root to be top eng batsman to win £4380 for £100 bet ... Cook and Malan were ahead but out ... Root needed 62 to win and was 42 not out. So, switched radio on at to find out he was on his way back from hospital after dehydration, so he wasn’t starting the day but would bat later ...so Ali is out and he comes in and gets to 58 at lunch, has a relapse and didn’t come back out, so my last bet loses because someone gets the runs ... kind of symbolic!,,

Oops ... sorry, just thought I’m probably not supposed to detail specific bets, so huge apologies if I’ve messed up on the etiquette ... hope at least the cricket fans had a smile at new and innovative ways in which gambling can fail to pay ... anyway, my recovery must be going sort of ok in that laughed rather than cried at it (or maybe I’ve just lost my marbles) ....

Hopefully your final loss Richard. Did you get any further with the withdrawal this week? And how are you feeling in yourself lately. How’s work been? Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks a lot for asking. Work been quite busy and stressful but kept the gambling thoughts away ... to be fair, had no desire whatsoever to gamble. Still haven't had the money back ... finally got hold of a manager and they have acknowledged they messed up big time, and they still hadn't processed the withdrawal from 18th Dec! They also asked me how much I would accept as compensation ... maybe I can ask for a few hundred thousand and we can both have our losses back!! I've told them to make me an offer but ultimately I want to drag them to the Gambling Commission ... sure they would have paid me out long ago if I hadn't shut my account as I might have blown a load more ... I've raised a load of initial queries around their responsible gambling policies, money laudering checks etc so think I've put the wind up them ... genuinely want to understand why they operate the way they have done, rather than trying to get money out of them. Hope you're feeling OK ... will check into your diary. Cheers. Rich

Evening Scott. Thank you for posting on my diary. Sorry you have the flu and hope your soon on the mend.

It's brilliant that you enjoy your work and are happy in your employment. I know people who do nothing but moan about their job and I think that is very sad.

Congratulations on 41 days without a bet. An excellent start to your gamble free life. It is very difficult for a compulsive gambler to stop gambling which is why so many fall by the wayside. But it can be done if we follow a simple set of guidelines and stay true to our cause. It's still not easy though and takes both courage and tenacity to succeed.

Wishing you well...stephen

Sorry Richard that post was meant for Scott's diary.

Hi Rich . Just posted on your other thread but something I can telll you is this . The reasons casinos take a few days / weeks to pay you out is that they look for reasons not to. I know this is fact . They look for any duplicate accounts , betting patterns , exclusion from sister accounts, account of depositors, bonus abuse , value of bet percentage against bonus , stake amount , country you are logging in from , etc etc . Writing this I have been shafted by all of these reasons over the years and it simply is not a level playing field . Throw in the fact that we are compulsive gamblers and these bast**** also keep our winnings pending for up to 72 hours , it’s a miracle that you can actually manage to withdraw . Make sure you take the money and run and see it as a new start and closure of the old you .

Thanks Vulture, makes great sense ... I suspect that they were looking initially to not pay me out at all and void my betting, until I actually lost a load, at which point they couldn't void the wins, without voiding the bigger losses! Since then, I just think they've been hanging onto the money as long as possible, knowing I had shut the account so they weren't getting it back. I know what you mean about the "cancel pending withdrawal", sure it's hammered loads of people on this forum. Thanks so much for the posts. Rich

Congratulations Richard. Nearing twenty days since you last had a bet. Stopping gambling is a monumental challenge but you have also had to contend with the bookies giving you the run around. I think it is a disgrace the way they have behaved towards you and I am appalled that they are allowed to get away with their shameful behaviour.

Wishing you well as you progress on your gamble free journey. As Tina Turner so rightly sang; "There's Got To Be Something Better Out There."

Take care...stephen

So finally got paid out today, and transferred it straight to my partner ... genuinely not a thought of risking it to get my cash back ... so poor but stressed free. Getting much more done at work (although probably largely futile as feel like I’m sticking my finger in the d**e(!) but at least I’m now doing my best). Boredom on evenings and weekend a bit of a struggle as not able to watch sport yet without getting an itch ... resorting to watching people convert horse boxes into rubbish caravans, and morons hiding from surveillance teams while ringing their mum (you’ll only get that if you watched C4 last night) ... on the last one, people had to hide out for 25 days to win £100k while being hunted by so called experts .. only rule was to stay in UK ... some people thought they could ring their mum every day, others thought they could stay at their uncle’s house .. would be like me thinking I could hide in the local bookies and no-one would think of looking for me there! (I might actually win now, as my behaviour would certainly not be on the trend of the last 10 years!). Anyway. Getting over the losses slowly each day, no desire to bet and enjoying being part of this community. Best wishes to all ....Rich

Good man rich well done for handing over the finances it shows your seriously committed to stop gambling and I'm sure your partner sees that.As for not being able to watch the sport without getting the urges,for me they passed within a few weeks and I could watch it with ease and stress free and when I see a big upset happen I think to myself if I was still a gambling man I'd be down money today,thank god I don't have that stress anymore and glad that you don't either,best of luck on your journey rich hope you can overcome your gambling demons.