Online Gambling Tips & Info

We received this email from a bloke who wishes to remain anonymous. We think his story’s pretty interesting, so we agreed to share it with our readers. If you’ve been affected by gambling problems yourself, we recommend visiting Gamble Aware for help and advice.

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I wasn’t much of a gambler or anything when I was younger. I had some mates from the rugby club who’d play a few hands of cards and invite me along, but I never really understood what was happening and generally ended up twenty quid out of pocket and none the wiser as to how.

Anyway, when I’d left uni I settled down with a girl and we moved out of my home town for her job. Away from home with not much in the way of personal contacts and ‘home alone’ a lot thanks to the rigours of her job I didn’t get much in the way of socialising.

Gradually though, I made friends when I found a job of my own and it turned out they had a big gambling culture going on. Whenever there was a works night out it always took place at a casino.

Well after a few nights out like this, I really started to get hooked into to it all. It was only when I lost £200 in a night – money we really couldn’t afford – that I realised that I was getting compelled into betting more than I should. For a while I stopped going on the nights out, but when I was alone at home I started checking out online gaming sites.

Before I knew it I was totally hooked. What started as the odd fiver here and there soon ballooned into a situation where I was regularly dropping £300 on the turn of a card. If I was enjoying a “hot streak”, I would convince myself that the whole thing was only positive for me and my girlfriend, and when I was losing badly, I kept going because I knew that things would turn around.

Of course I was wrong. The losses always came to more than the winnings and my girlfriend began to notice that our accounts were low. When she confronted me she didn’t even give me a second chance. She said that I was spending her money that she was putting into the bank for our future. She was right, on reflection, but at the time I just blew up and left her.

I was pretty lucky that a close friend of mine had had prior experience of what gambling addictions can be like. He gave me some amateur help himself, but eventually got me into a program where I weaned myself off my habit. Today I know that I can’t even risk a flutter on the horses in safety and make sure I stay well away from online gaming sites.

So yes, gambling can be a thrill, but I’d advise everyone to keep things in moderation.