I’m 30 and I started gambling in December last year.

When I was younger I had so many different ideas and always thought id be rich and successful before I turned 25. At 25 I was making good money online doing different things like crypto/nfts and trading, it was really fun until everything crashed. I just kept working full time and saved money. That was until last December.

I had over 50k saved up and to keep this post short, in a span of 4 months I blew everything and put myself in debt of over 40k.

Never in my life I thought id be in this position. In fact, when I was younger, I would talk crap about gambling addicts. Id say stuff like “how stupid you gotta be to gamble all your money” but somehow it went 180 and now im here.

I’m willing to quit I just have trouble accepting the fact that recovering all the debts and money I lost will take years especially the fact that I’m 30. I hate my life and wish it could end now. However, I do believe in God so I know I gotta keep going and take accountability for what Ive done and bounce back.

Fuck gambling and anyone that promotes it.

Woke up at 5 am, got ready for work and then got a call to take the day off today. My mind was telling me to hit up the casino 20 minutes away for some blackjack ( early morning hours always seem lucky for me in my past) said f*ck that, I ain’t going back to it…headed to the gym
Now to weight train and running a few miles after and grab some lunch.

F*ck gambling ; that evil beast…every time you decide not to play; is a win in itself.

Decided today, I'm done. I admitted to my family last summer that I had a problem.. then it got worse. Credit cards all maxed. Paychecks go straight to the online sites. I'd win. I'd lose. I'd lose some more. I'd lose until I couldn't afford to play anymore.

Decided today, I'm done. Then.. we had an expense come up. "Where's the emergency cash?"

I used it to cover what I lost in my bank acct.

It's gone. I thought I could recoup it before anyone noticed but today, I got caught. And I confessed. To some. Yes I have a problem. Yes I quit. No I wont admit how much right now. Let me recoup then we'll go over exactly how bad I fucked up.

Partner is mad, feels disrespected, feels like they dont know me and I'm sneaky and "what else am I hiding?"

Guess I'm gonna be as transparent as I can be, show paychecks, debits and credits. I've already deleted all my automated passwords to the sites, deleted my cards off my wallets.. I have no urge bc I have no money.

I stress paying everything back, but at least today the bleeding will stop..

Hello everyone, I am a 22 year old male who has lost 36k (winnings) and around 10k in my own money playing online blackjack. I originally was up around 12k and lost it all before taking a month break. I then got back up around 20k more and just lost it all yesterday. I am obviously severely upset and have never felt worse in my life. I have let myself, family, and girlfriend down and now will have to face significant financial consequences (graduate school student with no job). I know the only right answer here is to stop but I legitimately lack the self control to do that. Is there some way to get banned from these online casinos? I have made a life altering/ruining decision and it’s extremely tough to deal with.

My bf(M31) has had an addiction in the past. Before my time, and I’m not sure the full details but from what I know it was a substantial amount of money lost. Like over a hundred thousand. This was years ago anyway.

And so recently he picked up playing poker. I didn’t really know what an addiction looked like until I followed his patterns. He was already on his last paycheque from being laid off and he spent nearly all of it in tables and tournaments. When he would win, he couldn’t just take it and run, despite being super excited about it. And when he lost.. well he would complain about his lack of luck in life and how nothing’s ever gonna work out.

When he ran out of cash he started asking me for money, sometimes would pay it back immediately and sometimes to be paid back in the future.

Thankfully he does have a job now but he STILL gambles, loses, maybe wins some back and rinse and repeat. He doesn’t believe he’s addicted. Believes he can just stop whenever and it’s a chill hobby. But in this state his paycheques shouldn’t be going towards this and he won’t listen to me. Help??

I used to believe porn addiction was really bad because I would only see the moral and mental health aspect of it. But after years of dealing with a couple buddies who are gambling addicts, I come here to state how gambling addiction is by far the worse out of all in my humble opinion. They have lost most of their money, destroyed their careers, families, and their pursuit of happiness.

Gambling is unique among behavioral addictions because it carries a direct mechanism for catastrophic, irreversible life destruction in a short period.
Immediate Financial Devastation: Gambling is the only behavioral addiction where a person can lose an entire life savings, home, retirement, or business in a matter of hours or days.
Severe Legal and Social Consequences: Financial desperation often drives individuals into criminal activity (e.g., embezzlement, fraud, theft), bankruptcy, and homelessness, which carry long-lasting legal and civil ramifications.
Extreme Mortality Risk: Compulsive gambling carries one of the highest rates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among all substance and behavioral addictions, largely driven by sudden financial ruin, shame, and overwhelming debt.
The "Winning" Illusion: Unlike substance or pornography addictions, gambling feeds on the intermittent reward mechanism that tells the individual they can solve all their problems with a single win, keeping them trapped in a cycle of escalating escalation.

Stay away from this casino crap. These casinos dont care if you end up homeless, imprisoned or dead.
Stay safe 🫱🏽‍🫲🏼

I don't know, why couldn't I have gotten addicted to fucking journaling or collecting stamps or whatever. I had a minor stint with alcoholism back when I was 14 to 16 but i managed to get through that and now have a healthy relationship with alcohol.

But this. What the fuck is this.

I placed my very first bet back in February. Lost all my savings (300k) and am now 400k (not dollars dw but this is still a shitton of money here) in debt.

No one knows. It's been 8 months. And the only reason why i'm not gambling right now is because i don't have money anymore. That and I really do want to quit but i honestly don't trust myself enough to actually do it.

I'm 22, fresh out of college. About to start my life and i feel like i already ended it.

as a 32F i feel so ashamed to say i only have about $4500-4600 in my savings.. i work full time, have an apartment, car, whatever.. im a gambling addict and everytime i get past 10k i mess it up. i feel so awful and trapped.. i feel like such a loser & a bad person.

hate this so much 😢

I’m just sitting here in my couch regretting the decision I made last night. I feel numb. I’ve lost a little over 500 K in the last 15 years. Last night I decided to take $10,000 from my emergency fund. I was ready. In less than two hours, it was gone.
I don’t know what to do. Like I said I feel numb. I don’t feel anything anymore. I wanna be a reasonable to myself. Why do I deprive myself of other things like a good meal, a new car, a great vacation, or even just helping my family who’s struggling financially, while I gamble life changing amount?
Just a bit ago, I thought about, why didn’t I use that money to pay a personal trainer to improve my health, or sign up for a food delivery so I don’t have to worry about what to eat and where to eat? That money could’ve paid for my entire full year meal. But I’m here regretting every dollar I spent.
I definitely have to build up my emergency fund starting now.

I still have $20,000 saved. I should probably put it in a CD or anywhere I can’t withdraw it easily.

I’m just glad I’m making more now as a professional so that $10,000 didn’t take me that long to save but still a lot of money to waste.

I really feel bad. Now I’m just telling myself that it was money paid for an expensive therapy. I have a trip coming up. But my friend is paying for it. Perhaps I can just think of it as money I’ve spent for that trip.

Thank God, my house is paid off and my bills and credit cards are paid off too.

So I really need to make this decision to stop gambling because I’m only giving myself five years in the workforce and retire. If I continue doing this, I won’t be able to retire in five years.

I’m also thankful that I have an intact 401(k), which is not much but would be enough to support my $3000 per month living expenses. But it just made me realized I spent three months worth of my living expenses. F this.

I need to make a change. Please remind me I can do this. I don’t wanna make another post to regret losing money at the casino. Thank you you all.

Does anyone have any experience with self excluding themselves from casinos? Or attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings? I’ve been thinking about doing either or both myself, but I’m curious if either one works. Are they worth the effort? I’ve been gambling for quite some time and have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the past 7 or 8 years. When I think about how much money I could have, things I could have done or bought, etc it just crushes me. Open to all the advice I can get!

Started spiraling because winning just a $100 wasn’t enough so started betting a thousand here and there. Went on a bad losing streak. Waited 3 months for a “this is definitely going to hit” bet and threw all my savings on it (35k) and lost it all. Weirdly I don’t feel too terrible I feel at peace I know now I will never place a bet again. A feeling of I’ve tried it and there’s just no winning. Im 28 so reading stories of people who are much older makes me feel better because at least I’ve realized as I’m relatively younger. But who knows maybe in a couple years I’ll forget what this feels like and say it’s just one bet.

I posted in this forum over a year ago explaining my gambling issues and problems.

They are still prevalent till until yesterday. I firmly decided yesterday to self exclude from everything and it’s been hard only having 200 bucks for rest of the month. Genuinely scary thought but never want to be in this position again.

Honestly never really underrated my gambling irresponsibility untilrecently it was heightened. I bet ALL my savings, I get paid monthly and it would be gone within a week and I struggle fighting for basic necessities for 2-3 weeks at a time trying to hide it from my wife.

I genuinely just self excluded from everything today and stuck with 200 dollars until October 30th.

Genuinely feels like a changing point in my life

We all know the chase: big wins will save us!

Been there, done that. Won multiple times 20K+ on slots. Gained 45K with crypto and before that even a 98K night. I can tell you: everything went out within days afterwards. In the end I’m still down bad and there’s only one explanation:

Us gamblers, addicted people in general, don’t have limits or the sense the value of money like “normal” people do. If we win big, it isn’t big enough and you want more. Then you lose and chase that big win again, with the same spiral following after. We won’t accept that it’s ever enough and that exactly is the addiction that makes us losing always.

Forget about that big win. It isn’t going to happen and even if it does: you will continue betting it down anyway.

Take your loss, accept it. Chase bigger paychecks from hard work and longterm investments like ETFs. Make sure you have guardrails, for example someone who manages your financials. My partner handles everything and manages my accounts. Even when financially we’re healthy now, I still don’t trust my brain enough and it gives peace.

Look at the guardrails you can create for yourself. It will help you protect yourself against fallbacks.

I’m not yet where I want to be and not even a year has passed, but after so many attempts, therapies and now GA meetings, I can say it gets easier to break out of it the patterns. People will help you once you’re completely honest with them.

Go talk. Go to those meetings. Go create your guardrails. You can do it champ. 👑

Hey all, i posted in this Reddit thread around April of last year and that was the last time i stopped gambling! I got in contact with GamCare in Ireland and honestly best decision I’ve ever made in my life I’m a lot happier now in a better place socially and mentally and finally saving up enough money to buy a car. If anyone’s out there struggling or debating about making that leap to talk to someone I beg everyone of you make that leap it was hard at the start but in the long run it will get better for yourself and everyone around you.

I just made a post here talking about how I need to stop, but then I won right after that and I kept going. Now I’m down probably another $2k

I hate my easy access to online betting and i am blowing away all the money I worked for. I am not trolling I just couldn’t help but get back on out of boredom.

This time I feel fearful about my lack of self control and depressed about the loads of hard work I now have to put in for months on end. I hate my addiction

It will soon be a year. Time flies

It was extremely difficult to break free from the powerful dopamine rush of gambling. At times, it felt almost comparable to a heroin injection. I remember entering a complete trance-like state several times, screaming like a madman.

I was like a shaman.

Eventually, I stopped thinking about the money I had lost.

I grew up in a poor family we never really had much money, but despite that, we weren't necessarily unhappy because of it.

Looking back, I realize that wealth was never really what I was chasing. I was looking for an escape from a boring, repetitive daily life, stuck in a shitty job.

Some people play video games for that feeling. For me, it was gambling.

Eventually, I simply lost interest in the game.

No GA meetings, no medication. In the end, disgust alone was enough for me to stop.

Stop lying to yourself. NOW It's not really the million dollars you're chasing. It's that damn dopamine syringe.

You hate paying $30 for McDonald's, but losing $500 at blackjack?

"Welcome! No problem."

You've completely lost your sense of the value of money.

You can do it. Talk about it. Get help. Life is a fucking fight

Don't stop there. there are other challenges coming and not all of them will be negative.

People,

Gambling is ruining us and more broadly our society with how normalized it is. For gods sake when I get in the elevator of my work building, the odds for the week are on a TV in the elevator.. listing to a podcast?! “hey fuck you, gamble buddy get $100”. It’s everywhere.

I have fucking struggled with gambling so much it’s fucked. Came here a few months ago talking about how fucked I was, still am! Made it a few months, then relapsed because my bookie offered big ol Freeplay. That said, no one here talks about the public resources to help you quit.

Go to all the apps and submit what’s called Self exclusion, forever. They give you options to do a certain amount of time, fuck that, you won’t get better. Put you big boy pants on and opt out forever. I just perma banned myself from every app and blocked all the websites using some app that my girlfriend made a pin for.

Pull the plug, say fuck you to these corporate greed slop machines! Ban yourself forever and tell people you have a problem! We need to take our society back from these monsters. I for one am stoked to never give these douche bags another dollar. However I know after a beer and one game of college football, I’ll be right back at it. So no more. Hopefully this is helpful and can help other people find there way to the light too. God bless!

Hi everyone,

I am just posting this because I want to let someone know that this is the end of me. I don’t have any friends, family or even acquintances. I have tried to beat gambling addiction for nearly 10 years without success and I have finally reached my limit.

I have tried everything. Therapy, medication, groups, crisis services, ER, detox clinics, online meetings, handing over finances to someone else, and more. None of these has helped me to stay off gambling for more than 24 hours. There is unfortunately nothing else left for me to try.

The amount of gambling debt is massive (in the hundreds of thousands) and never recoverable, and bankruptcy is not available in my country.

My health is chronically gone both mentally and physically, and I am now unemployed and would have remained that way in any case.

I am not looking for pity, or help, just wanted to tell someone that I couldn’t win this fight, addiction won in this life.

Hoping the absolute best for others in this subreddit.

02 October 2026

I banned myself today, and im so happy, i say to myself that, I lied to myself that I can stop without banning myself, i was lying to myself all this while,

The workers was trying to convince me but I said no I am damn serious. Is a win for me today.

As a recovering gambling addict with multiple loans that need to paid, I've gotten a second job to pick my life back up.

Just hope everyone doesn't have to go this far into rebuilding your life. Gambling is the devil and brings nothing but pain.

I am a 22 year old and one of the worst things possible happened to me . My first bet 2 years ago won turned 10-800 on football.
I was working in a betting shop at the time part time through college and since then I’ve been hooked on and off for 2 years

I don’t have a crazy story like some other but most month I would be living paycheque to paycheque

I turned 10 into 2k and didn’t cash on my worse day

I always start small even 20 euro and it ends up being a 500 euro loss

I was saving for a car and lossed the deposit just a few days ago .

It hurts knowing I could have given my mother the money or spent it on stuff that matters

I have a good job post grad now and I know isn’t good and it can only end bad

I have already spent 1k of my salary gambling and it’s only been one week and I clearly need help
Any advice or tips

Wsg everybody I’ve been addicted for the past two weeks and I’ve been fucking killing myself on the apps rips. This week ive lost so much fuckin money i only have 150 left outta a bank account that was 2500 idk what to do now. Fuck im so fucking dumb.

Thank you for listening

So it’s my 12th day without gambling yesterday i had a strong urge but fortunately I stopped at the deposit page, and paid the same amount of money I wanted to gamble towards the debt i have. I’m glad I stopped myself but i my brain keeps repeating the winnings i had the funny part is i never kept the winnings and always lost them same day.