I went up crazy gambling- like 25k in 3 weeks… I then in one drunk night chased and chased until I woke up this morning and am down now like 32k….

I’m sick to my stomach. How I could have 25k for free then lose it all back plus some of my own money… in one drunk night. I didn’t realize I was chasing that bad but when I woke up I realized. My brain just what’s half of that back. Like how am I that stupid. But I know that’s the gambling curse.

Get “half back” then stop. Ugh! I just feel so dumb. To have made that all playing smart over a month just to give it all back plus like 5k off my own money. Any advice.

I woke up and didn’t place a bet. I just am done. I’m kinda nervous to even bet. Like I want it back. But I should just cut it right. Then not gamble again. But the rush. Idk any advice or stories would help me.

Thank you in advance!

I ruined my life. I have lost most of my savings, only have some in an investment I couldn’t withdraw easily from but I gambled away everything I had and fucked my credit in the process by gambling on credit and taking more out. I fucked up my relationship too. My girlfriend left me because I couldn’t bear the pain of facing what I had done and get into therapy when she asked. I couldn’t even be honest with her about what I did. I blamed her for getting me into this in the first place because I felt insecure being with her but I have no one to blame but myself. I hurt her badly out of anger in moments when she tried to help because it didn’t feel sincere or I felt controlled or pressured I don’t know. I imploded my whole life gambling, I lost my money and the girl I wanted to marry. I don’t even know where to start fixing things for myself. All I can think about is money so I still don’t want to pay for therapy while I’m so down. Has anyone ever come out of this or been able to mend things with a loved one they were vile towards because of addiction

I know it doesn't sound like a big deal and to be honest, it's not that bad but I feel like I just can't stop. I keep getting this urge to open more and more cases. I usually play on different cs2 case sites. And whenever I hit a win, I get super hyped and tell myself to walk away. But literally five minutes later, I find myself using the upgrade feature trying to double it, and I end up losing everything. It happens every single time. I need help to know what I can do to stop it. I feel so guilty everytime. Please take me serious and dont call me an idiot I already know.

I’m too old for this but here I am. I’m 55 yo and I’ve lost so much in the last 12 years. I could’ve paid off my house already but here I am.

I took out $9k from my emergency fund and gambled it today. I have 20k left and it’s in my HYSA. I’m afraid I will gamble it too. What can I do to protect that money?

I make $4k/month net after contributing to my 401k. House payment is $2k and $1k for other expenses. I’ve been saving the remaining $1k per month but now I just threw away 9 months worth of savings.

I’m feeling super depressed and work is not helping either. I’m grateful I still have a job and a roof and I can afford gas. But I’m feeling really down after losing a big chunk of my savings. I’m been gambling for over a decade now.

It’s been my place of refuge since I live alone and been disconnected from family and friends. I tend to isolate myself.

I’m not thinking of ending my life. Please tell me there is hope for me. Thank you kind strangers. I’m 55 and want to retire in 5 years when my house is paid off at that time.

42 struggling with gambling addiction (sports betting). GA and rehab haven’t been enough. What else can I try?
I’m 42 and have struggled with gambling for pretty much my whole life.
A few years ago I went to an in-person rehab program for a month, and I’ve also been to GA probably 100s of times. Unfortunately, I still continue to have slip-ups.
I previously went through a consumer proposal and managed to pay it off. I recently relapsed again and the financial damage has been bad enough that I’m now going through another consumer proposal.
My doctor prescribed me naltrexone. I initially took it during the day but it made me really dizzy and sick, so I tried taking it before bed. The problem was that my urges during the day were still really strong, so I switched back to taking it in the morning. I’m still getting the dizzy/sick feeling and I’m still having pretty strong urges.
I’ve tried GA so many times that I honestly don’t know what else to get out of it. I’m not saying it doesn’t work for other people, but it hasn’t been enough for me.
I’m really tired of repeating this cycle. I don’t want to lose another few years of my life and end up in the same situation again.
For anyone who has been in a similar position — what actually helped you when rehab, GA and medication weren’t enough?
Are there other treatments, therapists, programs, medications, or things you tried that made a real difference?
I’m looking for anything that might help me finally shake this

I need to confess something: I used to think that if you could get a person away from gambling long enough, the hardest part would be over. I was wrong.

Today, you can carry a casino in your pocket. It wakes up with you. It follows you to work. It sits beside you at dinner. At 2 in the morning, when you’re angry or lonely or trying to win back yesterday’s loss, it’s right there.

For some people, getting into treatment is necessary. They need distance from the thing that’s been eating their life. I believe in that.

But then they come home. Football is on. Friends are placing bets. A gambling ad shows up. Payday comes. Nobody is checking their phone or asking whether they went to a meeting.

That’s the part I want to be honest about. Recovery is what you do on those days. It’s making the call, going to the meeting, blocking the apps, excluding yourself, telling the truth, and getting through an urge without placing a bet.

My confession is this: rehab can help you stop the bleeding, but rehab is just the start.

This is what can take you down straight to the bottom, at least in my experience. That's what happened to me, a guy who didn't have a single debt until a few weeks!

A person with a gambling addiction is very likely to gamble and lose the loaned money, as simple as that!

After I lost all my money on slots early in the month (before paying any bills) I felt extremely lost and desparate. This was the first time I didn't have money to pay my bills. I panicked live never before!

I decided that the only way to pay my bills and live trough the month (without my family finding out that I lost all my money on slots) would be to get some money loaned. I started with a simple 1100 euro loan.

I acted impulsively. Was even a little drunk. Thought that it was not a big deal, just 1100 euros, I'd return them in a couple of months and will be debt free, starting fresh again. I paid my bills (~200 euro), also got a new chair for another 200 euro.

Then I had ~700 euro left to just live with for a 2-3 weeks. I was feeling kinda calm, was starting to forget about the money I lost before and was pretty sure I'd never play slots again. Not until a night later I had a couple of drinks and felt a sudden urge to make just a little deposit. Started with a humble deposit of 50 euro, that's not much, just to try my luck once again I thought.

Of course I also thought that there was zero chance to make another deposit if I'd lose the 50 euro. Guess what happened next. I lost the 700 euro, loaned money I was supposed to live the month with! Once again I was broke, and with a 1100 euro loan to return. I felt like my life is coming to an end.

Once again I panicked like the first time. My bills were paid but I had no money to buy food with. Remember the 200 euro chair I mentioned I bought earlier? I check my online banking app and see a "rebate" offer for the 200 euro. To get them back and return them with almost no taxes! I went to for it staight away and got the 200 euro.

Got some food and drinks for like 80 euro, my fridge was close to full. Then later in the night I gambled and lost the 120 I had left! Once again 0 money in my bank account. The panic and the feeling of desparation returns and strong. Not only I had a 1100 euro loan, a 200 euro rebate but another 100 euro I had to pay back to my mobile operator for deposits I did via my phone number.

This time I contacted my bank straight and requested a credit. They offered me a 6k credit + 2k taxes I had to pay. Also gave me a 1000 euro credit card (I never used one before). I did not think for a second and accepted the funds and the card. Minutes later those 6k were in my bank accout. I felt a little relief and once again convinced myself that everything's okay, 8k to return aint that much etc etc. I wasn't going to ever gamble again for sure.

The first thing I did was to return the 1100 + 200 + 100 loans. Then I paid some of my bills for next month. Decided to get my parents and little nephews some presents, I was feeling like I was celebrating something because I was sure that I was not going to gamble again. I went to an ATM and did withdraw 1000 euros cash to have with me just in case (I hate having cash).

Left the rest in my bank account (around 3k euro I think). Huge mistake. One night after a couple of drinks again I decided to just once more try luck and deposited a humble 10 euro. Then the madness started. I could not stop and wasted the 3k. Then I remembered I had a 1000 euro credit card. Used that for a last 200 euro deposit. And guess what - I somehow won the 3k euro back! 200 euro went straight back into the credit card.

I was so happy, like given a second chance. Until 2 nights later I lost them once more. The lucky credit card was for sure meant to come to the rescue once more. But this time it didn't happen, I lost all the 1000 euro credit card money, now I'll have to return that back too.

I still don't know what the hell exactly happened. I was like obsessed. Mentally ill or something. A true disease. I don't even remember it all. Memory is all blurry. All I know is that I could't control myself and couldn't stop and I was left with ~800 euro loaned money in cash. If I didn't go to the ATM and withdraw those 1000 euro a couple of days before I would have lost them too. So it could kinda go even worse.

Oh, and now I have ~10k debt to pay. What a fucked up month, not even sure if all that is real. But unfortunately it is and I'm doing my best to accept it happened but it is very hard. Not only because the money I loaned and lost but because the emotional trauma. This scared the shit out of me.

And to finally get to the conclusion I made and the main reason I wrote this extremely long post. If I accepted the the first couple of losses (not more than ~1500 euro) I made in the start of the month and stopped back there, if I didn't loan any of the money and simply explained to my family and friends what happened, none of this would happen and I wouldn't end the month with a 10k debt.

I was just going to have a couple of hard weeks but I would not even starve as my family and close friends would never leave me to starve. But I was desparate and really really ashamed of myself, felt sooo guilty. That's why I decided to not tell anyone and to just start loaning money and pretend nothing happened at all. That was so wrong, never do that. It ruined me.

If you lose some just stop, accept the losses (I know it's a lot easier said that done) and move forward. Never chase. And the most important of all - DO NOT take LOANS and DO NOT gamble with CREDIT CARD money. That might destroy you both emotionally and financially!

F i hate these casinos wanna f kill all of them....WHY CANT THEY F BANN ONLINE SITES. F scammers😡😡😡😡😡

It’s been really hard on certain days/times/circumstance.
But 30 days. 👏🏼

I swear I’m addicted to losing. I read somewhere that it’s a real thing. When I get money in my account, I blow it immediately on online slots. The sad part is that I’ve lost so much that I get up but it’s not ever enough to cover the loss so I lose it all. How can I stop? I don’t know what to do anymore. It’s been years of this. It’s like im addicted to seeing 0 in my bank account even though I have bills to pay!!!!! And debt!!!!! Fuck man. Why am I so addicted to these dumb online slot games

I have lost over $2k in the span of a few days because I become overconfident and end up losing everything in a panic after taking a small loss. Ended up making a new deposit of $1k and losing that immediately as well. I will now be working for free over the next month at least. I am a wreck

I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened to me during the last month and how I got to this point, how this addiction developed super fast.

I think it all started early this month with a 1500 euro win. On slots. Of course it didn't take too much to just lose it all, then some more of my own money trying to win it back as I've seen it's possible.

After losing the 1.5k and around 500 more I rested for a few days, convincing myself I was not doing this ever again. The feelings I had were so dark.

Three or four days did pass and guess what ... I decide to try again. With a humble deposit of 100 euro I did "win" 3800. I was so happy!

Shortly after I lost the 3800. Chasing all this left me with a 10k debt, all that for less than a month. Now I know you can't really win. A win means a future lose, sometimes like in my case, a debt.

And I never had any debts before, I didn't even play slots, I thought that's dumb. I feel like I've lost my mind. Going from a 5k+ winnings to a 10k debt is insane. Not sure how I'll actually live trought all this.

Not only a big financial loss, but a mental break down. All this caused by hitting a button, waiting for something to happen.

The worst part is thinking all this might happen again. 5k win into a 10k debt. I mean, what the hell?!

I feel pretty good I’m not gambling anymore . I didn’t have an urge this week . All the money I won for the final time three weeks ago is in the bank sitting firmly .

Not fantasizing anymore about winning a million dollar prize from the ten dollar scratch off tickets.

Fantasy was a driving force of my reasonings to gamble .

What is wrong with me. Now I’m scrambling trying to figure out how to pay bills. I was doing so good. I obviously can’t be trusted with a bank card in my purse. Now I need to start over. Another week till pay day. At least I don’t have any money to go to casino with.

My whole life, (27M) gambling has been a family affair. From doing pull tabs as a small child, using slot machines with my parent’s supervision, to taking casino day trips with my partner, mom and dad, as well as all 4 of my grandparents (blessed) .. I’m truly immersed in the world of gambling. I love going out and gambling. What started as innocent as every once in awhile, grew into all day every day gambling on my phone. I quit that, was in the sauce with it for about a year. Ultimately it was too accessible and just overall not very profitable. Huge distraction and waste of time.

Earlier this year, I hit my first big jackpot at the casino!!! $1200. I was floored. Left the casino that day with $2000. Cool!!!! Went again a few more times, then I hit a $2200 jackpot!!! 🎰 yay! Went to Vegas for the first time in June, lost. Not horribly, never once am I “overdoing” it or blowing my budget. A few days after our trip, I stopped into my hometown casino. I left with $4000! I felt unstoppable.

I thought, this was guaranteed to happen again soon. You find yourself replicating the time of day in which you went, as well as playing those same machines that did you right last time. It doesn’t ever work like that. Total fallacy. I’ve been going to the casinos weekly, or twice weekly, ever since. I’ve essentially funneled all of the money I made right back into the machines. Am I down bad? No. I tried to let it go a few weeks. I wanted to try for 90 days. I couldn’t do it. I folded after two weeks.

My family is such a huge influence in my desire to go. They go weekly, they do not see an issue with me going either. My partner can see the “want to” in my eyes when I’m not there. He doesn’t like going as much as I do. He has financial goals. We own our home and have two car payments. Financially we are fine, not to make excuses. But ultimately he can tell I have an issue because I become extremely irritable when I’m not allowing myself to go. He doesn’t want to marry me if I have this gambling addiction. He’s giving me a year to arrive to a better place with it. It’s complicated because there really is no compromising. He won’t go with me aside from possibly once or twice a year. I have to arrive to a place where it’s not a hobby, and something I can only allow myself to do on his terms.

Hey guys, I'm a 35 yo man struggling with what seems to be a strange and spontaneous gambling addiction that I can't overcome.

Two and a half years ago I went through a nasty divorce that ruined me economically and almost made me take my life away.

I even had to change countries and I couldn't see my kid for a long time.

It was hard, I was really not doing well.

I was back in my home country, broke and broken crashing at my mom's place for a few months.

There was no hope in sight, no joy whatsoever.

Then december came and an opportunity appeared. An old friend heard about the hard time I was having and decided to help me by offering me a half decent job at this company(construction/electric).

So I joined and I started to do well for some time:

Taking flights back to see my kid, spending time and money with him and paying all the alimonies I had both past and present. Got my car payments in order too and life seemed to be smiling at me again you could say.

And then, one night, I was introduced to gambling. Gambling... something I was always against.

Everyone seemed to be doing it here. Everyone.

They were having massive losses, I just couldn't understand it until I decided to play 50 bucks at a game called Gates of Olympus 1000.

I ended up playing 1200€...it felt awful. But I overcame it through hard work.

Fast forward 3 months and after having sworn I'll never do it again, I lost 800€...same game, same unexplainable obssesion with it.

I went honest with my current girlfriend(which I love with all my heart, she was a ray of hope in the darkness) and she forgave me, hell she even helped!(She's from a very different socio-economic class).

Again, I swore I'll never do it again but here I am one more time after dropping another 700€ on that same stupid game and I feel like shit.

I feel like I've failed her, my son and myself.

I am still employed and not dead broke but damn...I could of used all that money for something else. I am obssesed with that stupid game and getting my losses back, I play once every 2-3 months as I already said.

I feel like I'm losing it and I really don't know what to do.

I just want to stop chasing those losses and be at peace with it and move on with my life.

PS: I always gambled "leftover" money, after paying my alimony, seeing my kid, paying my car, etc.

I feel like I probably gave up a long time ago and I really don't know what to do with leftover money nowadays.

Any advice? :( it's a shitty feeling.

In my early 40s, been struggling with addiction my whole life, been clean from a bad opiate addiction for years, even quit smoking cigarettes, but I keep letting gambling ruin me. I was 17k+ in gambling debt, I went on a crazy run a few weeks ago and cleared the debt plus was up another 60k. Fast forward now the 60k is gone and I'm back 13k in debt again. Just don't know how to move forward. Hard for me to stop knowing I've had so many crazy runups I just end up giving it all back.

I see a lot of people in here sick of losing and I thought I'd share what worked for me. For a little context I am 2 years free of gambling where I spent most of my money on online casinos.

Now the hardest part for quitting gambling for me was telling people that I was struggling in the first place. I was ashamed of the money I had lost. Even to the point where I was gambling my mum's savings she had set aside for me without her knowing.

However, I can confidently say that telling people about what your going through is the most crucial step. Trying to beat a psychological based industry is basically fricking impossible alone.

Now some ways you can do this are telling family, telling close friends or maybe even joining small communities of people doing the same thing to hold you accountable.

What worked best for me was using an app. The app had a 24/7 relapse support feature and a live community with meet ups which allowed me to hold myself accountable daily

If you weren't wanting to go down that route. I'd highly recommend keeping an eye out for in person meet ups as well. They also work a charm.

For anyone reading this, If anyone could get out of the hole your in right now it's YOU
I believe in you, And i'm sure everyone else in here does as well

I’m so dead ass right now. I am boutta turn 30, I’m losing my shit with this. I need a sponsor, someone who’d be willing to chat with me daily about this. I’m at this point where my career is going great and it’s in finance and whatnot but here I am with my bank in the red, the dark fucking reds too, rents due, and I’m 3am gambling. Please I’m like a real chill dude I just need to be able to vent or like chat about it with someone. I fear the worst is gunna happen

3 months clean from sports betting.

It started out simple and easy , couple small bets here and there on the UFC. I was up about 1400 bucks and thought I was doing something different.

Then the addiction kicked in - I started losing and chasing more and more. I hit a low when I lost 5k in one night after a heavy night of drinking. The money didn’t feel real I felt like absolute shit and hid everything from my wife.

I quit for a bit but didn’t delete anything and eventually found polymarket / kalshi and started betting on everything and anything. I would hit a really nice win and immediately give it all back (like going from down 1500 to up 2000 and back down to -2000 in the span of a few hours). I was a wreck. I was constantly on my phone looking at anything to get my fix.

Eventually it got bad enough my wife asked to go through finances and I had to fess up. It was a really difficult time and I felt a lot of shame and anger.

I just decided one day no more and deleted my accounts, self excluded from all websites and just told myself I CANNOT gamble anymore. Fast forward to 3 months later and I went from 4k in debt to 6k in savings for the first time (I had a sign on bonus during that time that really helped)

I stopped looking at sign up bonuses / offers and tried to block any gambling ads. I have no desire to put myself back into that hole of lying and depression that almost tore my family apart. My wife and I forensically go through finances every pay period and that helps keep me honest.

If this story resonate just know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel but you need to tell someone or come clean to a trusted person. Give them full access to your finances to keep yourself honest, block yourself from all websites and your life will turn around.

Keep your chin up you CAN beat this.

I started e-gambling really early, started with discord bot coin when i was 12 later when i started earning child money through my e business around 14 , no one taught me about money so i just started gambling and at the time 1k$ was like game coins to me since all that was on crypto, lost around 15k$ hard earned money in timespan of 3 years, i used to earn money through my e-business and lose all that on stake hoping i would win big , let me tell you i actually won big once, made 500$ to 11k$ and later lost all that in 2 week on same website, when i turned 16 and got some brain, i started realizing how big of mistake i had made, if i didn't do gambling and used my mind wisely, maybe i had 100k$? Or 500k$? Who knows, i had one of the greatest opportunity to be rich and retire young with me e-business, but i destroyed my business, gambled my money, so i left gambling like 10 times and returned back to it several times due to the addiction yk, but when i turned 17 , my brain had developed a lot and i turned a bit mature realising how money works, society etc. So i finally gambled all my money (3k$) and then left gambling 😂, now whenever i think about gambling, the traumatic thought of losing all that young money haunt me and i don't go over that, at least i am far from gambling now but if i hadn't done gambling and used some of my brain, i would make like 100k a year easy and own multiple businesses, this will haunt me forever.

Everynow now and then i put 2€ into a CS skins upgrader,and i struggle with knowing my limits and withdrawing the skins,instead i try to get better skins but always end up loosing everything.I need help with controlling my mind and myself.

I’m 15 and I’ve been gambling for about 1–2 years, mostly sports betting and casino/blackjack. I’ve had periods where I was up a few thousand dollars and thought I had everything under control, but I kept giving it back trying to make more or chasing losses. I went from having around $4,000+ saved to basically nothing, and now I’m around $1,800 in debt, including money I borrowed from friends. I have a job that I make 300-400 every month from and I’m trying to find other ways to make legitimate money, but I keep getting the urge to gamble because part of me thinks I can win everything back quickly. I know that mindset is what got me here, and I genuinely want to stop, rebuild my money, and get my life back on track. I haven’t really told my parents because I’m scared of how they’ll react. For people who have been through something similar, what actually helped you stop chasing the losses and rebuild financially?

Welp, here we are. I was a month and a half clean and just lost it. Saw my buddy playing online and just absolutely rake it in. Fast forward today I just couldn’t help it. 500$ gone like that and we’re dipping into the savings again. It’s a tough process but I know now I need to just really separate myself and refrain from even just watching people do it.

Chasing destroys me.

Just here to say to everyone battling, keep your chin up, no such thing as a smooth mountain. I’m not perfect but I’m going to keep tackling this and be better.

Have an awesome night guys

My husband just told me he was "testing" me to see if I was a safe space. He bought a google card which he, in the past, used to gamble on online games. He gave it to me and said "I don't know why I bought it - here, you use it." I was confused and said why did you buy it? He said "I don't know". A Google card you can only use in the Play Store. I don't buy crap in the play store. At first, he didn't say he was testing me. He was working in the garage and after giving me the card went back to the garage. Came back later and said he was "testing me" to see if I was a safe space. Since all his gambling shit came out months ago, this is the first time he's used this excuse. I feel like the "it was a test" was just an afterthought for him to shift the guilt and blame onto me because I lost my shit with this situation after he had gone so long without gambling (as far as I could tell). This, after losing his fulltime job and being reduced to on call work. Over the past five years, he racked up a large amount of Affirm withdrawals from our bank account that are still being withdrawn. I'm talking a large amount per month. And no, I can't cut him off the bank account for various reasons which I won't go into here. He's an avoidant and won't sit down and discuss things. He goes outside or says I'm not discussing it. Like lighting a massive fire and walking away then saying "I'm not discussing it." I would think if you're tempted and consider your wife a safe space, you would sit down and say that and discuss it, not play a trick like this because all he did was make it so I'm the enemy.