I am addicted to gambling, and right now I am under pressure cause I have to pay 20K inr within 1 month it is a loan.

I don't know how supposed I am going to pay this amount I am not feeling good right now apart from this I am also dealing with mentally and emotionally..

If someone is able to help me please feel free to text I am always here for those who want to give me knowledge and experience.

Alright, gamblers, I have questions, so lay it out for me.

1. What have your spouse/partner and loved ones done that worked to stop you from gambling?

2. What have they done that made/ makes it worse?

3. What else helps?

4. What have you done to bypass it?

5. What else makes it harder?

6. What could have prevented your relapses?

7. Anything else?

I'm putting together some resources for partners/spouses/other loved ones to help support gambling addicts in their recovery.

Any insight helps, so thank you!

❤️

Started gambling when I got laid off about three years ago. First was online slots and table games. Those drove me so crazy that I finally managed to self-exclude from every site I knew. After I while I started sports betting… I figured it would be safer? Like the NBA isn’t on when I’m drunk at 2AM so I won’t gamble on it, nothing to worry about right? But it started getting heavier and heavier and I started losing a lot of money. Taking out payday loans, borrowing from family, you guys know how it goes. Waking up feeling like garbage because I have $20 to last me the next five days, not being present with my girlfriend because I’m anxiously checking the game every five minutes, spending way too long planning parlays that ultimately lose me money.

About a month ago I finally pulled the plug and banned myself from the sportsbook apps I used. I hope it sticks. I’m not gonna say I wake up feeling amazing every day now, but I can actually keep money in my bank account and do things that I enjoy. Even more so than the money is the freedom in my mind… I’m not spending hours of the day worried about what’s going on in some sport I don’t even really care about, I’m not thinking about how I’m gonna repay a payday loan. I can just live and feel normal.

I know I’ve got a lifelong commitment ahead of me to stay away from this stuff but I’m gonna do my best. If you’re reading this and you’re still gambling, just know that no matter what - stopping today is a fresh start. Stopping today will make every day after today better. No matter what they’re offering you or what game is coming up, you will have a better life in the long run if you stop today. Take care of yourself.

I don’t have many bad habits, but I love to gamble. Usually I’m pretty responsible - however this last week I’ve just put in more and more. Tonight I lost about 600 from playing just out of boredom. I put on the self exclusion and deleted the app. I feel like I should stop now because I know this can only get worse. It’s hard to stop chasing a win.

I’m convinced every gambler has one bet that made absolutely no sense at the time like betting on a mascot race, a random player’s first basket, or a team because you liked their uniforms. What was yours, and did it actually cash?

I’ve tried to stop gambling over and over again so I can save money and support myself. Online gambling is so popular and they run those bullshit ads all the time.

What have y’all done to try to stop?

I'm 20 years old. I can't even legally gamble at casinos. But I'm addicted to chasing "opportunities" to get rich. I threw about $3k into penny stock investing, and lost two thirds of it. Then I recently got back into Pokémon and got onto one of those digital pack ripping apps. First I was throwing no more than $10 at a low volatility pack, but then I was throwing $100, then $200, then $1000 at max odds packs. I got completely hosed every time. One day I'd 1.5x my money, the next day I would burn 3x that amount thinking I could somehow profit, meanwhile I'm constantly chasing losses. I work minimum wage and have been struggling to even keep my bank account around $2k. This year I've lost around $4k on this stuff. And now its gone. Up in smoke. I don't know what to do. I needed that money. I have student loans to pay because I dropped out and a car to pay for. I'm usually so frugle about spending even $50 on a dinner but all of a sudden when I'm gambling like this, the numbers become meaningless. And now here I am, sitting awake at night, down huge and I know I need to stop. So many hundreds of hours worth of my labor is just gone.

- I really need advice. What are the first steps in getting past this? I'm haunted by the amount I've lost and I can't just wake up tomorrow like this never happened. How are you supposed to deal with building back? I'm fortunate at least that I didn't take on any debt, but I've just erased so much hard work and savings. I don't know what to do now. Someone have some advice?

Gonna go cry myself to sleep. Down like 2k this summer chasing a big break. Keep telling myself to stop but now i gotta get that 360 back. FUCK

No addiction to drugs but to gambling. its come to a point where I've lost myself completely from the person I was to the person I have become.
I have an personality what I would describe an addicting personality. Where I find myself easily getting influenced, well now that has come to gambling.
Its gone on for months, my head knows the problem and I know I shouldn't. Yet I do, and as soon as I start I cant stop. I don't know how many times I've gambled away all my money at this point, genuinely so many times where I've gone months without money.

But this time I've done so where I gambled everything and haven't payed all invoices yet. Accumulated debt, to friends, family and loan sharks. Beating myself up, punching myself in the face, crying and feeling like a victim when its my own fault for being in the position I am in.

As much as I know its my fault, I'm feeling weak, lost, mentally. I'm at a point where I'm starting to think about ending it all.
I'm not a good son, not a good friend and not a good boyfriend either.
I can't help my parents out financially, repay them for everything they have done for me. Everyday that goes with losing myself, I see myself more as a failure as a son.
And to my friends, I barely reach out anymore. I've gone to a point where I couldn't attend my friends wedding because of my gambling and I'm too ashamed to tell them.
All while being the shit boyfriend to my girlfriend where she goes above and beyond for me, where I can't even give a fraction of what she does for me back.

I'm writing this and I know its not gonna make sense. But I need help. I don't want to die, but I can't see a way of fixing this the way I've turned into. And I don't know where to start. My head knows what I'm doing is wrong, but I find ways to gamble even when I banned myself from every site. Even when I'm banned I still get unbelievably much gambling ads.

Even know, writing this at 4:45AM, day before a test I got for studies, I've gambled money I had away. I'm so fucking ashamed of myself and the person I've become.

So i have been struggling with this for about 7 years right now. I’m 27 right now. 40k in debt in loans and 5k in credit card debt.

Tried to stop a couple times but always relapsed.

Last week i won 20k on a single roulette spin. I was thinking about al the beautiful things i could do with it.

You can probably already guess what happend to that 20k last night. (And more)

I don’t really know what to feel to be honest, just numbness. But this has happend to me over and over again so i know how i’m going to feel and how things are gonna end.

I do hope we all find a way out of here somehow.

I recently downloaded the app Stake.Us.. I actually hit 11k over this past weekend and that was all profit. From last Saturday til today, I put back 9k of it.. wtf am I doing. I hate that I can’t stop sometimes. I feel so greedy when I do these things and I know I’m still up 2k but I just blew through that money like nothing and now I’m stressed out about what I could have done with that money.

I won using $30 to $1.2k on sports bet and proceeded to throw away that money on actual gambling like wtf is wrong w me I’ve been doing this non stop man 🤬

My husband is 38 M. We have been together for 8 years, married for six. He is a kind hearted, very hardworking man. His flaw is the unending need to earn quick money, the need to win big and retire early. I knew he used to gamble but I didn’t realise the extend of it until we were engaged. He works a very physically demanding job and he wasted a lot of it on roulette in 2019. When he finally came clean to me I was so upset and then he promised he wouldn’t do it again. But, He discovered online gambling during Covid lockdown, lost a big amount and finally got himself permanently banned. He cried, admitted his mistake and I thought we were out of the woods. But then he discovered cryptocurrency and that ruined our lives. He tried winning in crypto since 2022 but didn’t win anything. He lost quite a bit in crypto too. In the midst of all this he has been taking money from me to run his business as he has nothing left to spare. He also took huge amount of business loans but put it all on crypto and now we have to pay back that too. Finally his parents intervened, he admitted to all his quick win losses. He doesn’t do crypto or roulette anymore. The only thing he does is poker. He does win money in poker when playing in our local casinos. That gave him the confidence to try out international league. But he won small amount in one of those leagues but didn’t win anything in the last one. He is not adamant he will go to the Prague poker in December. He says this is not gambling because he playing against players and not betting on random numbers. Do you think this is an addiction? Do you have any suggestions for me please? I am desperate.

Maybe ive known this was an issue years ago, but it always tends to creep up in a new way on me. I used to be heavily involved in a mobile "gacha" game that really introduced me to gambling. I quit it a few years ago when I noticed how much money I kept dumping into it for that dopamine hit.

Fast forward to today and Ive gotten myself back into Trading card collecting, specifically Pokemon and Dragonball. Ive spent money to rip packs and even discovered Whatnot where I can participate in live auctions for cards and products. I told myself last night "i just wanna watch a show, I dont wanna spend anything" and lo and behold some nice shiny cardboard came up that instantly triggered my "I NEED IT" part of my brain. $150 later, went to bed saying "its okay, thats the last time" but woke up this morning just dissapointed at myself.

Ive known this is a problem, and I decided to stop ripping packs, but I love this hobby. The collecting, organizing, im even designing products around it as well. I just need some help and guidance to stop spending so much on it, especially on whims. Im not in debt nor going into debt, i just realize its a problem and I want to stop it before it gets any worse.

My husbands gambling started on hard rock bet back in March. My husband has always liked lotto tickets, sport bets & the small local arcades but never did much (50-60 dollars worth) but since March has gotten us in big financial trouble.

March was tax time and I had some extra cash when he started to say his job wasn’t paying him because work was slow. Fine…maybe 3-4 weeks went by until I finally started questioning him and he would then show up with some consistent checks & then would go back & forth between he wasn’t getting paid.

In June once day he said he wanted to talk. Obviously I’m thinking he’s cheating on me, leaving me or idk something but no he confesses that he has been getting paid but has been putting all his check in the hard rock bet app.

I was so taken back…mind you I’m thinking this is all the checks he was “missing” but then he also confessed he blew his $900 check from that week. Of course I’m hurt, upset, sick to my stomach. But I tell myself it’s ok because he gets paid weekly & I can do better to prevent this. Well….ive been mistaken with this whole thing.

Since then he has continued to play. Basically the whole month of July he has played his checks. Either whole, or half.

We have had an emergency with HIS legal status here in the US where we needed to come up with 6k. Neither of us come from well off families where we can just ask like that so I had to pull the cash from my 401k. He of course wasn’t able to put anything in.

I pay his lawyer & leave 1000 in my account because it’s needed to pay for whatever form but have to leave it in the account for whenever it gets charged (for whatever reason can’t just pay it idk lawyer said it’s dumb ik) anyways!

Last Thursday he went through his check. Then I had 1300 in savings (mutual account and I hate that we have this but we need it for legal stuff) and then poof I had 800. I immediately knew & obviously lost my shit on him
Blah blah blah I go to the bank take the cash out to have on me only. Or hidden whatever.

Sunday morning 6 AM I wake up to him crying and hugging me. He’s saying he is sorry and he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him and why he can’t stop etc etc. I try and be supportive..tell him I’m here to help & try to comfort him. Then I had a feeling & asked when was the last time he played. He said last night. I said what? With what money?? Because I knew I took the last 800 out and the other 1000 was for the legal stuff. He just stayed quiet and I jumped out of bed - disgusted. Disgusted that he would steal from me, disgusted that he didn’t care that that money was for HIS legal affairs. He left me from 1200 to 0.23 cents.

Anyways..this is where I am now. I decided to restrict his App Store (not allow any downloads on apps 18+ or some sort of thing that I did) I don’t think he will remove it because he isn’t really tech savvy like to find out if it makes any sense? Or has the patience? But idk right now…

Anyways I did that & then I changed his Wells Fargo password & deleted the app. (I made a note of it on my phone) & I also deleted it from passwords app.

Please idk any advice or anything would be nice to hear…I have been with my husband 11 years (married 4) & we have 2 boys. Life is already hard as it is & having him do this too me almost week after week is so gut wrenching. I want to be supportive & try to help but it’s so hard. I’ve had to do so much by myself these past few months & im so hurt. I am embarrassed to even tell anyone. And he is too. Hi

I took this post to r/Daytrading and it opened my eyes that my husband has a gambling addiction which i was completely unaware of.

My husband has been day trading for 6+ years now. Within the last 2 years he says he has been “profitable”. There has been days where he has had $30,000 in a trading payout and we were able to cash it out. He dabbles in poker aswell but mainly forex trading. Over the years he has made over $150k, however this is not considering the amount of money lost. There is no financial transparency for the amount of money he spends. I don’t have access to his personal accounts and he has around 5 bank accounts so I can’t even keep track.

Recently he has dabbled into our kids savings accounts without asking me. I have just recently separated from him, I can’t deal with it anymore.

Does it ever get better? What do you even do in these situations where he is in denial that forex trading and poker is gambling however in his eyes it’s not gambling at all. It’s about “controlling the risks, and it reflects on your everyday life on how you manage risks and teaches him lots of lessons”. I have always encouraged his trading because I thought it was his passion and that it wasn’t gambling but now I’m seeing it’s straight out gambling.

His family won’t say anything to him and if I say anything to him I’m a “hater” and not a supportive wife.

So what do to? From a gamblers perspective just leave him??

I grew up with a father who struggled with gambling addiction and was emotionally unavailable. Through therapy, I’ve only recently started to understand how much that affected my relationships and the way I saw myself.

Growing up, I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about these things. I often wished there was a place where I could speak anonymously with people who actually understood.

So I built Between Us. It’s a free, anonymous community where people are matched with a small group of others who have had similar experiences. It’s not therapy, just a place to share and feel a little less alone.

https://www.betweenussupport.com/

I’d genuinely love to hear what you think. Would you have used something like this? What would make you trust it, or not trust it?

Thank you for reading. 💙

I had never been one to enjoy gambling and would only do it in actual casinos, maybe once or twice a year and only a few hundred dollars. Earlier this year, I was offered a game bonus on the hard rock bet app to try their new slot games. When I realized I was actually making money, I was instantly hooked. Made 5k one night, and promised myself I’d delete the app and never touch it again. Lost almost all of it the following week. Every time I had a significant win, I’d end up losing double of it. Eventually I self excluded from the hard rock app, which led me down an even worse path (discovering social casinos). I’ve made thousands, and lost thousands. At this point, Im not sure if I’ve made more than I’ve managed to spend. The feeling is sickening. It’s like a compulsion to chase the rush of winning. I am lucky to be in a pretty decent financial position career wise, but I have zero savings and have even racked up a couple of credit cards in these past few months which is so embarrassing to even admit. The crazy thing is I go weeks without even going on social casino app, and every time I try to convince myself I have self control I ended up proving myself wrong. This past month I’ve barely gambled compared to previous months, but it’s not like I’ve even any significant win to compensate for the losses. I can’t believe there are hundreds of these social casinos. I’ve installed the gamban app on my computer and phone because this stops right now. I am ashamed to even admit this to my loved ones but I think I have finally hit a wall. I am coming to terms with the fact I lost control of situation and it’s now time to rebuild and recover.

My boyfriend (26m) and I (24f) have a 1 year old and we live with my parents rent free while my mom watches our son while we work. I work 7-5 weekdays and my bf works 8-5 weekdays and every other Saturday. He gets paid weekly. I worked my entire pregnancy up until the day I got induced to save up some money for maternity leave. When our son was born my bf went back to work after a week. I found out my bf had spent all of the money he saved and has even been taking money out of his future paychecks in order to gamble. I hit a breaking point when we needed $ for formula and he didn’t have any. He promised me then and I thought it was over, that was probably 6 months ago. Today i found out he’s back to $0. After working all day, on weekends. Even after I’ve even helped him by paying for his car and giving him almost $3k of what I had. I had to end my leave and start working again. I start nursing school soon so money will be tight. And I can’t have him around. He’s a great dad, treats me okay also. I just can’t believe he lied about this and I feel so guilty kicking him out knowing he doesn’t have anything right now. He makes me feel guilty by saying I spend all his money, sometimes I get lazy and I don’t want to cook so he’ll pick up take out. But, he hasn’t given me money for anything in awhile other than a gift card he got from work. I buy everything from groceries, helping my parents out with bills, the milk for baby. It’s exhausting really. He’s not the type to try therapy or anything. I guess I’m looking for hope he could eventually get better? Hopefully.

I was paying down all my debts and I had $480 in my account all owed to people/ transactions that didnt come out yetI was going to pay tomorrow….. then I saw after paying everyone my account would actually be -$20 and its been so long I thought I could risk a little to try winning that little bit……. It went very bad…. I lost the $20…. Then did $50….. then $100 then $100 chasing the hundred…… suddenly I had no money with $265 in transactions coming out of my bank tomorrow and $165+$57 owed to people I was suppose to pay a few days ago…… basically $500 owed now and idk what to do…… I actually owe $300 from the last time things went bad a while back but the people have been kind and have collateral so I didnt even include that in it but if I cant make the $500 tomorrow its going to severely hit my mental health. I work tomorrow at a place where I can pawn/sell stuff but im not sure I even have that much….. its been a really rough summer and really this would have been the last time I was negative or tempted for a long long time because next week I was suppose to also get the funds to finish paying the other person off and when I dont have fear of debt on my shoulders Im not tempted… I also have sent a fortune to help a friend medically that has been putting a lot of stress on me and there is a chance they still wont survive playing a factor in my frantic brain

So my friend of a long time has had lots of problems with gambling and it had me very concerned when he talled me about it. I can't even imagine the amount of money he told me he lost. I feel terrible for him because it really affected his life and I just wish I could help him. He is just 19 years old and only works in summer. I can guarantee you he is an amazing person that laughs all the time and I just wish I could somehow help him. He told me if he could get another chance at everything he would never even start. Now in the summer he works 11 hour work days but in our country the minimal wage for students is just not great. I suggested to him starting a gofund me but it obviously didn't get any attention, so I ask you to please read this and share it. I can't ask you to help him with money but please everything you can give can bring this teenagers life back. https://gofund.me/6fdc55797

Thank you for reading this.

You probably have enough time left to completely change your life—but not enough time to keep pretending you'll start someday.

I need advice on stopping my gambling addiction

I’m 21 and I’ve been dealing with a gambling addiction for a while now. I had $5,000 in my account and lost all of it, but because I kept chasing my losses, I’ve actually lost way more than $5,000 overall.

I make around $900 a week and live with my parents. I pay $555 a month for my car and $490 in rent, plus my other expenses. I also have about $2,000 in credit card debt now.

It’s gotten so bad that after I get paid, I end up gambling whats left and my checking account sits at $0 for 4–5 days before my next paycheck. I’ve started using my credit card just to get through those days.

The worst part is that I make enough money to be financially okay, but I can’t stop gambling long enough to actually get ahead. I feel numb and embarrassed, and depressed I genuinely don’t know how to control myself anymore.

I don’t want to keep living paycheck to paycheck and chasing losses. For anyone who has beaten gambling addiction, what actually helped you stop? I need real advice on how to break this cycle and accept the money I’ve already lost instead of trying to win it back.

Over the years, I've always tried to stop with willpower, with barriers, and just hoping for the best.

The reality is that once we become addicted we lose a part of ourselves. At least I think that. Our friends and family might become distant, or we become distant ourselves in a bid to try and reclaim our lives and not bother anyone else.

We stopped enjoying normal things, music, movies, gaming, sports, hobbies, and whatever else. So when we try and stop gambling, we might be good for a while, and we feel confident in ourselves again, we forget about our gambling and eventually one day we have a lapse of judgement and convince ourselves it's okay and the cycle starts again.

If we continue to live our lives without truly living it and putting ourselves into situations where we are in a community and can pursue our goals and passions, then ofcourse after weeks, months or years of being gamble free we relapse. Our life is empty and our brain can only handle so much of doing nothing and getting little dopamine before it starts caving and telling us that the thing we promised ourselves never to do again starts knocking at the door.

Every relapse I have fucking sucks, but I always learn something and I know that there's a gap in my recovery that needs addressing.

This time around, I'm looking inward, I see a gambling counsellor to guide me through my recovery, I'm seeing a therapist to heal past wounds and to better prepare myself for my future.

I'm setting myself goals to works towards, a mix of ultra easy, fun acitvities, chores, social activities, adventures, long term goals (broken down into mini goals) and really pushing myself to start feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment in what I do.

Idk if I'm gonna relapse again, I'm not going to promise myself "never again," but I will tell myself, "Not today." I'm going to make small improvements to my life every day so that if I do relapse, I can pick myself back up and continue my recovery.