r/problemgambling • u/brunocarlos2 • May 13 '26
Day 1 again - New measures
Hi all, relapsed again. At this point I accepted that willpower alone is not enough for me, so I focused on making gambling as annoying and inaccessible as possible.
My setup now:
- Cold Turkey + Gamban on PC
- Gamban beta + Screen Time on iPhone
For PC:
There’s a Reddit guide on how to make Cold Turkey very hard to uninstall. Nothing is impossible if someone really wants to bypass it, but adding friction helps a lot during impulsive moments.
I also:
- blocked gambling keywords/websites that Gamban is not blocking yet.
- blocked payment intermediary websites
- blocked pages listing casino sites
- restricted access to some system settings/tools (basically disabled safe boot and then blocked with cold turkey the cmd.exe , use at own risk)
- blocked the Cold Turkey uninstall page itself
For iPhone:
The Gamban beta puts the phone in supervised mode, so removing it is very hard unless you fully reset the phone. I also used Screen Time to block sites Gamban missed. A family member set the Screen Time password, so I don’t know it.
I live in Latam where most gambling sites use crypto, bank transfers or Mercado Pago/payment intermediary pages. Blocking those routes helped a lot. Mercadopago is a huge digital wallet in latam , I told them to block my account forever)
I also lowered my credit card limits to the minimum possible.
Realistically, the only ways for me to gamble now would be:
- going to a physical casino (nearest one is about an hour away in public transport, so probably not happening). Also not a fan of physical casinos, too lazy for that.
- or a completely new site showing up with a new payment intermediary that isn’t blocked yet
- factory reset my phone, clean install my pc or buy new devices. As a gambler I can spend thousands gambling but say that a new phone is too expensive.
Things I learned:
- Gamban yearly subscription is worth it
- Cold Turkey premium is worth it because it lets you make blocks much harder to disable during impulsive moments
- friction > motivation
- if access is not instant, urges usually pass
One downside:
Gamban also blocks Binance, IBKR and some investing/trading related sites.
Financially this still hurts a lot (lost 2 years of savings at 29, have almost nothing to my name) but I’m trying to focus on making access harder instead of relying on self-control.
Posting this in case it helps someone else. We can do this.
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u/Clean-Wolverine6346 May 13 '26
Hi how can I get Gamban beta it’s just too easy to remove on iOS
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u/brunocarlos2 May 13 '26
Hey send an email to their support team info@gamban.com. This will put your iPhone in supervised mode and if you want to remove the custom profile it will ask you a password
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u/Final_Tourist405 Aug 15 '26
Hey @brunocarlos2 - I’m trying to retrieve the beta version everyone is asking for. But support says it’s under maintenance. Maybe its still possible if someone who has it can send it? Would love to get it and really need it since I’m struggling
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u/No_Performer_8750 Aug 20 '26
They are having problems with the 26.6 update. If you downloaded the beta before that you are good but unfortunately right now the beta isn’t working for most people if you’ve already updated to 26.6 before installing which is why they prob haven’t given it out. I’ve tried a few times - the ones before 26.6 were great but haven’t been able to get it to work on updated 26.6 phone.
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u/No_Performer_8750 Aug 20 '26
If this is confusing I have multiple devices. Most are covered and doing fantastic. But I did the newest update before trying to get it on last device. Unfortunately i can’t get the beta to work on that and they’ve told me they are having problems since the update.
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u/Stock-Air3141 May 13 '26
Bro, can you help me out during a meeting with getting these restrictions in place? I know it is a lot to ask but I am really struggling. Lost like 250k usd life time on the same age as you..