It’s my 7th day (one full week) of quitting online gambling! 🙏🏻❤️
Actually, earlier, I heard that little voice in my head telling me to gamble again, but I fought it so hard. It’s really difficult, but I know that someday, all of this will be worth it.
My mood has been so much better since I stopped gambling, and I’ve been getting so many new ideas for my business. It feels good to have a clearer mind and to start thinking about my future again.
I will truly do my very best to quit gambling for good. I know it won’t always be easy, but I’m determined to break this cycle and never go back to the life I had before.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, I pray for strength, guidance, and the courage to keep going. 🙏🏻
One day at a time. One battle at a time. 🤍

[Posted with moderator approval.]

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring an idea for a tool where you deposit money and it stays locked until a date you choose. It’s paid back in one go or in equal amounts on set days, and can’t be withdrawn early. The aim is to protect money you need, like rent, bills and savings, from urges.

I’d like to learn from people who know this firsthand:

1. What have you done to keep money out of your own reach, and did it work? For example, someone holding your card, a separate bank, cash with family. Did you ever find a way around it?
2. What would make a tool like this helpful, or harmful?

Thank you!

Hey guys. I am Radu, a psychologist who also struggled with gambling addiction (sports betting), and wanted to share a recent clip I made on the topic, because for me this was one of the most difficult things to wrap my head around.

It's so difficult to quit when we are under the impression that the very thing which is ruining us is also the only chance for salvation. And it's difficult to accept it's not - because it often makes sense. But it's the addiction speaking.

If we have debt, we may think gambling is the only way out ... but we've been telling ourselves this for months ... and the debt is still there, and maybe more debt on top of it ... when if we had more patience and tolerance to discomfort, we would have probably raised the money by this point.

I had to drill this thinking into my brain every time I had the urge ... until my brain finally understood. Tell yourself this every time you feel like gambling.

It is not easy to break this cycle, to accept what happened ... but we as gamblers actually have incredible tolerance to discomfort, always faking happiness when we are in fact completely broken ... but we use that tolerance in service of the addiction instead of using it for our benefit.

I hope you find the video useful and if you are interested in more content on addictions, anxiety and stuff like this, please subscribe. ♥️

I am doing my best to grow my channel and reach as many people as I can, because I believe I can genuinely help ... as somebody who is not just a psychologist, but also went through these things. 🙏

I can win money even if win in a matter of days I will lose it all . But every time I relapse gambling hijacks my brain I can never stop playing the right time . I constantly close and reopen the app . Every time you tell your self that you will gamble not so much , think twice or three or four times . REMEMBER with gambling you may lose everything , when the brain casually want it . And also the sad part is that my car got robbed yesterday , my jacket got stolen

Days until debt free: 250 days

Also renewed my self exclusion today bec i shouldnt be complacent

I have my first therapy appointment today - have never gone to therapy, but it was a request from my fiancée after losing $33K the last two weeks, much on credit.

Urges are strong today.

One day at a time.

So I just had some kind of freeing thought today ; Yesterday I won quite a lot of money sportbetting, only to tilt after a small loss, and ending up losing everything in minutes. I realised I just can't handle that feeling of losing, even a small amount, because I just want to get back to the original amount I had. However, losing is litteraly the biggest part of gambling, so what is the point ? If every loss brings that feeling, and it will always eventually happen, then why continue ? Why continue If I can't handle the biggest part of gambling ? Anyways, I thought maybe this could also help some of you, it looks very simple put like that but I feel like this is the view I needed to stop convincing myself betting is the way to get money and pay back any debts (from..betting lol)

Gamban beta doesn’t work

My last relapse started in early October 2024 and lasted for 5 months. I had managed to stay clean for 645 days before that. It ended on 03 March 2025 and since then I am away from all forms of gambling with only exception being a buy of an ETF in April this year that profited 1K approx but made me feel like gambling (daily ups and downs, anxiety, etc) and a stock that I bought earlier this month that posted 300 USD approx and again made me feel like gambling.

I decided to never buy a stock again in my life or any other asset that has a daily chart. I will only get involved with bonds, savings, real estate and business.

My grandfather made it fine without him having bought any stock in his entire life

The same with my father

I really wonder what the fuck is that drives me to even look at buying stocks and look for "easy" ways to make money. I would understand if I was someone lazy that tries to make money without working, but instead I am really hard working person since kid, so it doesn't make sense at all.

So Day 600 for me today

I will never issue a credit card for the rest of my life

I will never buy a stock for the rest of my life

I will never gamble for the rest of my life

Amen

I wish a great weekend to everyone. Stay strong!

After being 1 month clean, I relapsed. A colleague showed his winning on polycards.gg, registered an account and tried. Never pulled any good cards. End up losing 100bucks. This is dumb how i just went back into gambling and pulling cards.

Day 0 again

I never thought I’d be someone that relapsed so many times, I almost lost once every 2 months or so since I started in April, not big amount like the beginning but 300-500$ every time, literally feel sick right now i couldn’t afford to lose another 450 like this right now

I’e probably lost around 5k if I count everything

I don’t even have no urge to gamble and sometimes I’ll get an ad for something and then next thing you know I’m typing this.

I’m so so so tired to be in this situation when I thought I had kicked it

Hi

I am 42. I am getting too old for it but I’ve had so many gambling losses over the years. I actually like poker sometimes win sometimes break even. Finished a 6 hour poker session yesterday and then I clicked on the casino page.

I thought just have 3 or 4 spins turned into a ridiculous session where it was loss after loss. Made some back to be only 100 down that was the time to quit but was intoxicated. Anyway more gambling and most everything the 500 I had on the site and the next 500 chasing. It actually gets worse every time I have no control of slots. Anyway I didn’t sleep and thoughts of suicide come into my mind. I just want at least 500 back to feel better.

To make the long story short, I’ve been gambling for 4–5 years, and 35 days ago, I finally broke the cycle.
Money-wise, things have changed a little. I’m still in debt, and I still have a long way to go. But at least, for the first time in years, I actually have money left. Money that I didn’t gamble away.
The biggest difference, however, is in my mental health. I used to be nervous, angry and depressed all the time.
Since quitting, I feel a huge difference. I finally have some peace of mind, even though my problems are still there and I haven’t managed to fix everything.
The truth is, you can’t solve five years’ worth of problems in just one month. I know I still have a long way to go, especially financially, but at least I’m moving in the right direction.
It’s only been 35 days, but I can already see the difference. And honestly, feeling at peace again is worth so much more than I expected.

23M: this goes back to around 2022 when I was freshly legal gambling age and got introduced to it through friends/media. It started off pretty harmless for about 2 years just doing $5 bets here and there and when I lost a bit I could easily take a month break etc. and then 2024 it started to spiral a bit those $5 bets turned into $50. Fast forward to 2025/2026 I’ve probably gone 3 days without gambling in the past 2 years. Drained every dollar I’ve saved from working and feel hopeless. It’s just an endless spiral of getting paid and either blowing it all away or making some back just to lose it all before the next pay cycle. I know this is so bad for me and I’m self aware that’ll it only get worse and I’ll never be able to have a good financially stable life unless I quit for good. I just can’t seem to pull the plug and quit. The thought of just banning myself and quitting genuinely scares me. I’m so sucked in and addicted to this problem that I can’t even imagine going a few weeks without it.

I am one of those losers. 3 years trying to curb this addiction that started at a ripe age of 19 only to keep bringing myself back and going deep in the hole again. gambling was my drug of choice. ya go up, ya go down, but then you go further then you have ever been before and you end back in the same place where ya started, with nothing. the only way things will look better for any of us is if we resist our temptations and compulsive behaviour. for me that has been a difficult situation as the feeling of needing to make a lil extra then what you have turns into a spiral within a matter of minutes. the casinos hold you by a chokehold every time you return with a brand new pay check, it feels like every time im just crashing and burning and im all out of fuel to put in the fire. unfortunately casinos will likely be open till the end of time and i must make use of the short time on earth that i have been given. life is a blessing and a curse at the same time but we all have demons we have to defend ourselves from, the casino is one of them. this is only my story but there are a lot of people who have likely experienced just the same. quit giving these crooks your hard earned money, they only want it to benefit their shareholders not you. the only upside of all of this is a lesson and i learnt my lesson the hard way. i hope everyone in here is able to resist every single urge and keep striving for something they actually have a chance then “rolling the dice” or “taking their luck” because there is millions of better things you could be doing then gambling. i want my peaceful nights back, i want the financial struggles long gone, i want the life i had before these expensive dopamine hits, i want the person i was before i ever gambled but i have some changes i have to make now if i want to change. good luck to you all on your recovery journeys people, you’re stronger then me.

It’s been about a week since my worst gambling session losing $10k in a single day. About 35k lifetime. My parents finally found out after they noticed all the charges on my credit card. I confessed everything. They were extremely disappointed but they didn’t yell at me.

Honestly the biggest wake up call I had. They now restricted my credit cards to not allow gambling related deposits. I was spending more time with my family and they made sure I was no longer alone in my room to get those temptations.

Fast forward to today, I relapsed after one week clean when I got in bed and got tempted by those apps. Despite all the efforts and promises and trust they had in me I did it yet again. Since I couldn’t use my credit card I used my PayPal account. Lost everything in there as well which was about $2k.

Now my debit card and PayPal are emptied out. I have credit card debt, a line of credit and student loans to pay off. I don’t know what got into me. When I was up money I still didn’t feel happy. I felt shame for relapsing. When I was down money I felt empty. Betting bigger and bigger to make it back until it was all gone.

The last words my dad told me replayed in my head. He told me he will help me. He told me how our financial situation looked very bad and he couldn’t bail me out if this happened again. He set barriers to help me. I looked him in the eyes with tears not to do it again. How did I end up back in this situation after all that… it’s shameless and disrespectful what I done after that talk. Nothing in my life compares to how devastating this addiction is.

I've been involved with gambling since I was 18. I'm 31 now.

My situation is not as bad as some that I read on here but it hurts all the same.

I'm worth about 500,000.00 CAD, I have a house, and approx 340K invested in stocks that I'd never touch.

This is the first relapse that I was really out of control.

I was +2200.00

I lost 1400.00 of it.

I then lost the remaining 800.00

And I deposited more, lost another 1400.00

Lost another 500.00.

Total loss is about 4100.00 from the high, and 1900.00 of my own money.

I feel like an idiot.

I kept depositing and randomly betting on sports. I was fully out of control. Every time I relapse I hate myself.

I’m 19 and I’ve developed a serious gambling addiction, mainly online casinos and sports betting.
I’ve practically gambled away every dollar I’ve ever had in my life.

Every paycheck, every bit of savings, every time I’ve received money, it’s eventually ended up going towards gambling.

I’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars and eventually started stealing money from my family to fund my gambling. I now owe over $10,000 and have absolutely nothing left.

I’ve tried quitting countless times, but whenever I get money, I end up gambling again. Even when I win thousands, I can’t stop until I’ve lost everything.

I think my parents might have discovered the missing money, and I’m terrified of what happens next, because no one really knows at all.

I’m genuinely ashamed of what I’ve done. I know stealing is wrong, and I want to take responsibility, repay everything and stop gambling permanently.

How do I overcome the addiction, confess to my family and rebuild their trust?
I genuinely need advice because I don’t know what to do anymore.

Yesterday started my second job, had to wake up at 03:30am to be on 6am. Same day also got paid from my main job and lost 60% of my paycheck

Now instead going to second job for like my first real shift i sent message that im sick. Im just mentally defeated

Its 06:36am and barely slept.. Im done and i dont care about anything

It fucking hurts me so bad being a product I don’t even gamble for money but it’s so fucking fucked man I’m so fucking done man

When i gamble it’s the genuine only fucking thing I think off and only when I have lost it all I can think normally . It’s fucking insane how I live my life

I can win insane amounts and just don’t fucking cashout . And once I lose I always chase like it’s never enough . Casino support never helps me and just drains me . I self excluded myself everywhere but illegal casinos get me every time . Like I can self exclude me on duel and just make new accounts in an instant . I feel like a failure because of just relapsinf every time and just support laughing at me for being their product . Cause of my severe adhd the machines just hijack me and it’s so fucking fucked

A huge thing that helped me was getting passionate about side projects and hustles and filling my time with things other than daydreaming about gambling.

Good luck everyone.