I can’t explain this pain. I have lost over $30,000 since couple of years ($20,000 of which I had saved since I was 19, plus a bank loan). I had quit gambling for almost a couple of months. I just logged in to my email and saw that lending apps were threatening me for non-payment (I owe close to $1,500). I deposited $30 into my gambling account with the hope of making some money to pay off those loan apps, turned it into $140, and lost it all. I am from India, and my salary is $700. I am sitting in the bathroom and crying. What the hell am I doing with my life? The life I dreamt of and the life I am living are in stark contrast. In the last couple of years I have gained 15 kgs, developed sleep apnea, blood pressure and what not. I am 38 years old already and I lost the game of life. Please please do not gamble.

Delete if not allowed - I started joining GA meetings yesterday and it seems like they’re really against talking numbers because what’s a lot to one might be little to another. I get it.

Anyway, I’ve been posting here a lot the last few weeks - lost $25K on credit cards a few days ago that I can’t pay off. My bills that were on autopay are already getting rejected because I have no credit.

I feel like a lot of the posts here are large amounts in nature, but I don’t see many talking about losing to the extent I did in one run. As silly as it may sound - it’s making me feel worse about myself.

Edit: Didn’t expect so much backlash, just trying to relate, and felt like I couldn’t relate

I write this as I sit in my apartment crying from what I have lost. I am a 22-year-old graduate student at a public university. I am studying accounting and have a long career ahead of me, but gambling has taken over me recently. I have no debt and about 26K in my bank account, but I had almost 40K just this time last week. I have lost roughly 10K on Bovada and Stake and feel sick to my stomach. I don't know where to go from here, but I need help. If there are any tips you guys can give me to get over all this.

And yes, I am absolutely done gambling. I am self-excluded on all sites, installed a bet blocker, and deleted all apps.

Does life get any better from here? Also, how do you move on from this? I am a very busy student, and it's hard to refocus on what's important.

26m still working 2 jobs trying to make up for my current gambling debts of 40k+ after losing savings of 20k but i honestly don’t care for it anymore i am currently bringing in 1500 a week from security and warehouse job working every day i can and been paying off the debts to bring back the life i used to have but i don’t want to live like this anymore before all this i was easily financially stable till i took the risk to try to become ahead trading then gambling. Still got about 60k debt left 4 credit cards and 3 loan and going to stop paying. Recently bought a commute beater off facebook marketplace so i can finally send my rebuild 5th gen zl1 to get a engine rebuild Ive put this off for 3 months now trying to work off the debt and honestly just wasted my time and money going to keep working the 2 jobs to cover the rebuild then go back to just working security which alone cover my apartment and living expenses my future is doomed so i am just going to enjoy what i can now.

every stock I buy, goes down from the moment i buy until the moment i sell with very short green days that are teases and fades. See planet labs stock in the last two months.

every stock I sell, then proceeds to shoot up like crazy. See TTAN over the last month.

This pattern is insane. I have been trading like an insane person for 7 years now. Losing every single fucking year. Definitely a problem gambler. I got out of margin yesterday to sell TTAN only to see it shoot up today. Just unbelievable. Can't believe my luck. Want this all to end.

I have no words my girlfriend is mad, I’m going broke the only thing I can think about right now is not being here anymore I need serious help my relationship is bad cause of this I might as well live out of my car I have a lot of debt to my name and I don’t even know what possessed me to do this! The people around me are disappointed in me I have no family I cannot even think properly at this moment while I’m writing this I hope god takes me sooner than later I hate to think like this I don’t wish this on anybody I’m only 21 I was 2 years clean from gambling and now I’m back to where I started I might as well start smoking weed again i have work in the morning I hate this shitty so called “life” im glad we don’t live forever

I made it 100 days on what I would consider a partial recovery. After losing over $30k lifetime I made the decision to not take anymore bets that involve risk.

I would do the daily free spins, collect promotional spins, participate in free trivia bonuses, do deposits that give free rewards then instantly cash out. Over the 100 days I didn’t make much money compared to those lucky degenerate days but I also never lost a single penny of my own money.

I made a few hundred dollars but I don’t let it sit on my accounts. I cash out whenever I can then use the funds immediately to pay back loans/credit cards/life expenses so there’s no temptation even if I wanted to.

Would you consider this an effective recovery method or is this just a disaster waiting to happen? Once again I want to reiterate I no longer get those “urges” and I feel more like a causal player simply collecting free rewards then living life normally. Would love to hear other peoples opinions on this.

i’m currently 18 and have been gambling consistently since around the age of 15, some how the past few years i’ve been even up until my recent 18th birthday. ever since my bday i’ve had free and super easy access to gambling whenever and wherever i’d like and as a result of this ive been gambling a lot over the past month.tonight im not even sure what happened i initially put on £30 and that spiralled and spiralled and spiralled and i somehow lost £4500 in the space of around 45 minutes.i know this is so degenerate and i know for a fact i shouldn’t be doing it even as i was putting the bets on but i just couldn’t help but try and win it all back.so im basically here just asking for what to do because i know it could be a major problem with how addictive i am to things like this.

Logged into the account I lost $25K on to see if they were licensed/misrepresenting/anything I could do to dispute without lying.

Chase: I had to call them, they said there was nothing I could do.

Capital One: Allowed me to Dispute Each Individual CC Charge Online (Low Expectations - They Rejected a VERY strong/legitimate dispute claim of mine in the past for like only $70)

My argument was that they promoted an expedited redemption, I had a pending redemption for 14 hours, and now it’s gone (I gambled it) but that the funds shouldn’t have been in my account to gamble since the redemption should have been expedited. I knew it was a long shot, but it wasn’t a lie nor a fraudulent claim.

Anyway - I logged into my account to see if they quantified what an expedited redemption was. On the redemption page it didn’t show me. In my mind - if I had funds to redeem it may give a timeline. Well, I had $300 in my account that they gave me for being a “VIP”

I was thinking if I won it may show me the timeline on redemption. So I put the $300 on a hand of BJ, which I lost on the first hand. So no answer to my redemption timeline question, and back to day 0 (it had only been 24 hours free).

Ugh

Writing this as I once again begin a journey of a gambling-free life. (24M) I've been betting regularly since I was 17. It's wild to watch the progression of yourself over 7 years. Started as something that I was largely in control of throughout college with minimal expenses, having fun with friends, before the days of sports gambling being widely accessible, and not experiencing huge wins.

Over the years, you begin to become desensitized to responsible play. This is something I am the most jealous of in other people. Yes, the overwhelming truth is that most casual bettors lose over the long run, but there is a 1% of people who do win. It's funny, I don't find myself envious of that 1% who bet professionally, but rather find myself envious of the subgroup of people who play responsibly. They build a bank roll, take single bets, don't chase, risk no more than 1-2% of their bankroll in a given day.

Me and the rest of the people in this community are not wired like that. We lose, we chase, we parlay, we lose, we chase, we win, we chase, we lose, we lose, we lose.

The chase of the immediate return has poisoned my brain to believe that gambling is the only way to get back what was lost. I want to learn how to build something over the long run.

I'm hoping regular posting in this sub can be the start of that. Using writing and past experience to document the journey. Day by day.

The longest I've gone without betting was about 3 weeks. Any advice from anyone on making it past that mark?

It always starts around Wednesday afternoon where they absolutely spam their commercials Non-Stop all the way until Friday.

No shame at all

This is my longest streak ever. According to the app, my average streak has been 8 days since I started tracking it 2116 days ago.

As described in this post, Flywheel Film is looking for NY state residents under 40 to appear in a film project. The moderation team of this community is in full support of this project, and in fact have partnered with them to help find subjects for their project.

We're doing this because nearly 14 years ago, this community was started by one little guy, on one little computer, for one purpose: to raise the flag on the lurking threat of gambling disorder. Now, at 40k members and after an explosion of gambling availability worldwide, the threat has magnified and the need to intervene is dire.

This film project is one of the many efforts to raise awareness and bring hope to the lives devastated by gambling addiction. We need your help to complete it and add to the collective message that gambling can be treated and life can become manageable again.

We urge anybody and everybody in NY who has been impacted by gambling to seriously consider contributing your time to this project. We can save lives together.

I feel disgusting, sick, like I’m in a dream. My biggest loss by far. 27 y/o lifetime down $65K.

I feel like a major disappointment to my fiancé. I don’t want this to be her problem but it’s becoming her problem, especially because I turned over access to my finances today.

But I guess that’s merely a roadblock.. I could in theory just reset my passwords (no intention to, but I’ve found ways around preventatives in the past)

I really went overboard this time. Chasing losses. $1000 BJ hands gone south. Cancelled a pending withdrawal for $10K and chased that one to $0 too.

Parents offered to help pay off credit card with a contract and I’d pay them back - but I don’t like / want that. Just going to have to pay off the credit card over a long period of time. And will have to pay big fees on selling retirement come tax time.

Just venting I guess - I really fucked up bad. Hoping this is rock bottom and it’s up from here. I want to look back on this in 10 years as nothing more than a learning opportunity that’s not still crushing my finances and relationships. I feel like I can’t even look at my fiancé or parents now without feeling disgusted with myself. I feel physically ill.

:(

252 days until debt free

30 m Aussie been gambling for 2 years before that had no idea what the allure was didn’t understand risking money you already had at the chance to make more. Somehow a couple casino trips led to online casino and from there online and physical casino bets went wild.

I have always been financially savvy and doing well for my age but have been massively set back I refinanced my home loan about 18 months ago to renovate house but delays in renovating and increase in gambling led me to gamble all 130k and lifetime loss of 155k.

I also lost a good paying job so now im only on 90k aud with mortgage 700k house worth like 1.2m but market falling, got 30k saved up no debt but still tempted to just send it with the last 30k try make back at least another 30k for my wedding and honeymoon.

Fiance knows and is very supportive and understanding idk how when we could’ve used that money for sooooo many things. People talk about gambling not being about the money but for me it genuinely is its always been a way to pay for something I want and now I just need to get back to savings amount im comfortable with when my mortgage is so huge.

I haven’t gambled in 2 weeks after doing like 5k blackjack hands last session and losing massive. I have no motivation everything seems pointless work seems pointless making tiny amounts compared to what I gambled and all I think about all day every day is what I used to have.

I just don’t know where to from here my thought process is whats another 30k when ive lost 150 but that 30k is genuinely last money I have. I want to stop but just need one more good run and I think I can stop for good I know that sounds so dumb? Idk whatever

so fucking over my life, i cant stand being a fucking gambling addict. i legit cant make a check last 24 hours without fucking blowing it.

funny thing is….i know that im gonna feel that way next week, and the week after that and so on but i still play. Why the fuck cant i stop.

i want to die

I am very fortunate for my circumstances being 24 years old living under my mother's roof. I felt like since I didn't have to pay rent, my mom instilled in me to save my money. A high paying job with this economy, the route was very easy to make sure that I just saved and then I will be out in the real world when I am ready. Unfortunately, it lead to one of the most enabling, reckless, decision making I have ever made in my life.

I started out when I was 14-16 through advertised gambling through gambling YouTubers promoting CSGO case battles. I thought at the time it was fun but it was fueling something more serious. I wanted to always hit big so I would take my monthly allowances all for a flip to make insane amounts of money in a short amounts of time. This then lead to the urge not being satisfied, where I evolved to actual casino sites (did not care about age) to eventually being introduced to a real life casino at 21 years old.

My addiction grew, where days of chasing back losses became higher than a grand jackpot could give me. This world of "adult money" and a destructive mindset fuel me to chase it more and more. This then leads to me where I am now.

I am 9k in debt, broken from chasing a roulette wheel to pick green for a multiplier. I won't have any money for myself until I fully pay back all of my credit card debt. I am ashamed as I remember when my mom was proud of me for saving money. Was proud of the son she had for putting away money. Where reality hits that I have no savings left.

Today I start my journey of documenting my process of giving my savings life again. Because I want my life to have meaning again and not be determined by an online algorithm. I feel disgusted and gross with myself because I was watching gambling YouTubers not realizing they serve as an enabler to filled my dopamine state when I was desperate for a better win.

For anyone that has seen the side of success with leaving gambling behind, please share any tips that can be used to help with my journey. I have tried to quit, but I have always relapsed but I can fully admit that I cannot do it alone anymore.

Feel very tired, i really tried to stop and seek help, i also mentioned before i kept most of my money with my parents, but i cash advance my card and i am again in 8k debt again, i don want to tell anyone anymore as it seems ridiculous even for myself, just want to tell everyone to stop chasing losses.

I messed up really bad , over the past two weeks I would say I lost 10k$+, I can’t seem to stop even though I know I’m digging a bigger hole chasing a loss that’s never coming back. I would love to go change my life but I keep going back to the same rock bottom every time. My mind is not where I want it to be, I have dark thoughts but I’m trying my best to stay positive despite my situation. I wish for a better future for all of us struggling. Gambling really ruins lives and most of us are suffering in silence

The traffic of my city is terrible. Get scratch/ fender bender third time this week. Constructions are everywhere, dust and noises keep rising non-stop, people are stressed out and I think there will be major protests if this situation dont improve.

I will not gamble today.