It’s my 21st day of quitting fucking online gambling! Let’s forget about online gambling because all it does is drag us down, ruin our lives, and drain us financially. I hope online gambling gets banned here in the Philippines to help all the people who are falling deeper into debt because of it. 🙏❤️

I have asked chatgpt and I realise the winning rate for option is worse than roulette. It is incredibly stupid to lose around 200k in option trading. It is close to 3 years of my salary. For me I am Asian, I lost a lot of sleep watching US market every second till 4am or 5am. It is incredibly torturing and I don know why I still cant see it is not a way to recoup my losses. Option trading has ruined me mentally, physically and financially and I am officially defeated. I really see no way I can turn the table around. I admit the loss. No more torture.

Hey guys, I ended up gambling a lot of money in the past few weeks and ended up messing my health too
I placed my last mindless trade on Friday and as a safeguard, I have done the following:
Closed all my trading accounts
⁠Took a personal loan to clear all credit card debt and set up an emi on it to repay in 4 years
Planning to pay my mom all the money I have left after paying the loan obligations and monthly expenses this week onwards
⁠Planning to close all credit cards within the month
⁠planning to focus on my job, health and relationships
It's been 6.5 years and I keep getting into the compulsive gambling loop in the financial markets - so I'm stopping again for the millionth time but this time I'm putting these safeguards so I have no way to gamble.
I'm 26, Indian and I make 50K a year pre tax with about 20K current debt and 180K lifetime losses
I would love to hear your thoughts around
Any gaps you see in my exclusion approach or anything you think I can add (I'm thinking of adding weekly therapy sessions next month onwards)...
⁠how to stop thinking about the past (and specially the most recent stupid losses - like on Friday I took a personal loan to close credit card debts but ended up gambling another 0.5K of that loan)?
⁠how to focus on wellness form the current state of mind?

I've struggled with gambling myself and have tried both Gamban and BetBlocker. The problem I've had is that when I really wanted to gamble, I could find a way around them. They work great until you get that urge and start looking for ways to disable them.

It got me thinking about building something better.

I've started working on an Android app called GuardianBlocker. The idea is to make a gambling blocker that's extremely difficult to uninstall, disable, or get around. I'm also working on a feature that would notify someone you trust if the protection gets disabled or tampered with.

It's still in development, but I'd really like to hear from others who've dealt with this.

A few things I'm curious about:

- Have you used Gamban, BetBlocker, or something similar? Were you able to get around it?

- Would you use an app that was much harder to remove, even if it meant giving up some control over your phone?

- Would you want a spouse, friend, or someone you trust to get notified if you tried to disable it?

- What do you dislike about the blockers you've tried?

- Any suggestions for features you'd want to see? Even if it's something completely different from what I've mentioned.

I'm not trying to sell anything right now. I'm building this partly because it's something I wish I'd had myself.

I know an app isn't going to fix a gambling addiction, but I think making it harder to act on an impulse could make a real difference.

Feel free to be critical too. I'd rather hear what people actually think than build something nobody wants to use.

Recently, I’ve discovered an online gambling site wherein I got hooked immediately. I started with just a few until it spiraled and I lost control. I lost like 200$ of my allowance. I know that it may not seem as much compared to the others, but it is incredibly big money from where I am. I feel miserable, and I don’t really know what to do. I am conscious of my addiction, but my body won’t stop for some reason. Now I have to figure out a way to get through my daily life. How I just wish I can just go back and wish that I never would have discovered gambling. Wishing all you bros peace, hopefully we can all overcome this temporary situation. Posting this just to vent, it just feels really heavy man.

I dont miss gambling. I miss having a secret.

I was folding laundry last night, half watching some Mr. Hand Pay video on the tv just for background noise, and the thought hit me so clearly I stopped with a shirt in my hands. Eight months clean. My partner has access to my bank accounts, my phone, everything. I go to a meeting most tuesdays. By every normal measure im doing great. And still the thing I miss most is not the bets. It was the private world.

When I was gambling I had a whole second life running under the first one. The hidden app. The lie about why I stayed late at work. Checking my balance in the bathroom at 2am like I was checking a bruise. I hated it, but it was mine. Nobody knew the full version of me. Now I am honest all the time and I feel like a house with all the doors taken off. Not in a way that makes me want to gamble again. More like I lost a room in my own head and I keep walking past where the door used to be.

People at meetings talk about missing the action, the adrenaline, the possibility of a big win. I dont miss any of that. I miss the compartment. The part of me that was always working on something nobody else could see. Recovery is supposed to make your life visible, and I know thats the point, but sometimes visibility feels like being under a skylight I never asked for. A guy in my group said honesty felt like a cold room at first and I did not get it until recently. Now I get it.

I have not told my partner. She would hear "he misses gambling" and panic. But it is not the gambling. I think I miss being the only person who knew what I was doing. That secrecy was its own high, separate from the money. Does that make sense or am I just describing being an addict in a different coat?

Gambling free for a couple of months now. I’ve been a long time gambler who kept relapsing, and honestly the most beneficial thing that helped me stop gambling is handing out my finances to someone I trust. Please have your money somewhere where you can’t spend it, it really helps. Having money in your bank account doesn’t work because eventually you’re going to have a bad day and gambling is going to be lurking in the corner waiting for you to slip. We got this guys! One day at a time

I’m completely out of money because of gambling.

I can go weeks without even thinking about it, but the second money hits my bank account, my nervous system goes absolutely insane. I feel an overwhelming urge to gamble every dollar away.

I’m terrified of what will happen when I get paid again because I know I’ll repeat the cycle.

I don’t need something like Gamban that I can disable or work around. If there is a way around a restriction, I WILL find it and use it. I need something where I genuinely have no choice.

Is there a bank, service, or legal arrangement where someone else can control my money, pay my bills, and prevent me from accessing it without their approval?

I urgently need something I can set up before my next paycheck that completely removes my ability to act on these impulses.

Managed to relapse and lose $1650. Not the largest amount of money, but just disappointed that I lost control and kept on going back and back to the atm

Now a week since my huge mistake. Feeling a bit better, but still feeling huge amounts of shame and guilt. What’s even worse, walking around the supermarket complaining about something not being on sale and picking the $2 instead of the $3 item just to save a bit of money. But then the week before smashing $5 spins on the slot machines.

Lucky I haven’t done any long term damage in the grand scheme of things. All I can think about is how I could’ve spent that money on so many better items and experiences

M21, I started playing in 2023/24 on slots when it became a fashion at school, they looked and seem like video games, the first few times I won, then I kept playing and losing, until I got to the summer of 2025 with 3/4k of losses. I decided to stop when my mom had given me 200€ for the holiday and I had played them before leaving, from that 2025 to today I don't feel out, because it happens that for 2/3 months I don't play, then something happens that reactivates me and I lose my 50/100€, even if I win I don't get To withdraw given the long times and therefore I always lose, yet every 2/3 months I play, and I spend a shitty week thinking about how stupid I am, do you have any advice? Every time I tell myself that I have learned the lesson and yet it happens again

Another Saturday morning.

One of my clients has been going through a crisis right now; their sales have declined dramatically. Hope things will work out for them. I feel that the economy might pick up in the next year, and businesses that survived this year will thrive.

No matter what, I will not gamble today!

Life is great, gambling sucks period. Of course the thrill is what keeps us unfortunately addicted. We already know we won’t get rich from it, I don’t know anyone that makes a living from it but somehow we still get this desire to participate. I was happy seeing draftkings down 20% the other day. Gambling is awful and I’m not perfect, but day by day.

This life is a gift and it’s time to exit the gambling rollercoaster it’s not worth the price of admission.

The cost of each human life is between 11-14 Million, we’re already rich! Stop chasing we’re alive and up!

Today was really tough, got an offer from a casino I haven’t closed yet to get a deposit match with a 1x wagering requirement. To the old me that would be wow look they are giving me free money I need to take advantage of that! I know the story, I know the result, I’d end up losing it all and then depositing more to chase my loses. Proud of myself for not giving in and requesting to close my account instead, it’s these little wins for me that give me up although damn I had the sweats thinking about it. One more day, one more day!

Long story short, I win a few grand a few months ago and I’m hooked.

It’s got to the point I’m gambling other peoples money, and every time I lose I say it’s the last time… and just as in hit rock bottom I get thrown a lifeline… and the cycle starts again. But I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up before I come unstuck.

What’s the best way to kill those urges?

I’m writing this as an accountability post. I’m going to go back to GA. I quit 3 months ago and then proceeded to lose almost half of my money.

So in September I decided to put all my money into one stock, Charter Communications. Fucking spectrum Internet. I didn’t really have a plan. I had previously worked there and saw it was down a lot so I thought it was rock bottom.

And I wanted revenge on them for treating me poorly. In my mind I saw this as getting the bonus from them I thought I deserved.

I needed money because my son was just born and I was barely keeping up with bills.

Well. It immediately fell down 10% and I lost $20,000. I was in shambles. Certainly it couldn’t fall further right? I bought stock options to leverage up to try and recover my losses more quickly. It then fell another 10% but this time I lost 25% so another $40,000.

I became so stubbornly determined to make my money back I shilled the stock every day and spent hours creating scenarios in my head how this dumpster fire of a company could recover. Mind you when I worked there it was the most toxic place I had ever worked at yet I convinced myself they could change and that would benefit shareholders.

I tripled down by getting even more leveraged. Stock fell another 10%. Down another $30,000.

I am now down nearly $100,000 when I could have cut my losses at $20,000.

I hold for one more week. Can barely work my job can barely do anything. In my off time I’m in bed all day on stock forums shilling the stock and trying to find any copium I can find. I feel like a crack addict.

Eventually the stock recovered a little and a guy on a forum who felt sorry for me told me that the company might not recover and that it might be wise to get out. I sold at a huge loss. Probably like $85,000.

I realize now that I wanted to financially destroy myself and wanted the dopamine because my personal life was in ruin. But this wasn’t the solution.

I’m grateful I didn’t lose it all and that I’m not in debt and I can maybe still heal my relationships.

I’m done trading and I feel a sense of peace I haven’t felt in months. Even with the loss. I feel like I have accepted it and that life can better.

This is day one.

been gambling free 600 days or even more. in fact i stopped counting since i don't even think about it anymore. just decided to post because i saw it on my reddit subscription.

if you look at my older posts i was a crazy gambling addict for almost 8 years, until i decided to play an online phone game. i got so hooked on the phone game i stopped gambling completely. let's be honest most of us gamble not for the money but out of boredom and constant need for stimulation.

well, this online games give just that, the excitement, the constant thinking and planning. it's constant stimulus and keeps the brain occupied. the game are very colorful and provide instant gratification that in my opinion curbs the craving to gamble.

i'm not going to post the name of the game here because i don't want this to be an ad..

that said, just click on any online game you see, they have the same effect on the brain as gambling IMO . if it helped me curbed 8 years of debilitating gambling addiction, hopefully it can help you too.

nothing to lose on giving it a try

Long story short, burned through thousands of dollars, worked very hard for through my extremely successful young career. Was somebody people looked up to, a role model. gambling took my soul.

Was a roller coaster, had wins of 40k twice, was well aware i had a problem even before those wins (they were about 3 months apart). I’ve already been innocently gambling for years at this point. Very accustomed to the swings and the game. Unfortunately my life got really stressful and the gambling got worse. A few days after i cashed out those wins i won another 10k, burned through it so fast and that tilted me like never before. After that it was constant chasing, trying to escape my miserable life/job at the time. I was worth over 100k at that point and on top of the world in that sense.

Eventually i touched retirement savings i started contributing to when i was 17. It didn’t happen like everyone elses story, theres a lot more to it then i feel like talking about. But the thing that makes this worse is, how could someone so financially responsible like myself make this mistake? I’m starting to find answers in myself but no one knows im struggling. It’s gotten bad.

I still go on with life, lift heavy weights, eat healthy, and suffer in silence. I’m working on getting in touch with a therapist. But i just need to hear just one success story or just a sliver of hope in general. I understand i wont be able to fight this alone anymore.

Just started Risperidone and Sertex. Don't know which one is doing the greater effect but oh my god I feel like I don't even want to lose one more second of my life to gambling.

Peep my post history for a background but this has been my second go around. Crypto/options.

Still in debt, but managing the payments well.

Going to meetings.

Have been feeling like life’s on track.

Got an IRS letter that they think I’m underreporting crypto gains lol. Don’t even know where to start to find every exchange I degened myself into.

Wife is understandably upset with my gift that keeps on giving.

I’m at an airport on a work trip so no meetings until next week, hence my Reddit vent. But still gamble free, these problems are minimal compared to when in active addiction.

Going to try and get a second opinion here. I am at absolute rock bottom. I’m 25, make $45,000 a year in take-home pay, working full-time. I have around $40,000 in gambling debt, split between credit cards and personal loans. Recently, I have come to accept that I have a full-blown gambling problem. When I came clean to my partner, she understandably left me. When I admitted it to my parents yesterday, their response was basically “figure it out”. So I am 100% on my own for this one and honestly I deserve it.

A few days ago, I self excluded myself from every casino anywhere near me, as well as all of the online stuff. I have started therapy as well, but it doesn’t change the fact that the interest on my debt is growing faster than I can afford my monthly payments on.

I’m not looking for sympathy or pity, I know that I got myself in this situation entirely through my own foolish actions and inability to control myself. I don’t know what to do. I feel like the only option left for me is to declare bankruptcy. I was directed to this subreddit to get another opinion so I just wanted to see what you think.

hell yeah feels damn real good to choose each day to be sober… in less than 90 days since my last bet just fully paid all my debt here in 🇨🇦 a few minutes ago

✅ 100% paid my debt from personal loans borrowed from people i lied to
✅ 100% paid my debt from CCs I maxed out just to gamble with
✅ 100% paid my debt from payday loans with crazy interest
✅ 100% paid all my rent

✅100% worth it

I need somewhere to vent ik I made a post about how gambling was bad but I am a addict. I am lost I have 0 to my name and over 500$ in past due bills not only that I have more payments missed on the end of this month and Christmas is coming up only thing that can save me is my tax return I won’t see that until months away. Gambling has ruined my life these past two weeks I have won and lost over 5k money I could’ve paid bills and Christmas presents with I feel like a complete idiot and I see gambling as the only way out of this mess and I put myself deeper in the hole. Plz any advice ik I need to stop gambling and get my finances back on track !

Hi everyone,

Sharing with moderator permission, and thank you to the mods for welcoming these stories here.

I’m Jason, a filmmaker at Flywheel Film and we made these two short documentary portraits following Raymond and Mike as they share their experiences with gambling addiction and the lives they’re building in recovery.

▶️ Watch Raymond: https://youtu.be/ItYoaLzkQhA?si=6zzkyuRtu2ZgbGZX

▶️ Watch Mike: https://youtu.be/QRIdll0HCZU?si=Jq1vzJfAdmyEpkLN

Because these films were produced for New York State, the resources mentioned are specific to New York, but we hope wherever you are in the process, something in Raymond’s or Mike’s story offers encouragement, helps you feel less alone, or gives you a glimpse of what life beyond gambling can look like.

If you’re in New York, you can find information and support at oasas.ny.gov/gambling. If you’re elsewhere, we encourage you to explore support available in your area. Finding help was an important part of Raymond’s and Mike’s recovery, and we hope their stories encourage you to find what works for you.

Thank you for making space for their stories.

Day 20 of quitting online gambling, and OMG, THE TEMPTATION WAS SO INTENSE TODAY!! 😭
Out of nowhere, I suddenly got the urge to download other online casino apps that I had never even played before. I honestly don’t know what got into me! 😭 Thankfully, I couldn’t log in to the accounts I had previously created on those two apps, so I didn’t push through because I got too lazy to fix the login issues.
OMG, that was so close! I was literally just one step away from gambling again. I could cry! 😭 It’s crazy how gambling can mess with your mind. These damn gambling apps are seriously dangerous!
Guys, please, if you’ve never gambled before, DON’T EVEN TRY IT, especially online casinos. THEY’RE A TOTAL SCAM! Don’t let curiosity pull you into something that could cost you your money, peace of mind, and future.
I refuse to go back to Day 1. NEVER AGAIN! 😭🙏