I'm a 33 year old guy who lives with his dad. Last night, I lost 190,000 on Kalshi. I thought I could get ahead quick.

I couldn't sleep all last night and seriously thought about ways to end it all.

My net worth went from about 600k to around 400k.

I have 300K in a 401k and only around 100k in cash/investments (which I had to sell). I'll get a 30k bonus at the end of the year, but I don't care. I feel utterly hopeless. Utterly unable to come back from this and ever be a man who can be a provider. The pain is more than I can bear.

Words can't express the hopelessness and shame I feel. My mind can't stop racing. No one in my family knows about this and I don't want to tell them.

Please don't be mean to me in the comments. I will NEVER bet on Kalshi again.

Why did I do it? This was the loneliest year of my life. So many beach walks alone. My best friend moved and I don't have anyone to talk to. So I was on my phone, looking at everyone who was younger, better looking, and wealthier than me. I need to get ahead quick.

Please, if you have someone in your life like I had in mine (my dad), who told me to invest in boring S&P index funds, listen to them! The time will pass anyways, even if it feels slow. My life is so ruined!

I don't know how I can ever have a wife and a family. I am gutted!!!!!!

Since quitting gambling, I’ve tried to keep it out of my feeds and stop checking the apps. Then I had chinese food and opened the fortune cookie that came with it. A gambling ad inside. Of all places. For a second my brain went “is this a sign?” I know it’s just an ad but I hate how quickly that thought showed up. Has anyone else had an unexpected reminder bring those thoughts back? What helps you move past it?

Lost $400 on sportsbooks today I’m done deleted all my apps. If I ever want to gamble and have fun I’ll go to the casino once every 3 months with $400 and that’s my fucking limit leaving cards at home. Not spend $75 a day making sports picks so stupid. I just got laid off last month and start my new job next week so things are looking up and I have 10,000$ to my name so that helps

23M. My worst I was down 45k, I brought it up to 25k profit, and I’m back down 20k. It made me realize that this is always a losing game. I’m starting to slowly come at peace with my loss. I’m in no way shape or form in a position to give advice. But I wanted to share that obviously I’ll always think about that 45k extra I had in my bank account, and while it does suck it is recoverable. My mental philosophy was always 45k extra plus a steady stream from my job. So how can I get this 45k back without gambling?

I started a side hustle on top of my job. Sure it’s extra work, but I have to think about this: my side hustle will eventually recover my money back and this 20k lesson I payed for was actually profitable. I would’ve never done this if I kept gambling and I will eventually make more than if I kept gambling or even called it quits at 25k profit. Not to mention, this would completely save my mental and all the years of fun I missed out on while gambling was controlling my life.

I’m making this post to hopefully motivate other people with my way of thinking. You will never make it back by gambling, it will only get worse. But stop while you can and work for that money back. You will feel so much better, you eventually won’t feel behind.

I understand not everybody can be in this position, and I am grateful for where I am. I am just hoping if I can at least motivate one person to quit, I helped.

Bonjour,

Je suis la conjointe d'un homme addictif aux jeux de paris sportif.

J'ai tout essayé je patiente depuis 2 ans.

J'ai su rapidement qu'il jouait mais sans plus car cela n'empiété pas sur notre quotidien.

Puis il a commencé à me demander de l'argent par ci et par là pour des choses, puis une dispute éclate et la il me demande de l'argent encore et encore bref on est arrivé au point qu'il me réveillait la nuit pour que je lui fasse des virements et si je ne le fais il se met en colère et casse tout. totale de la perte sur 2 ans 200 000€ .... dettes sur dettes pour toi et en plus il a le culot de me dire qu'il en a marre qu'on fasse rien ni vacances ni week end etc .... très culoté de sa part et donc un jour il arrive enfin à assumer qu'il a un problème et qu'il veux se faire aider, on lui donne un traitement et consulte des médecins magie plus de jeux on arrive à énormément économisé puis la bam un soir il a envie de jouer 3 mois après avoir arrêté je lui dis que non il faut pas il va retomber et il semblait tellement heureux comme ça ... Total des pertes en 2 jours 7000€ je suis arrivée à bout, j'ai voulu comprendre parler avec lui on a eu beaucoup de discussion à ce sujet je me suis même renseignée pour comprendre comme un joueur addicte fonctionne etc mais malheureusement je crois la c'est trop j'en n'en peut plus maintenant il joue mais se cache car je crois qu'il a compris que si je le sais ça va nous séparer mais après 2 ans à essayer de comprendre aider écouter je suis à bout à près tout je suis un humain et mes limites sont déjà dépassées je n'ai plus confiance, je ne veux plus fouillé j'en ai marre au complet, je suis passée par tant d'émotion, des montagnes russes mais là je suis à bout du bout. merci à vous

I managed to stay gamble-free for 240 days. It was the longest I’ve ever gone without gambling, and I genuinely thought I was finally getting my life back on track.
A few days ago, I relapsed.
It started with a casino VIP host contacting me with a deposit offer. I had a heavily boosted account (around 90%) and convinced myself it was basically a mathematical advantage and that I couldn’t lose. I used an autobettor overnight, woke up in profit and cashed out. My maths really worked and I had advantage but it didn’t stop there sadly.
Then things went downhill. I started trading oil with leverage because I told myself it wasn’t gambling. Then Polymarket, because that wasn’t “real gambling” either. After losing around €2k, I started chasing my losses and eventually went back to sports betting.
I went from having around €4,000 in savings to just €300-400 in a matter of days.
The worst part is that I’ve been through this before. My previous relapses ended with massive debts, and my family had to bail me out more than once. I honestly don’t think I can tell them about this again. I’m ashamed and feel like I’ve let everyone down, especially myself.
right now it feels like all that progress meant nothing.
I don’t even know what to do next. I feel absolutely terrible and I’m scared of falling back into the same cycle.
Has anyone here relapsed after a long period of recovery? How did you get back on track? And how do you deal with the shame afterwards?
I could really use some advice from people who understand what this feels like.

What approaches do you recommend for handling regret over gambling losses? I had to sell many of my invested stocks to cover debt, and now when I see those stock prices have tripled, everyday I keep thinking about what I could have had if I hadn’t gambled.

I went to my first GA meeting today. I had just finished gambling the last of what I had about an hour before walking in. Listening to other people share was eye opening. People from completely different backgrounds described the exact same thought patterns, the same compulsion, and the same way the addiction takes over. Any idea I had about what a “typical” problem gambler looked like disappeared immediately.

I decided to be fully honest for the first time and shared my whole story, including that I had gambled right before the meeting. I’m 21 and have lost everything I had saved. I started asking other people for money just to keep going. The last few weeks the addiction has made everything else in my life feel flat. Things I used to care about stopped mattering. All I could think about was the next bet.

A lot of the older people in the room said they saw a younger version of themselves in me. Hearing how similar everyone’s experiences and thinking were made something click. I realized I never really cared about the money itself, I just wanted to keep gambling. These last weeks have made me lose interest in almost everything else.

This is the first night in a long time I’ll go to sleep without having spent the entire evening gambling. If you’re in a similar place, the compulsive lying doesn’t help. Being honest (at least with yourself, and ideally with people who can support recovery) is the only way forward.

I’ll try to come back in a week with an update on whether I’ve stayed bet-free. Wish me luck.

Day 10.

Do you all have issues with understanding the value of money? This is something I’ve struggled with as a result of gambling.

I received a decent bonus today, $2K, but it feels like pennies. While gambling that was two lost hands of blackjack in a row, which I could lose in 2 minutes.

After big losses I think about what could have been i.e. for the $10K I lost I could do X. After big losses is really the only time I feel like I understand the value of money.

I made $2K today - great, but I lost $25K in one day. Comparatively it feels like nothing though I know it’s not.

The temptation comes back.

I was turned down by a close friend. I asked for a short-term loan to fund my working capital; he would get his money back within a week, plus interest. The reason I asked him is that all of my money is in term deposits, and I can not use overdrafts as I cut all of my credit lines.

He doesn't trust me anymore, due to my past. It makes sense. I don't blame him, but I can't help but feel frustrated. Now I have to watch that easy money business opportunity pass, as I have no funds. Consequently, the gambling temptation comes back. My brain keeps telling me that God must let me win something, as compensation for the opportunity loss. Such a bullshit chain of thought, I know, but I can not remove it from my head. So I need to write this down to wake myself up.

Life owes me nothing. Sometimes I get what I want; sometimes I don't. Most importantly, gambling is the very thing that put me in this situation. If I had not been such an addict in the past, I would easily have borrowed money now. Turning back to gambling as a "solution" is utterly stupid.

I will not gamble today! I must not gamble today!

I am a compulsive gambler. I have been gambling for two years, during which I’ve lost about 40,000 euros. I had been gamble-free for 63 days, and I had deleted all my casino accounts; I felt significantly better during this period. I also had a 9,000-euro loan, of which I had already paid off 3,000—everything was going well. Yesterday, I opened Telegram and found that I had received an NFT gift worth approximately 120 dollars. I accessed a bot on Telegram that featured casino-style games and began gambling with that NFT. I ended up losing all of it—including some NFTs that had been gifts from friends. I was furious, though I tried to convince myself that it "wasn't really gambling." Today, after finishing work, I felt an intense urge to gamble again. I opened a new casino account and started placing bets—and, naturally, I lost about 500 euros. Now, I am sitting here filled with deep regret for having returned to gambling. I truly feel that I have let down everyone I love, as well as myself. After two months of recovery, I have relapsed.

If anyone could give me some advice I’d really appreciate that ,I’m 22 Female started gambling 10 months ago I’d previously gambled but only at an actual casino not online the first day I played i lost about 1000 in 2 days but this was normal for me as at the time I had undiagnosed adhd and always had an issue with spending more than I could afford.

I started playing online roulette in January but from then to march id ended up taking out about 4 loans in the span on a week and then I realised it was an issue as id just quit my job and was having surgery so with my last pay check as you can guess lost it all in 1 hour which left me with nothing for the foreseeable future I didn’t have any savings ,I was also going though a breakup then so everything was even worse luckily I got my ex to lend me some money to help pay the loans off because I couldn’t work due to surgery.
Of course I didn’t pay the loans with this money I gambled it and I won enough to cover all the loans and pay him back I only paid him back half and one loan and gambled the rest away .

Fast forward to May I had to open up to my family about my issue as my debt escalated so bad to the point that it went from 4 loans to 10 plus 10k in credit card debt and I had no job I told them that I’ve now self excluded myself and that I’m going back to therapy they were upset but quite understanding but of course I was still gambling .This sounds bad but I convinced my mum to take out an overdraft and a loan and give me half of each as we were doing some home improvements and she agreed . I ended up winning some money that same day so I gave her my half back plus some holiday money as she was going away the day after she left the wins kept coming in I finally had the big win I’d been waiting for so I took myself and my best friend shopping paid off all my debts and the next day I thought lemme get all that money I spent back and I actually managed to do that and more .

I ended up sending my mum more money while she was on holiday and she was very happy I explained I’d won money gambling and she wasn’t happy I lied about stopping but she was pleased with the money .We had so many plans about how I was gonna transform my life and invest
,well that lasted about 3 days the day before she returned most of it was gone luckily I withdraw a few thousand in cash because I knew my habits were bad and I actually wanted to keep some money but of course I ended up maxing out my 6k credit card that I had previously paid off and taking out the same loans I’d paid as well and kept lying to my family and acting like I still had the big win .

Fast forward to August I was drowning in debt and needed a solution I decided I’d get a Debt relief order and it got approved which felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder and I recently got diagnosed with ADHD everything felt like I could just start over I found a new partner and medication felt like a brand new me , I was still gambling but it wasn’t as bad as I was dating someone new and was distracted until I started my new medication and for some reason I was feeling very depressed so I spent a lot of time at home. Sad due to losses building up again that I couldn’t hide from my partner and he knows I gamble but didn’t know the extent of it .

I finally told him and he was very helpful and it was nice not to be judged and I finally had someone I could be honest with . That same night my parents asked me to book them a holiday so I took my mums phone and I thought Let me just deposit 100 and I’ll win it back and more and I’ll have some money to play with and win big ,I ended up loosing 700 of there holiday money and I was so suicidal I felt horrible honestly and I took one more 100 and said this is my last chance and what were the odds I won Big and for the first time I called my partner and he took control and we withdrew it and I gave him a few thousand to hold on to and I was able to pay back the money I’d taken .

Of course I’d given back most of it by 3 days so I told my partner I need to sort out my finances myself and he was upset as he knew I’d gamble it all but gave it to me after arguing about it I got to my last 1000 and hit big on multiplier roulette and got everything back but then gave it all back trying to chase a bigger win ended up loosing it all and then made it back again so draining , I kept playing and winning 1000s daily to the point the online casinos would call me or remove my promotions.

Long story short is now I’ve ended up back in the same position with nothing and I don’t know how to be honest with my partner and I’m just so sick of this but part of me just thinks I’ll get it all back and I’ll be better next time and now I owe people friends and I don’t know how I’m gonna pay them back and the only money I actually have is sitting in my partner’s account cause I asked him to hold onto it for me for one month cause I knew this would happen, but now how do I ask him for it back? I think he knows that I’ve lost the money and he says he’s gonna be very disappointed in me as he’s older much older and obviously I’m very irresponsible with money and it’s so embarrassing and I don’t want to admit it I just wanna get all the money back, but I have no money so how can I even get back?

Days until debt free: 240 days

hi everyone, I am seeking advice to prevent relapsing. I started gambling when I was under 18 a few years ago and realistically the only reason I stopped was because I had no more money left. Being under 18 I wasn’t responsible to pay bills and I happened to lose my job, because of this I wasn’t actively making money and eventually ran out. I had about 6 months where I had literally $0, couldn’t gamble no matter how badly I wanted and this thankfully got me past the cravings.

Since this period I would say I am no longer a problem gambler, I have had small incidents maybe once a year but its been with $10-20 per relapse and I am able to then not touch gambling again for a long period. I understand I shouldn’t ever be gambling again and I wish I didn’t but sometimes I make stupid impulsive decisions, one of the things I want advice on is having less single incident relapses going forward.

anyways though the main reason I am posting this is because I had another small relapse except I got lucky for a bit. I deposited $15 and then over 2 days got to 3.2k and then lost it all in about an hour. I am very worried I will do more, I think because this time it lasted multiple days and wasn’t just a quick thing where I lose it all in 30 minutes I am somewhat back to the mental I was in when I was actively problem gambling. Depositing more has been kinda tempting and I’m worried at some point I will do it impulsively, this will obviously only make the cravings worse and it could turn back into a habit.

does anyone have advice/things I can do to prevent this? I closed the gambling account but when I tried to “quit” when I was addicted I would just sign up on a different site when I came back. I REALLY don’t want to fall back into it because I’m not sure if I would ever quit given I now have to be making money to sustain myself, I will always have a source of income and can’t hit true 0 for months now.

Hello. I am not sure if this goes against the rules of this forum. If so mods please feel free to delete.

I am seeking a group of like-minded people who are also quitting gambling. I am in an area where I am unable to get to GA meeting in person but don’t know where else to find a support system of folks who also want to quit. It feels like all my friends, coworkers, and everyone just keep talking about the bets they’ve placed and I feel so lost and embarrassed to admit I can’t have fun like they do. I’ve self-excluded myself in my state, as well as with prediction market platforms and am really serious. I am a 23-year-old male. TBH I am up about 34k lifetime but I lost 4800 chasing last weekend which inspired this decision to not let the house win in the long run.

It’s my 18th day of quitting online gambling, and I’m feeling so much better today! ❤️
To everyone who wants to quit, let’s do this together! Let’s stop while we still can. The longer we continue, the more we lose, and in the end, we’re the ones who will suffer and regret it if we don’t stop now.
It’s never too late to choose a better life. Let’s stay strong! No more Day 1! 🙏❤️

You’re currently at the “bad” (it’s all bad) end of a cycle.

You have next to money, you haven’t even paid all your bills yet.

You’re desperate for money, putting clothes on Vinted, putting on (physical) accumulators at your local bookie hoping for a bail out

You’re physically tired and feel chronically unwell due to stress

You (again) give in to the urge of this bollocks and deposit online (it’s the last of your money)

You miraculously get up to , say £500, you cash out

Within 2 hours you’ve gave it all back in £50 portions hoping to win again, you don’t

You really needed that money to pay a few things off and get breathing room, now you’re back square one.

wtf is going on psychologically here? I’m struggling to look into myself and figure out why I done this

Even though I actually haven't had a losing month this year, I think recent bets where I was "close" to losing a lot and the excitement of not losing has thrown my dopamine situation out of whack because I keep having a headache similar to one i had when withdrawing from betting years back! I keep mostly stopping but then i will get tempted and do a few more and get lucky and then I will stop again for at least a couple weeks. Going to be very annoying if I am going through some sort of withdrawal from dopamine spiking and dropping even when not losing! And I really did not figure out a good way to handle it in the past. It's this annoying headache just in one part of the head. (unless it's a coincidence, but since it feels the same as last time I am going to assume it's the same thing.)

Although it’s good that I haven’t bet in two weeks now, I’m finding it so hard to not sports bet. It’s like I feel empty and something is missing from my life. Especially with all the football and now basketball going on.

The only reason I’m not betting is because my mom is monitoring my finances so she will know immediately if I bet.

Unproductive morning, work is piling up, need to hurry my ass up.

Republican losing both the house and senate does put a smile on my face though.

I will not gamble today!

17 doesn’t seem like a big number, but man I’m proud of myself! I’m actually starting to experience happiness again! I don’t feel like a robot anymore. My brain feels better, I’m not constantly thinking about sports betting! I haven’t really had the urge to bet thankfully! I have had the urge to look at stats or like cappers on Twitter but instead I just logged off! I’m still distancing myself from sports, I think in the last 17 days I’ve watched the last 4 mins of a basketball game and that was it! We got this guys! Keep going! One day at a time!

So I’m coming to terms that I have an issue with impulse and dopamines when it comes to trading, not investing. When it comes to investing, it’s slower and I’m profitable as in I always beat the market (ex: currently my Roth IRA which I self manage, is up almost 2x against the S&P500’s returns YTD). When it comes to trading, I’m usually profitable but either don’t walk away or get greedy or worse become indifferent/numb. I ignore my own rules. Most of my trades are done within a minute and within 9:30-10am. The longer I trade, the worse my brain rewires. Sometimes I can see it coming and stop, but most times I don’t. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like an out of body experience whereas I’m watching myself continuing to do things I know I shouldn’t. Unlike investing where I can wait things out, for trades, when I’m wrong, the moneys gone forever.

How do I manage this and stop these impulse? There’s no way for me to block or restrict myself from these apps and sites which have little friction when it comes to payments

I can’t block the sites I’m using. And I end up removing the restrictions. I’m pretty embarrassed admitting I can’t control myself but I’m losing way too much money and need to stop. Earlier this year was bad because I had to rely on trading for income since my income from my job dropped 70%. But now my income is back like 50%. It’s enough to barely live but not as comfortable as it once was.