36 replies to this topic

[pash]

There must be plenty of you ex-gamblers out there so please tell me how you kicked this habit.

It getting to the point were i could lose a lot and im not just talking money here, i dont want that to happen i cant put up with it any more i need help!

[richardholmes]

you are the only person who can stop it. no - one else can help you. i've had really good times on fruits, and really bad times on fruits, but now whilst im young (19) im gonna quit before it gets too late. you just have to avoid it, think to yourself what you could buy with the money you might gamble. feel good about yourself when you can walk past a fruit hall and not go in, feel good when you realise how much money you save.

its all worth it in the long run.

[todd1970]

Hi pash....the choice is simple like it was for me....keep going the way your going or...stand to lose everything...your home your job your family..it aint easy i know...been there done that..im the first to admit im still addicted to the fruitys...but its in a more controled way..as in i dont get access to my wages my missus has my bank card...she takes her share and i get whats left.(pocket money if ye like)i get slagged off my workmates about who wears the troosers im my house...but who gives a toss...i know if i had my own way...all my wages would go in the fruitys every week.....and then where would i be??...i know...hanging about the streets of glasgow...homeless...who knows??mabye thats something you could look at.not having access to cash..i tried GA..but didnt find it very useful..sorry to prattle on... hope i didnt bore you too much..just trying to see it the same situation i was in[hr:b95095e5a5]hope this helps :wink: [hr:b95095e5a5]

[Bencrest]

Hmm...how about the old 'lose as much as possible in the nastiest machine you can find and feel so stupid you will never play them again' approach? Its along the same lines as 'smoke as much as you can without dying' approach to giving up smoking.

Seriously, Only way I managed to cut down was to have 2 bank accounts, 1 for buying on the net, and 1 for my beer tokens, e.t.c. My wages get paid into the online account, and I transer say £10 per day into the Beer Tokens account, for use in pubs on Friday and Saturday [too much college work rest of the time!]

What I would then do is take £10 to the pub, and give the person behind the bar £5, asking them to take the next one out of it when I'd finished the first. After 2 pints, I'd have £5, and would then either stay in the same pub, or change [normally change!], and do the same. You don't take enough out with you to gamble with - no cards and only £10.

I bet everyone has their own methods for quitting gambling, let us know how you get on with yours!

Best of luck mate, I've not quit entirely - but at least I'm on the way. At least I don't physically HAVE to play every machine I walk past now, and I only play £5 bandits, and my Spiker.

If you ever need to talk about how stupid you are when you play a bandit when you are supposed to be quitting - you know where to post!

BarcrestBenito

[Irvster]

Its very hard mate to stop playing..i know...I still kid myself that i can play in a controlled way but only last week i got involved on a new cops and robbers machine in the pub (£180) and boy did i feel like a f***in loser!!!

My missus recently gave birth to our first child and you would think that the incentive to stop would be immense but i find it hard when i watch munters in the pub lobbing in all thier change and the little fruitie monster on my shoulders tells me "just try a coupla quid ...you never know" when this happens i deliberately walk over to the other side of the pub and stare at the tv of course this is when i am on my own. Truthfully if i am with friends then i don't play AT ALL..i lost all my freinds through fruities in the pub 10 years ago and now i have established good freindships with a great bunch of blokes none of whom play the bandits and have warned me if i play them they will go onto another pub/club without me...believe me they are worth more to me than the fruities!!!

All in all mate i can only echo what the others have said..it's down to personal willpower and i KNOW it is easier said than done but when you feel the urge, you must try to put it out of your mind and maybe consider not having access to your money get ya missus or mates or brothers...anyone to keep hold of your bank card and believe me you will be surprised at how much money you can amass in a few short non fruitie weeks.

Let us know how you cope i am sure i am not alone in wishing you all the best of luck mate.

Irvster '04'

[RoadRunner]

Ive tried numerous times to stop but i find it too difficult. My mate who too likes to gamble has decided from 1st april we're gonna have a major go at stopping. I know if i muck this up, then i know ill never quit.

[TheMaxPower]

I have never had a problem with gambling but I guess giving up would be similar to stopping smoking - You have to want to stop and you have to realise that you are not giving anything up.... The need to play is just a tiny monster in your stomach that feels like hungar... He is very easy to ignore if you want to... I wish you the best......

[flyer]

well it cost me my first marraige m8.it was hard to stop.but when i lost my wife and child it soon hit me.dont get me wrong here bud but i wished i told my first partner . i am the first to admit when we split up i was playing more and more and to tell you how bad it was m8 you no what i do for a liveing and i was working fri sat sun at £100 pound a night plus also i had a full time job of £250 aweek.all that was going into the machines.thats about £500 a week thats how bad i was. but now once again i am married with 3 kids and when i first meet my new wife i told her straight away about my problem.she was so understanding and helped me though it.now the way i look at it that each penny i dont put in them things i put away and at the end of the year we can all have a great hoilday.now upto to day i dont have anything on hp i own it all.its all mine and dont have to give a penny to know one coz my saveings got me out of det and my life as change.talk to people who r close to u m8 and get there help before its to late.if you need to speak to someone first you have my number and i dont mind if you want to ring me and talk about it just to take the first step and tell someone you have a problem as this help as you have told someone with your own words out of your mouth.

[Bencrest]

Little change here :

remember......ONLY THE MACHINE EVER WINS>>>>>>>
%72 payout.............
=
%28 of YOUR MONEY GOES TO THE MACHINE

Becomes :

remember......ONLY THE MACHINE [and the bloke after!] EVER WIN>>>>>>>

%72 payout.............
=
%100 of YOUR MONEY GOES TO THE MACHINE - becuase 72% does NOT mean that if you put any in you will get 72% back, that normally goes to the person after, who puts in £1 and gets £72 out!

BarcrestBenito

[potter]

If this makes any sense, this is how I dealt and still deal with from time to time my addiction.
When I got the urge to go play a fruity its was easy to forget the down side to playing them.

YOU MUST remember the complete and utter gutted feelings of complete and total despair after loosing all ur money.
The weeks of borrowing.
Living on totaly crappy for food.
No money for ciggarettes (if u smoke) or tobbacco.
Thinking,"OH MY GOD WHAT A KNOB AV BIN."
The constant deceptions like,"Can u lend us a tenner the card cash as ate my card an the banks not open till Monday".
Makes u feel like a real twat does'nt it LYING all the time to people u love.

U MUST REMEMBER THE DOWN SIDE. NEVER FORGET
U MUST REMEMBER THE DOWN SIDE. NEVER FORGET
U MUST REMEMBER THE DOWN SIDE. NEVER FORGET

Just some of the crap u have to put up with.
Just STOP............ before u enter that arcade and remember the consequences of what ur about to go through.
NO MONEY. NO LIFE. NO FOOD. JUST SHIT.
NO MONEY. NO LIFE. NO FOOD. JUST SHIT. NO MONEY. NO LIFE.
NO FOOD. JUST SHIT. NO GIRL. NO HOUSE. NO KIDS. NO GIRL. NO HOUSE. NO KIDS. NO GIRL. NO HOUSE. NO KIDS. NO GIRL. NO HOUSE. NO KIDS.

All for WHAT a little bit of self gratification, coz thats all it is.
U can go home and self gratify yourself in other ways.

They allways win in the end. So change the odds and buy your bird or some-one else u love something nice and be a winner. Coz thats a what youll be.

I know it's not easy. It's a form of auto suggestion. (hypnotism) but it worked and still works for me today.

[pash]

Thank you so much guys for all your help so far, as for getting the mrs to look after the finances thats a no-no as i have HER bank card although shes not a gambler she can spend an enourmous amount of money on shite and cant pay bills to save her life so thats all down to me i have never put her money in to a machine that i can pride myself on (about the only bloody thing) but hopefully a method of quitting combining several of the ideas on here will help me out.

With all you guys behind me i hope i can do it

(22 hours fruity-free)

[buzzin_nutta]

This sounds really stupid, but I moved to a country pub... We are talking country here, there's no fruits in the pub, there's only one shop in the village, and there's none at the station. I live with the g/f so I never go anywhere on my own, so I cant venture in to the next town to play them. That has saved me £££'s already mate.

[prizeshot]

[B]Oh you will certainly lose the habbit (at least with real money) assuming you're still young I had the habbit real bad when I was younger and beleive me it will dissapear with age I still enjoy fruit machines but now its just for fun and not with real money! good luck!

[barcrest]

The hardest bit is thinking you will give up then dropping a £75 streak off £5 and then you forget all the times you have done your arse and had to walk home. I find if you keep a spreadsheet with you win's and losses on you'll soon see how much money your loosing and that should help you quit. There is no hard and fast way it's different for us all.

[ChrisT1701]

Hi, I saw your post and felt I had to reply.

About 8 weeks ago I hit rock bottom. No home, No job, no nothing. all through the fruities.

If you want any more info, I'm afraid you'll have to pm me since, for obvious reasons, i don't want to talk about it in public areas.

If i can help 1 other person i'll be happy.

Take care

[k2]

Yes I saw your post and felt I had to reply too. I have spent 1000's in my time, started gambling after watching my friends and got hooked after winning about a tenner each time for the first few go's.
Of course it never stayed that way. You know when you have to quit when winning the jackpot means nothing anymore.
Just learn to walk away and never have spare change if you can help it. Make excuses to yourself and have good friends around you.
If you lose on a fruitie, walk away EVEN if you see someone else play it. Watching someone win all your money will just kill you and make you feel more sh*t then ever as you probably know.

Best of luck, I hope you can conquer this habit.

[mikey95]

There must be plenty of you ex-gamblers out there so please tell me how you kicked this habit.

It getting to the point were i could lose a lot and im not just talking money here, i dont want that to happen i cant put up with it any more i need help!

A moaning female and an ever-increasing mortgage is what you need pal
(i could lend you both of mine for a song! (easy rodney, easy....))I used to be addicted and now i still work with the f***ers, you need an expensive lifestyle to keep playing em......

:evil: :evil: :wink:

[subderma]

best way to give up is how i made one of my mates quit

firstly download emulators and layouts etc from here (same amount of fun and free)

secondly take £5 and go to the bookies pub or whereever you play fruities the most instead of putting your fiver in straight away then losing it wait and watch

eventually the (got to choose my words carefully here) prick with more money with sense (and he's flat broke) will play the machine £80 later and sod all in his pocket he will go you then put your fiver in if you win great (as long as you pocket it not gamble it) if not who gives a toss

but the most important part wether youve got nowt in your pocket or some winnings in your pocket the most youve lost is a fiver and think to yoursen i used to be that prick who lost 80quid

repeat this process until you lose the urge to play a fruitie unless some tosser has lost a fortune in it and you can limit yoursen to a fiver

[ElGringo]

After spending 1000's of pounds in my youth on fruit machines I found the one thing that simply guarantees kicking the habit.

A WIFE !!!!!!!

Worked wonders and in about five minutes of meeting of her 8)