138 replies to this topic

[Jordan!]

Official Final day of gambling today... Last jackpot.. £80 out of Rob Da Bank.... Need to sort out the problem with the machines, awful habit to have a young age..  On the 25thof April 2013, I'm attempting to stop!

[Bencrest]

Official Final day of gambling today... Last jackpot.. £80 out of Rob Da Bank.... Need to sort out the problem with the machines, awful habit to have a young age..  On the 25thof April 2013, I'm attempting to stop!

 

It is a horrible thing to get in to at a young age. I used to miss college lessons because I was in the local Quicksilver, or even gambling in the common room, or the pub next door. I've been a 'problem' gambler since I was about 15, before that I was gambling with dad, or at least playing machines with him with his money, but once I got more independent, I was in a whole heap of trouble with it. Then again, with whole arcades dedicated to gambling for children, it's no wonder kids end up playing machines. I'm sure in many other countries children aren't allowed to play slots / fruit machines, only redemption / score based machines. Just seems to be accepted here. I won't start a debate calling for cash payout machines to be banned for children (because that would pretty much kill the seaside business, which is already struggling), but it certainly seems odd that there is no lower age limit, just a lower (£5) jackpot amount - and we all know how tight £5 jackpot machines can be when the mood takes them - basically £25 jackpot machines in disguise!

 

Whether it goes well, or you 'fall off the wagon', don't be afraid to post in here - and I wish you the best of luck with it (but you don't need luck, just not to gamble - sounds so easy when type it!!)

Edited by Bencrest, 26 April 2013 - 07:09 AM.

[Jordan!]

Being that I work in a pub as well, it's even harder.. Because whn we're dead and here is nothing to do, it's just there for a bit o fun. I can quite proudly say that I haven't robbed anything for gambling... But I will admit to loosing more than I should do.

[Bencrest]

Being that I work in a pub as well, it's even harder.. Because whn we're dead and here is nothing to do, it's just there for a bit o fun. I can quite proudly say that I haven't robbed anything for gambling... But I will admit to loosing more than I should do.

 

Staff playing machines has always been one of my most loathed habits. As far as I'm concerned, staff in premises with machines should be barred, by law, from playing the machines, as it goes against one of the aims of the Gambling Act 2005 : 

 

 

(b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way.

 

You cannot possibly claim that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way when staff can play machines. I've known them to withhold change from players when they have been sharking and intend to play 'after hours', or when the player leaves. Staff know how much has gone in and been paid out.

 

Besides which, when at work you are paid to work, not to play machines. Sorry, but I always have taken a very dim view of such activity. As for saying 'there is nothing to do', there is always something to do. I've never understood the logic people have these days of 'there is nothing to do' - there's dressing (facing up, housekeeping), stock rotation, deep cleaning, coming up with ideas to boost profit (perhaps thinking about locations of stock and furniture).

 

Not having a dig - but saying you play machines because 'there is nothing to do' really is a p**s poor excuse for gambling. You gamble because you enjoy it, you think you have an advantage, and for financial gain. Until you can admit that, you'll struggle to give up

Edited by Bencrest, 06 May 2013 - 05:56 PM.

[Bencrest]

Well, here's a little update from me.

 

I've not gambled since my last lapse still, so that's good. Another challenge I've had is that I've got my garage machines up and running again in the warmer weather, and have so far accumulated a float of about £250, just from getting change at bars e.t.c. and craftily bringing it home. Running my own machines while giving up is perhaps a stupid idea - after all, while there isn't a financial reward on offer, I'm still physically playing real machines.

 

That might explain why recently, I've had a few more 'thoughts' about gambling than usual. I've not done it yet, and I've not considered going out to gamble, but have noticed while out that I've started getting those niggling thoughts about gambling again. Just got to be strong I suppose. I do still enjoy watching dad gamble, and advising him on machines. However, this is something I need to start cutting back on. I did plan on taking my darts out last night but couldn't find them, so that's a mission for me today (find my bloody darts!!).

 

I play darts in the canteen at work and I'm definitely getting back into the swing of it, so that's something for me to work towards - I do miss a bit of casual darts, in low-level 'social' teams (joined a team that was a bit too serious once and it sucked all the fun out of it for me!!!).

 

So, that's about it for me - still not gambled since my stupid tenner in March but having more disposable income, and running the garage machines does bring some new challenges. 

 

Hope everyone else is getting on OK with their own missions

[vectra666]

@bencrest, you will have urges to play machines as you're playing them at home whether they're on free play bar x's or the emulated ones.
Once a gambler always a gambler, like me I,m an addict always have been always will be!
I always 6 out of 7 nights a log onto fruit-emu and play the emulations on lappy, but I find dxing whether its a re-dx or a completely new layout a great help as It stops me playing for real online, gets my mind focused on something gambling related but can't play it till its finished,if you know what I mean. To completely stop gambling then unfortunately you'll have to take away temptation like Robinhood75(james) did, by the way does anybody know how he's doing?.
As for jordans comments about robbing to feed the habit yes I'm ashamed to say I did, not rob items/houses but fiddle the till at chip shop/ holiday camp where I worked in early 90's to play machines as low as 2p play used to not ring stuff up then push notes to back of till draw making 20-30quid a night then off to quicksilver next morning being late for work sometimes as had to put another quid in!!
Next week on hols so that'll be my only week of real gambling so no virtual fix but the real deal but only for a week

[CrAzYbAr]

2 months down now, hope everyone else is going good

[Bencrest]

Yeah, I'm still good. Have a reasonable float in my garage machines at the moment, don't feel any urges to play but do like to put the odd quid in them for a realistic 'gamble' (I like FME but you can't beat a real machine), with a view to paying off a credit card with the money. Thank god I found out my local Post Office will give out and change up £1 coins - that's any excuse I used to have to go to the arcade finished (I used to pop in 'for change', last year before I defloated my machines and used the money for Christmas). Luckily, once I got some fraud taken off my credit file, I managed to get a 4.9% APR balance transfer for life, so whereas I was paying £80p/m (and £65 or so was interest), I'm now paying £40p/m and only £12 or so is interest. The machines will act as my 'top up' on top of my Direct Debit, so I should have that cleared in 12 months or so. 

 

My job (while I still have it, not looking as secure as it was a month ago!!) is keeping me busy for half the week, and the other half I'm trying to do things I've been putting off for years. Last week I cleared out a spare bedroom (which had become a 'store room' and turned it into a bedroom for my niece (who loves it, I thought she'd hate having her own bedroom but she's very happy in there!), and did a bit more clearing out of the garage.

 

Now I've got another room to clear upstairs but this one's a total monster. Obsessive compulsive hoarding FTW!

 

(if you don't know what I mean by that, I took 5 x 8yd builders skips out of the garage (double) and you can now use about 1/4 of the space in it - and no, apart from the machines and an exercise bike in there, bugger all of it is mine!).

 

Feeling pretty positive, and it's nice that we are now over 1/3 of the way through the year. Still can't believe I had that 'lapse' a couple of months back, but at least now I have a contingency plan for such things

Edited by Bencrest, 16 May 2013 - 07:31 AM.

[coconut_dave]

Mate keep it up, your doing well, just read most of this!

 

Playing the machines in the garage IMO is like quiting smoking with the patches or the fake fags, it helps to take the edge off and helping with the removal of the main reason.

Like most people, they can't just turn around and stop, done, finnished, game over...... they have to have that patch to help, so try to slow yourself from your own machine over weeks, months and you will get there.

 

Keep it up

[IHartwell]

Any more updates from quitters? It's gone quiet

[Bencrest]

Well I've not gambled on anything since the lapse in my signature, apart from buying that DOND I ended up smashing, which I guess was a gamble of sorts

 

Having said that I still do go out to the club while dad gambles, so no doubt I get some of my gambling kicks through him, vicariously. Not as much as I did, I'm quite happy to sit at the bar now while he goes for a gamble, but can't help having a quick gander sometimes. I've barely played the garage machines the past few weeks either, aside from my very brief experience with Noel, I've not been in there much. Then again, I've been a bit low on cash this month, I get paid in the morning so that's nice. Now I've got a note acceptor for Club Clouseau (thanks Noel!) that means I can play that with notes now, which will be interesting.

 

Nothing else to report though. Not had any 'real' urges to go out for a gamble. Might have had the odd stupid thoughts when under stress / pressure, because gambling used to be one of my routes for escaping stressful situations, but nothing I haven't been able to handle or distract myself from.

[CrAzYbAr]

Pretty much business as usual here. Mate got a fruit machine for his flat (Alien) so I went with him and helped bring it in, set up etc, ran it a bit in test mode making sure it worked, which it did.

If anyone does see me in London, chances are I may well have a pocket of pound coins, especially if I'm to head to the Pipeline bar...6 pinball machines, who can say no!

[yorkstar]

wheels have come flying of the wagon for me ended up playing quite a few fruites while on the lash in York yesterday then must of 200 quid on line last night oops. 

[Bencrest]

wheels have come flying of the wagon for me ended up playing quite a few fruites while on the lash in York yesterday then must of 200 quid on line last night oops. 

 

Sorry to hear that it's happened, but you've done well by coming on here and admitting it! Not wanting to sound like the beardy bastard on a DOND... but... how does it feel? My advice would be to take it on the chin and move on, don't dwell on it too much or you'll only get yourself down and (in my opinion) that'll leave you more likely to have problems. Just realise it was a stupid thing to do (stupid if you are trying to give up), write it off, come to terms with it, and assuming you still want to give up, keep focusing on that. 

 

When I went off the rails last year, when work was utterly horrible (forced overtime, 16 hour shifts, treated like crap) I went out gambling and hit the beers, then lost £1500 in online casinos in a session lasting about 2 hours, between something like 2am and 4am. Stupid thing is I got back to even (or damn close to it, within 5%) on at least two occasions, but couldn't stop myself. Once you get back to even it is so tempting to play on and try and show a profit

 

I'll admit that while I've haven't been gambling recently, I have noticed I've been throwing money about and almost getting myself in debt, just from buying random things I really don't need. What I *should* be doing is using the money I save to pay off credit cards from my gambling days, but instead I'm stuck in a pattern of buying things on impulse. Something else for me to work on I think - while it's better to spend money on things than lose it on machines, it's not great when you are worrying about money because you've ordered a bucketload of things you didn't even need

Edited by Bencrest, 23 June 2013 - 02:55 PM.

[yorkstar]

Not great really skint till payday not long though, did really well first 3 months of the year now back to usual, booze doesn't help either after a day out on the beers yesterday makes you do silly things especially when it comes to gambling. 

Should really self ban from online unreal how much you could spend if being silly, the stakes you can go up to is crazy you could blow a months wage in no time really.

[Bencrest]

Well, it's the 1st July, so that's officially 6 months out of the way, and so far only 1 minor lapse (March, see forum sig), which I'm pretty proud of

 

Something that did worry me, is that I learned to drive at the beginning of the year. I was worried that by having a car, it would be far easier for me to go out and gamble. In the past - and this will sound really bad - I used to arrange little trips away to Peterborough for the night (mmm... Travelodge) with the intention of other things, but also to visit all the arcades which were on the doorstep. So having a car would mean I could just drive to arcades. Luckily it's something I've not done this far, and I've not felt inclined to do.

 

Closest I came to gambling recently was last week, dad and I went to the club so he could help a disabled gent with his ATOS paperwork (about 21 pages, bloke can't write so dad took his lappy and they went through it in the club office). I left them to it as I didn't want to impose, and sat in the bar... for 2 hours... bored out of my bloody mind (forgot laptop, DS, darts, e.t.c.).

 

2 hours of sitting there surrounded by machines. I was itching to do anything to pass the time, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly close to putting a note in the lottery based video slot (Lucky Lotto by JABRO / Storm Games) and leaving it spinning away on 10p to see if I could hit the £50 jackpot, or anything really, since 10p play on that can last quite a while. Came seriously close to playing it. Managed not to, but it's situations like that (and the time in March when I was stuck in the town centre for an hour) when I get bored and that boredom leads me to thoughts of gambling.

 

Still, it didn't happen, and I need to plan around such things as I've said before - if I know I'll be stuck somewhere near machines with nothing to do, I need to make sure my phone has full charge (not 3% like it did on this occasion!!) so I can at least distract myself with some Angry Birds or something.

 

Otherwise though, nothing else to report. If I can get through the next 6 months without any more lapses I'll be ecstatic

Edited by Bencrest, 01 July 2013 - 09:44 AM.