Caning
Petera, fair play to you. Ive been going to Gamblers Annonymous for 11 months and i feel that it has really helped me. Whenever i used to go to the pub i would spend the night playing the machines, sometimes missing days at uni just to go out and play the machines. As soon as i started going to GA i stopped going to the pub. I left it for about 2 months, didnt see my friends, just stayed at home. I feel that this helped me a lot. I can now go to the pub and not even feel bothered about playing a machine. In fact in my local, all my friends prefer to stand at the bar than sit down and i have found myself leaning on the machines and not even realising(they get very little play, maybe 1 person every couple of days).
Im constantly dumbfounded at how stupid i was to ruin the best part of 3 years ignoring my friends, spending no time with family, buying almost nothing and putting all my money in the fruities. As my dad says, i may as well have thrown it down the drain or set fire to it all!!
But without the help and support of GA i dont think i could have got through it. Also the help and support of my friends and girlfriend have helped. I very nearly lost my girlfriend because of my gambling, but she wanted to help and stay by me, which i really appreciate because she knows how much i love her and vice versa. I believe that because we are getting through this we can get through anything.
I regularly go to my mates and play poker and while they all play for money i have my own "poker money" that my mates have made me, stating that if i win then the 2nd placed player wins the cash. Im happy with this arrangement because noone wants me to miss out.
By the way, ive only ever bet on the Grand national twice, never bet on dogs, football, never been to a casino or played an FOBT - they just dont interest me. My problem was the flashing lights!!
I do urge anyone who thinks they have a problem to just try one GA meeting, it will suprise you. My mate didnt think he had a problem but he has been going to the same meeting as me for 10 months and he has said how thankful he is that he started sorting himself out early rather than leaving it.
For anyone that doesnt know, addiction is a mental disease and although there is no cure, it can be treated and peoples mindset altered to help them achieve a better way of thinking and living.
I thank you for reading this post, if you made it to the bottom you deserve a medal!!!
Darren
Im constantly dumbfounded at how stupid i was to ruin the best part of 3 years ignoring my friends, spending no time with family, buying almost nothing and putting all my money in the fruities. As my dad says, i may as well have thrown it down the drain or set fire to it all!!
But without the help and support of GA i dont think i could have got through it. Also the help and support of my friends and girlfriend have helped. I very nearly lost my girlfriend because of my gambling, but she wanted to help and stay by me, which i really appreciate because she knows how much i love her and vice versa. I believe that because we are getting through this we can get through anything.
I regularly go to my mates and play poker and while they all play for money i have my own "poker money" that my mates have made me, stating that if i win then the 2nd placed player wins the cash. Im happy with this arrangement because noone wants me to miss out.
By the way, ive only ever bet on the Grand national twice, never bet on dogs, football, never been to a casino or played an FOBT - they just dont interest me. My problem was the flashing lights!!
I do urge anyone who thinks they have a problem to just try one GA meeting, it will suprise you. My mate didnt think he had a problem but he has been going to the same meeting as me for 10 months and he has said how thankful he is that he started sorting himself out early rather than leaving it.
For anyone that doesnt know, addiction is a mental disease and although there is no cure, it can be treated and peoples mindset altered to help them achieve a better way of thinking and living.
I thank you for reading this post, if you made it to the bottom you deserve a medal!!!
Darren
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Matt Vinyl
- Senior Member
- Posts: 7198
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2005 6:56 pm
- Location: Lost in the outback, Bryan
ops: -
Mr McStreak
Darcle and Petera,
You have both evidently plumbed the depths of your souls in writing so frankly about your addictions, and how you've managed to turn your lives around. I can really identify with what you both say, and I would like to applaud and thank you both for your comments.
I must admit that touching on this subject is rarely done by anyone without trepidation, and I was reluctant to write about it, fearing people would take the piss. I know many people who wallow in others misery, and several of them I used to consider good friends. I can recall times when a certain person took great pleasure in seeing me or a friend lose at the casino, and when I decided to distance myself from such people by enrolling on a course and trying to better myself I was mercilessly ridiculed. The attitude of some really suprised me, and left me depressed and hurt.
It really woke me up, and in the face of this I managed to clarify exactly where I stood with supposed friends, and it has really changed my attitude towards people. I find myself far less tolerant of those I have little or no time for, and i'm far more confident. However having people sending me multimedia messages of banked machines, piles of pound coins etc, eventually broke my resistance, and I was sucked back into the world of easy, readily available money.
How I wish i'd persisted with my own plans....
I'm sure many of you have encountered this, and in writing it down I feel sort of cleansed!
You have both evidently plumbed the depths of your souls in writing so frankly about your addictions, and how you've managed to turn your lives around. I can really identify with what you both say, and I would like to applaud and thank you both for your comments.
I must admit that touching on this subject is rarely done by anyone without trepidation, and I was reluctant to write about it, fearing people would take the piss. I know many people who wallow in others misery, and several of them I used to consider good friends. I can recall times when a certain person took great pleasure in seeing me or a friend lose at the casino, and when I decided to distance myself from such people by enrolling on a course and trying to better myself I was mercilessly ridiculed. The attitude of some really suprised me, and left me depressed and hurt.
It really woke me up, and in the face of this I managed to clarify exactly where I stood with supposed friends, and it has really changed my attitude towards people. I find myself far less tolerant of those I have little or no time for, and i'm far more confident. However having people sending me multimedia messages of banked machines, piles of pound coins etc, eventually broke my resistance, and I was sucked back into the world of easy, readily available money.
How I wish i'd persisted with my own plans....
I'm sure many of you have encountered this, and in writing it down I feel sort of cleansed!
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betchrider
- Senior Member
- Posts: 4417
- Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:01 pm
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red22
ok my story is this .
i gambled in arcades at 15 with false ID and got hammered all the time bar x o multi nudge etc etc lost everything , now i dont know wether i class myself as fortunate or not in the respect that i met a pro gambler who took me in and taught me how to make money , well i play for a living.
i think i am addicted to gambling though because even if i couldnt make fruits pay i think i would still play em, although i cannot say this for sure as i wont play shit in a pub i will only play profitable machines.
i am not gonna go down the road of " IS THIS THE END " again but .... wait for it .......... if it is the end then im unsure wether i will survive financially or my relationship for that matter as i am not sure wether i would resist the urge, i really am 50/50 on it...
i wouldnt play a gold rush regardless though i know that much !
i gambled in arcades at 15 with false ID and got hammered all the time bar x o multi nudge etc etc lost everything , now i dont know wether i class myself as fortunate or not in the respect that i met a pro gambler who took me in and taught me how to make money , well i play for a living.
i think i am addicted to gambling though because even if i couldnt make fruits pay i think i would still play em, although i cannot say this for sure as i wont play shit in a pub i will only play profitable machines.
i am not gonna go down the road of " IS THIS THE END " again but .... wait for it .......... if it is the end then im unsure wether i will survive financially or my relationship for that matter as i am not sure wether i would resist the urge, i really am 50/50 on it...
i wouldnt play a gold rush regardless though i know that much !
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red22
just read this thread again and i have realised one thing ... despite my knowledge and money making ability on fruits i can honestly say i only have 2 friends that are completely unrelated to machines, as in dont play em, i dont mean associates i have hundereds ,but real mates people i could rely on. and thinking about it thats pretty sad in comparison to 4 years ago when i didnt play em a lot only at weekends, and thinking of the other players i know there pretty much in the same boat.sad really.
Something of an echo, but an excellent thread.
I am in the privileged position of recognising that I have the wrong sort of mindset for responsible gambling. Like many others on here, I started off by losing money on machines, but by chance encounters I managed to turn the machine situation around and start winning on machines.
I think I have the correct conscious security mechanisms in play, so that if I were to walk into a casino to gamble, I would treat the money as disposable income, to most likely be lost and most importantly, not chased.
Fifteen years ago, had I been exposed to FOBT and casinos, I may have crashed and burned by now.
I am a gambler, but when fruit machines as we like to know them, dry up, then I will just play on line/live poker. I play responsibly and well within my bankroll's capabilities. I usually play £5/£10 stts and no higher than £0.10/£0.20 NL if I'm really flying. I would enjoy the buzz of a £2/£4 game, but know that I'd be punching above my weight and ultimately fritterring cash. I still enjoy the lower stakes, the banter and accept it's better to be safe than sorry.
FOBTs and s16s/B3s, I've done a few K. Nothing huge, huge. I've learned my lesson and I haven't gone out of control for a long time now. That few K was just from a handful of sessions. I never had any fantastic luck, bar a jackpot from a Slotto. Really I'm thankful for that. A lot of early wins may have hooked me. I'm usually very PMKesque on my s16 sessions. Lose at double quick speed. If I do try the odd B3, FOBT these days it's a couple of quid, not a couple of hundred.
Unless you're the AWP professional equivalent of the manufactured boy band, you're going to be of a gambling mindset.
I also identify with the 'value of money' comments made earlier, particularly the 'you'll think nothing of having to spend £x on a machine, but might think twice about buying that designer top costing £x'.
Video games and AWPs typically go hand in hand and are generally considered to be the preserves of 'addictive personality'. The transition from one to the other is usually pretty smooth.
Check this book out
ISBN 0415058341
It's worth a look. A friend of mine (non fruit) actually bought me this for my birthday, many moons ago. It was a result of my AWP activity in pubs. Basically I was hacking off my friends due to being anti-social and floating onto the machine. I think he wrote a cover note on it, something like 'Happy birthday George, not so much a book, more of a mirror'.
I didn't buy it at first, but reading through the book, I found myself having to accept that many of the negative traits of gamblers were what I was exhibiting.
Since then, I never 'play' a machine in a pub if out with non fruit mates.
There are a couple of my mates who will go £2 in each with me at times. Say it's a Cluedo, we go a quid each, get a great start, red hi/lo cash, we're collecting. Something like a cash attack, couple of quid each, no board, what's the biggie? Could be there, might not be there. If it's there and a quick blip or blap then bravo, if not, c'est la vie.
However it's quite rare this happens anyway. If we fancy a quick punt, we play anything. Gold Rushes, Dream Factory, Boulderdash, Sonic, Up 'n Over, Duff Beer Guide, Deal Wheel, Battleaxe, Win-a-lot, SupaVault, Screenplay, Pyramid, Thunderbirds, Hall of Fame, Pink panther, Stir Crazy, Raise the Roof, Mega Nudger, Fruit drop, Pie Factory or indeed What's in yer box?
We don't play Open the Box or Monopoly Hot Property though. It's not fair to waste £2 of my mate's money on that is it?
So Lee, I've got to disagree with you (petera style) when you say you haven't got an addictive personality. I'd bet you've probably stayed up later than you planned on your PS3 for example. However not smoking/drinking suggests strong will and not FOBTing/casinoing good conscious control of dangerous, tempting vices. So I'd say addictive personality but well reined. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I just believe that all fruit/video game people are of an addictive ilk. I'm the same addictive personality, but thankfully, as at the start of the post, controlled.
It's excellent having the tales of H2, slammer and now petera and many others, not in a gloating sense that some people might get out of other's misery, but in the fact that the 'SALIENT PATHWAY OF DOOM' is well illuminated by these tales, which helps to prevent it becoming grim reality for other people. It also makes the forum more inviting for people who are going through the same thing.
I've been to a casino a handful of times. I went to the Stanley casino in Leicester City Centre with one of the Thomas's regulars a long time ago. This guy spent a few hundred there and then started tapping me up, asking for money and asking if I wanted to become a member.
A respectable looking guy in a suit turned around and said to me in a matter of fact manner, "Don't do it, don't sign up, I did and it has ruined my life". Well I didn't need any more testimony than that, I wasn't keen on signing up anyway, but after that, stone cold dead I wasn't signing up.
I'm not the greatest AWP player at all. I'm lazy and insular with respect to talking to other players. However if I had known certain people back in Mar/Apr 2007 that I have met on here, then I reckon as a duo we could have nailed them for better rewards each than I would have netted playing solo, well before MP dropped the beans, by the sounds of it around Jul '07 with the p1/p2s starting to float in.
Enough rambling, I was going to say something else, but can't remember what it was now.
Take care and I do mean, take care.
(Brass eye - drugs special)
JG.
I am in the privileged position of recognising that I have the wrong sort of mindset for responsible gambling. Like many others on here, I started off by losing money on machines, but by chance encounters I managed to turn the machine situation around and start winning on machines.
I think I have the correct conscious security mechanisms in play, so that if I were to walk into a casino to gamble, I would treat the money as disposable income, to most likely be lost and most importantly, not chased.
Fifteen years ago, had I been exposed to FOBT and casinos, I may have crashed and burned by now.
I am a gambler, but when fruit machines as we like to know them, dry up, then I will just play on line/live poker. I play responsibly and well within my bankroll's capabilities. I usually play £5/£10 stts and no higher than £0.10/£0.20 NL if I'm really flying. I would enjoy the buzz of a £2/£4 game, but know that I'd be punching above my weight and ultimately fritterring cash. I still enjoy the lower stakes, the banter and accept it's better to be safe than sorry.
FOBTs and s16s/B3s, I've done a few K. Nothing huge, huge. I've learned my lesson and I haven't gone out of control for a long time now. That few K was just from a handful of sessions. I never had any fantastic luck, bar a jackpot from a Slotto. Really I'm thankful for that. A lot of early wins may have hooked me. I'm usually very PMKesque on my s16 sessions. Lose at double quick speed. If I do try the odd B3, FOBT these days it's a couple of quid, not a couple of hundred.
Unless you're the AWP professional equivalent of the manufactured boy band, you're going to be of a gambling mindset.
I also identify with the 'value of money' comments made earlier, particularly the 'you'll think nothing of having to spend £x on a machine, but might think twice about buying that designer top costing £x'.
Video games and AWPs typically go hand in hand and are generally considered to be the preserves of 'addictive personality'. The transition from one to the other is usually pretty smooth.
Check this book out
ISBN 0415058341
It's worth a look. A friend of mine (non fruit) actually bought me this for my birthday, many moons ago. It was a result of my AWP activity in pubs. Basically I was hacking off my friends due to being anti-social and floating onto the machine. I think he wrote a cover note on it, something like 'Happy birthday George, not so much a book, more of a mirror'.
I didn't buy it at first, but reading through the book, I found myself having to accept that many of the negative traits of gamblers were what I was exhibiting.
Since then, I never 'play' a machine in a pub if out with non fruit mates.
There are a couple of my mates who will go £2 in each with me at times. Say it's a Cluedo, we go a quid each, get a great start, red hi/lo cash, we're collecting. Something like a cash attack, couple of quid each, no board, what's the biggie? Could be there, might not be there. If it's there and a quick blip or blap then bravo, if not, c'est la vie.
However it's quite rare this happens anyway. If we fancy a quick punt, we play anything. Gold Rushes, Dream Factory, Boulderdash, Sonic, Up 'n Over, Duff Beer Guide, Deal Wheel, Battleaxe, Win-a-lot, SupaVault, Screenplay, Pyramid, Thunderbirds, Hall of Fame, Pink panther, Stir Crazy, Raise the Roof, Mega Nudger, Fruit drop, Pie Factory or indeed What's in yer box?
We don't play Open the Box or Monopoly Hot Property though. It's not fair to waste £2 of my mate's money on that is it?
So Lee, I've got to disagree with you (petera style) when you say you haven't got an addictive personality. I'd bet you've probably stayed up later than you planned on your PS3 for example. However not smoking/drinking suggests strong will and not FOBTing/casinoing good conscious control of dangerous, tempting vices. So I'd say addictive personality but well reined. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I just believe that all fruit/video game people are of an addictive ilk. I'm the same addictive personality, but thankfully, as at the start of the post, controlled.
It's excellent having the tales of H2, slammer and now petera and many others, not in a gloating sense that some people might get out of other's misery, but in the fact that the 'SALIENT PATHWAY OF DOOM' is well illuminated by these tales, which helps to prevent it becoming grim reality for other people. It also makes the forum more inviting for people who are going through the same thing.
I've been to a casino a handful of times. I went to the Stanley casino in Leicester City Centre with one of the Thomas's regulars a long time ago. This guy spent a few hundred there and then started tapping me up, asking for money and asking if I wanted to become a member.
A respectable looking guy in a suit turned around and said to me in a matter of fact manner, "Don't do it, don't sign up, I did and it has ruined my life". Well I didn't need any more testimony than that, I wasn't keen on signing up anyway, but after that, stone cold dead I wasn't signing up.
I'm not the greatest AWP player at all. I'm lazy and insular with respect to talking to other players. However if I had known certain people back in Mar/Apr 2007 that I have met on here, then I reckon as a duo we could have nailed them for better rewards each than I would have netted playing solo, well before MP dropped the beans, by the sounds of it around Jul '07 with the p1/p2s starting to float in.
Enough rambling, I was going to say something else, but can't remember what it was now.
Take care and I do mean, take care.
(Brass eye - drugs special)
JG.
Some people getting some good stuff off their chests and maybe waking up to the fact they need to be more aware of the dangers.
Just a small note...JG mentions stanley casinos..
I am a member and have been to a few of them and not that I always win at casinos but those places I have never ever got even close...I doubt if theres anything dodgy about them but some places just seem to generate a negative vibe and Ive never felt I could win in there......... Dont go in them anymore !
Just a small note...JG mentions stanley casinos..
I am a member and have been to a few of them and not that I always win at casinos but those places I have never ever got even close...I doubt if theres anything dodgy about them but some places just seem to generate a negative vibe and Ive never felt I could win in there......... Dont go in them anymore !
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grandslam88
- Senior Member
- Posts: 139
- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:11 pm
- Location: england