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+--- Thread: Hope at last (/showthread.php?tid=2141)
Hope at last - Guest - 14-01-2010
Hi I am new to your site but thank God that you are here.
My story is not as tragic (fortunatley) as some others but having read posts on the site I now realise just how close things could be.
My addiction started with the betting machines in Motorway service stations & gained momentum when I realised they were in Betting Shops.Over the last 18 months I have gambled nearly everyday.Yes I have won in some cases and guess what gambled it all away the next day.
I have not lost my house,family etc but know that it could be just around the corner if I do not do something now.
I earn good money & am not on the bread line & would often consider playing machines as a bit of fun but now see it as a social evil which needs to be cut out.
I used to see the same faces in the bookies & think that I was different & not like the "losers" in there but in reality I was just the same.The more I was losing the more irritable I became & the less I cared about my bussiness,appearance etc
These FOBT should be banned not because I lost but they will be responsable for a generation of depressed,low esteem,impoverished people.
Today I am back at work & had to go to see a client in a town centre where there are loads of bookies.
So last night I read something on your site called Enough & printed it off.
Whilst walking through I walked purposley to the first bookies & read the first paragraph of Enough & felt great strength & walked on by I did this as I came up to the next bookie & did same.By the time I got to third bookies I did not need to read it..I walked on by.
Who ever wrote/posted that article hould get a medal.I realise that I will not maybe get rid of the urge but at least I now have a tool to manage it.
Many thanks