My struggles with gambling addiction.

Hi

First of all, I have been struggling with gambling addiction for about 10 years.

• First I only started to play on Swedish Casinos.
• I didn't play for much. $10 here and there, but eventually, I played often.
• I ALWAYS closed my account after I lost, but I always managed to find new casinos.
• After some years, I told my girlfriend, and I stopped playing for some months.
• I started to play again.
• After some months, I told my girlfriend again, she threatened to leave me and take the children with her if I didn't stop.
• I stopped playing for almost a year.
• Sweden implemented the gambling regulation tools which allows you to stop playing on all swedish casinos.
• I was gambling free for another year.
• I started to look for unlicensed casinos. I started to play again.
• I kept the secret from my girlfriend because of fear of the consequenses.
• I repeatadly did the same thing for the next years.
• Open account
• Depoit one or a couple of times
• Lost everything
• Close the account
• Waiting 1 to 5 days, found another casino
• Repeat.
• I installed Gamban which helped me prevent me playing from my phone or computer. The addiction continued from work, but I didn't work everyday so sometimes it could be several days between.
• I found VPN apps to bypass gamban
• I found tools to bypass gamban on my computer.
• Again, I ALWAYS close my account because of gambling addiction after I have lost.
• But new casinos are added almost daily
• I ask to reopen my accounts again which some casinos agree upon.
• I play on sister-sites, and all casinos say the same thing "They act independently from their sister sites.

I use Casino.guru and Askgamblers to find new casinos. I also simply google on unlicensed casinos and sometimes find one or two new.

I have self-excluded me from 90% of all casinos. Thankfully I do avoid those with low rating.

Everytime I find a new casino I spend between $25 to $200 before I close it.

I have tried to contact the curacao licens holder with email to blacklist me from ALL Curacao licensed casinos with no success.

I have tried to get Gamban to fix/block/ban the tool that lets me play on my computer.

I am following the GSES and sincerly hope I will hear some good news soon.

I have tried to contact my bank to block gambling sites and payment providers, but they can't keep up either.

I have been on therapy once during the time I told my girlfriend, but not since after that.

I STILL hope I can just get my head together and stop gambling out of sheer will, I am positive because it happened ONCE and I was free for 5 months.

Thank you for sharing, and I hope that you can really do it and stay strong.🙏🤞

We hope for Global Self-Exclusion. Have you read about it? Have a look here, please.

The hardest is not to quit gambling but to not start gambling once again

i truly feel you, keep us updated regarding your achievements

ill try my best to do the same, but its hard now

Oh I am already following this, but I admit I have lost some hope since the last post/update was a year ago. 🙁

I surely understand that, we have to wait and see.

Please remember, that any money you spend on gambling, will in 99% of the cases go to criminals. It will go to people who hates other humans, who cares nothing about you or anyone else, all they care about is greed. Your gambling supports illegal activities, money laundering and a lot of other things. Maybe this will help you stay away from gambling.

First of all, I will say well done for admitting your struggles. That is the most difficult part.

You can beat this disease. I know this because I have been through what you have and I’ve got to the other side.

It takes a lot of time and even more pain.

Feel free to reach out if you need to talk.

Casino guru has been very helpful with my journey.

The best advice I can give is to put space between you and the gambling sites. The urges do get less. Read up on the knowledge base and arm yourself with the tips and tricks to help you move forward

Stay Safe.

Charlie ❤️

Hi Oldfog,

I am sorry to hear about your struggles. Anyone can struggle with their gambling control, but not all of them do something about it.

Unfortunately, the future of the global system is not bright—at least for now. To be honest, we are shifting focus from the blue paper and casino voluntary participation because they just would not do it. Development in player protection is driven by regulation, and proactive moves (such as establishing an international system) are rare. Plus, the technical flaws in the proposed system represent too much of a risk. It's way too complicated for anyone relevant to get on board.

In fact, the proposed system's effectiveness is near what a blocking app would do for you. You mentioned that you were able to get around Gamban. Did you try BetBlocker? It is free and does great work.

Charlie said the right thing about distancing from gambling. However, if you want to, you can circumvent all the blocking apps and self-exclusions to access the opportunity to gamble. Even with the best system, it will still be there. Unfortunately.

Still Charlie is an example that you can do it. I suspect you read his story in an interview we did some time ago. Even though there are some core steps at the beginning, I think the rest of the journey is unique for everyone.

You are saying that there were times when you managed to stay off gambling, but eventually, you got back to it. It sounds like the underlying issue that causes it is till there. Experts say unhealthy habits won't go away, but you must actively work on improvements.

Dont you want to try to talk to a professional again? There is a database of support centers.

There is one more thing that is worth exploring. Support community for those who want to stop gambling. There is also a lot of information about gambling being a coping mechanism for other issues that people struggle with. Give it a try. https://quitgamble.com/

Hold tight. You are on your way to progress.

Hey, thank you for sharing your story so openly. It's brave to be so honest about your challenges and setbacks. I can imagine how hard it must be to keep getting caught in this vicious cycle, especially when new casinos keep popping up and temptation is always there. But it's also impressive to see that you don't give up and keep fighting, even when there are setbacks. Maybe it would be helpful to get back in touch with a therapist who can support you through these difficult phases. Sometimes it takes more than just willpower, and that's totally okay. Stay strong!

It's probably difficult when you want to play so much that you are ready to play at any casino without even checking their reliability

Unfortunately, if you are a vulnerable person, you don't think about checking it, I believe.

Do you usually check the casinos? That is great!

I would like this area to work without my personal checks, but for now I have to do it myself.

I'm not quite sure I understand the meaning of your post now.

What do you mean by it, please?

So that casinos are checked for reliability and not me doing this. So that obviously dishonest casinos are not released onto the market.

I wish you good luck in your fight against addiction!

Now I understand. But let's face it. If players wouldn't play at online casinos, even the bad ones, unfortunately, how would we find out that they are dishonest, as you say?

Do you get what I mean?

I know that it is harsh, but for us, as Casino Guru, there is no other way to find that out, you know.

We always do our best to protect all our users, especially the ones with gambling problems, even though sometimes it is really hard to achieve.