Gambling Experiences

Having access to money to gamble

You need to have money to gamble. Some people start to gamble more because their situation changes and they have access to more money to gamble with.

Typically, this is when people start earning a salary for the first time.

I’ve always been a hard worker, and then socialized and things, but I remember getting an apprentice as a carpet fitter. I suppose my eye was on other things as well and life was spiralling downhill. I needed to do something constructive and try and get myself into an area of life where I was going to succeed. At 22, I went and joined the army. I became a Royal engineer, a Sapper. Even when within there, I’d end up in the local NAAFI bar and playing the bandits and just wasting money. You’re on a monthly salary, and it wasn’t a lot of money when you first started, but you’d see your money just dwindle away. Also, with going on tour over to Bosnia for six months, you could save up to £10,000, £11,000 within that six months by not spending, but over there as well, bandits, playing poker, all those sort of things.

Jonathan

Because it’s gone on for that long it’s hard to say when it did change, but I suppose once you start working full-time and you’ve got more money or access to money that you’ve probably not had, I suppose then you’re likely, and I probably did, have perhaps more on because you’ve got more money. Again, when it should have stayed like that, there’s been times where it’s just got ridiculous. You could even have a wage and then think, “Well, that’s gone already” because you just fancied something or you wanted a bet. Then again, you’re always playing catchup.

Andy

It could be the ease of access to credit, like overdrafts, loans or credit cards.

And money was quite easy to get hold of. I could take loans out at work with the company I was working for. I just used to roll one loan into another, into another, so I’d part pay it off and create a bigger debt, credit cards, all that sort of thing on top of that. And it just manifested, and I became more secretive with my gambling, lying, cheating, stealing all those, all those patterns of behaviour, more angry, more frustrated.

For some, gambling escalates when they receive a considerable sum. This could be inheritance, a pay-out, property sale or a student loan.

I was awarded over £100,000 in compensation basically, and like I say, my mental health deteriorated. Before the court case, I tried ending my life, and after the court case, I tried to end my life. I was finding it really difficult to socialize with anybody, including my family. I was stuck in my room at home. I had this large compensation money, and this is where I found online gambling. I found online gambling, and unfortunately, I ended up losing all my compensation money within four months.

It became something that I enjoyed doing. At that stage, I wasn’t gambling large amounts. It was just I didn’t have a lot of money. I suppose I had a paper round, and then I moved into being a student so I had a student grant. I think when I became a student, I started to gamble more, definitely, being given that lump sum of money, getting my grant money.

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