Gambling Experiences

The joy of winning money

Everyone likes to win money. This is part of why anyone gambles. People have strong memories of winning, how this feels and what it means to them. They gamble to repeat this experience.

Some remember the euphoria of their first win or talked about how winning made them feel good.

And I picked it. I said, I want that one. Not knowing the price or he said how much do you want to put, and I said five, put a fiver on it for me. So, he filled in the slip, put it up and I wish it never did but it won. I’ve looked back at that race in terms of Googling the name and how that race panned out, and it was exactly what it gave me. It was like a roller coaster ride. You know, it sped out and then came up and won on the line and there’s the cheer and the euphoria and then going behind and giving your slip and getting the winnings. Because it was 33/1 so, you know, just over a 160 odd pounds before tax. Tax was a thing back then in the shops, that’s how long ago it was. But it was the rush, the thrill that that gave me, you know, was like an injection of heroin, an injection of drugs, an injection of adrenaline. It was unbelievable and instant. And yeah, I’d say that’s when I fell in love with gambling. You know, and I don’t know how I would have felt if it had lost or would I have put another one on, I don’t know. It’s too long ago to remember, but that feeling I don’t think I’ll ever forget. And then that’s how it started.

Tony

I never had an interesting gambling. I just loved watching Chelsea. I’m a Chelsea fan. At the time, I had a season ticket at Chelsea. My first bet was on teletext. Remember teletext? Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1. It was the Champions League. I thought, wow, this is easy, easy money.

Many people describe a win that is particularly memorable to them. This could be because the win was large. Or it may not be large to many people, but it is more than what they usually earn.

I never had a bet until I was 21. I was just finishing my apprenticeship, I’d say I was probably about a couple of months off my 21st birthday. The company that I used to work for, we were only about two miles away from Haydock Park racecourse. I was finishing for my holidays, we were finishing at lunchtime and somebody had some free tickets to go to Haydock Park and I got invited to go along. All afternoon people kept saying, “Come on up, have a bet, you cannot come to the races and not have a bet.” I said, “I’m not interested. I don’t want to have a bet.” Eventually, I grabbed a newspaper off one of them and just said, “Put me a pound on that one.” He said, “Oh no, you’ve got a back that one each way.” I said, “I’m not backing it each way, just put me a pound on it.” It won at 33/1. Well, at that time, my weekly wage, we’re talking 1971, 1972, my weekly wage was about £28 a week and I’d won more than a week’s wage in one hit.

David #2

It could also be memorable because of what the win meant to them and what they could do with the money, for themselves or someone close to them.

Then I just started gambling. I started with the National Lottery, opening up an online account with them to put my lottery tickets on, and the minimum deposit is £10. Generally, most people don’t spend £10 on playing the lottery. I started using the instant games. Very quickly on reflection looking back, I’d spent too much on that already. This was my first exposure to it, and spent far too much money and then got bored, with this realisation that I wasn’t getting anything for my money. You didn’t really get much prizes. I forgot about it and I just left it to one side and didn’t do anything.

Then it must be about 10 or 11 years ago, I must have been bored near Christmas, and boredom’s incredibly lethal. I lived on my own in this flat, so nobody there over my shoulder asking me what I was doing. I opened up an account and started playing online slots. I know within that evening, I know within a very short time I won £200. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was something that made me go, “Oh, my goodness.” My first thought was to share that with my best friend who’s got a number of children. It was, “I will do that.” I think she got £50 out of it.

Nadine

Sometimes, people have winning steaks, winning multiple times in a row. Because of this they get used to winning and they believe they will keep on winning.

He took me under his wing, not to learn about the computer that I had gone down to learn about. I was down there for six weeks and in that six weeks, he taught me how to read form, taught me how to use time from the black book. Basically, when I came back I was betting nearly every day, just small bets, small multiple bets and that went on for a while. To be quite honest, I had a lot of luck. I had quite a few wins, not massive wins but big enough to definitely wet my interest and so it went on.

I didn’t think it was a problem because I was winning a lot. I always remember when I passed my driving test and I put a £20 bet on, and that was like a 10-15 football team accumulator and the return was like £800… I won this £800 and I bought my first car with it. I just kept on winning and winning as well and I was just buying stuff and it was unbelievable. I just didn’t know what to do with the money. I just kept gambling it. In my account I had like a grand, and then it went to five grand, went to 10 grand. This as an apprentice bricklayer that’s on £170 a week. I couldn’t believe the money that I was winning.

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