People With Gambling Addictions Hold Nothing Back About How It Unravelled Their Lives

6.

“Do you mean when you’ve run out of money and walk around, waiting for people to get up so you can hopefully find a slot machine with some money still on it? Maybe you’re talking about pulling all the seats out of the car at 2 a.m. in hopes of finding some loose change, at least enough to make a buck to go into the machine for that 1-cent each button push to hit something big on a penny?”

“Or perhaps you’re driving to the grocery store to write a check for something you don’t need just to get $20 in cash. Then, when that $20 runs out, you return what you bought earlier and threaten to call the CEO if they don’t give you cash rather than a store gift card.

Or, having $20 stashed for gas and ending up talking your brain into using it (I’ll win with this $20 and put it back!), only to use all the gas money and barely make it to the gas station where you look the role to get people to feel sorry for you and let you borrow from them. And then maybe, or maybe not, the brain goes, Well, I have $20 now they gave me and just enough fumes to get back to the casino, and this time, I’ll hit it big. No way am I screwing up this time…and then a few hours later, you’re back at another gas station.

Then there’s falling asleep at the machines, standing in the restrooms, eating places, lawns, parks, etc. And the pawn shops…I would say 50% of what’s in a pawn shop comes from the love of gambling.

Maybe it’s the family and friends who won’t even take your calls WHATSOEVER.

BUT there’s hope. There are payday loan companies near the casinos, go figure. And there’s the feeling of being out of money all day, and things turn around, and someone gives you $20, and you put it into the machine, and WIN a $1,400 jackpot! THERE is a god!!

An hour or so later, though, after you’ve spent the whole $1,400, you have this stupid, empty feeling because an hour ago you had $1,400 after being broke and eating leftovers out of McDonald’s trash, and now you’re sitting there like an idiot, broke again.

I won over $100k one year and never went home with a dime.

I lost a lot of teeth from neglect and quit taking my meds because they cost money I used to gamble.

I knew just about every courthouse/jail in two-to-three states.

When you realize what’s going on, it’s usually too late. I quit 10 years ago. No magic formula, just quit.”

—Mustang Mark, Quora