Gambling: Anyone is susceptible... About Me

I am 34 years old female a phD student, a researcher and having problems with pokie machines. It just go to show anyone is susceptible, female or male, irregardless of your occupation, your financial status and intelligence...

I had been playing pokie machine since 2002, where casino is so readily accessible in Australia. At first it was just me and my ex-boyfriend going there for a nice evening meal. They had $10 dinner deals where they give you a dinner meal and a $5 pokie machines voucher, so dinner only end up costing $5. Pretty cheap and easy for us student at that time.

We went in and have fun. It started $20 harmless fun. If we win close to $50, that night was amazing. Harmless fun huh?

Fast forward a few years later, I broke up with my then ex-boyfriend, sunk into depression and lonely. Where did I go? I went to casino in the city, where I could hide myself at a corner and just aimlessly, mindlessly pressing buttons away. It doesn't even matter if I win or lose money. I just wanted it to take all the "bad feelings" away from me. The jackpot link sometimes excited me.

I don't know when, but sometime in 2004, other life crisis happen (relationship was not going well and so was my studies) and along came a lot of life uncertainties. I started increasing my bets and numbing my sorrows in casino. I did not knew I had problem at that time except I was living paycheck to paycheck. If I ran out of money, I knew money will come in next month...

I started with 1 credit, 25-30 cents per spin to $8.40 per spin now. Lower credit bet lines does not satisfy me anymore, not the way they increase and multiply in credits paid as oppose to when I bet maximum each spins. So my advice is stop while you can before becoming like me increasing your bets each time.

Sometimes on a bad binge, I end up loosing all money I could access to in my bank which is $2,500 from my credit cards.

I had been to therapies and read books about how to tackle gambling problems.

Specifically, I had attended gambling treatment clinic at University of Sydney, hypnotherapy to help me cope with my problem gambling in an attempt to quit, read a few books on how to prevent relapse etc. Because I am a student, though I am not a pyschology student, I have access to journal articles and reading and researching topics related to compulsive gambling, OCD and impulsivity helps me understand more about the disorder.

I had been wanting to blog for a long while now and had a list of items I wanted to write on... so stay tune and check out often. :)

I can be reached at silvialining @ gmail dot com