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I'm addicted to gambling, and good at it?

I'm 18, and I can't stop gambling. I've made £700 last month so there is no problem financially but I can't think about anything else.

It started gradually and now I'm checking my phone at 5 in the morning and betting on South American teams I've never heard of.

If I lost my money I reckon I'd quit but I don't want to do that purposefully.

Any suggestions?

Reply 1

Solivagant

Original post by TheAnusFiles

Quit whilst you're ahead.

Learn poker.

I'm in the same position, except this month has been a bad bad month. Lost well over 400 quid in the last 2 weeks, I'm also unemployed and refuse to start claiming JSA. What is it you bet on? Handicaps, over under 2.5, BTTS?

Reply 4

tearteto

quit while you're up. The long game will not ever pay off when you're playing against a calculated system that's against you. In the end you'll always lose.
take up poker - that's actually a fair system as long as you never play the house and know when someone is just better than you.

Reply 5

Michael!

People can actually make a living out of sports betting. But it's obviously risky. They way I do it is give myself a tenner a week to bet with, then whatever I win, I withdraw 80% of it and keep the rest to bet with. Then when you've lost all the money in your account, at least you've still got your winnings and if you want to keep betting you can do so the next week with the weekly tenner.

That way you keep maintain profit and keep losses to a minimum. I came into an extra £100 last week and whacked it (foolishly) on a four fold. Odds were 11-1 and it came off so had £1,100 in my account. That's paid for a week in Ibiza with a friend! If you bet 'sensibly' then you can earn a fair bit of money one the side. Just don't get sucked into chasing losses. If at some point you lose a lot, don't try and win it back. That's how people get messed up mentally and financially.

Reply 6

Octohedral

Just don't start believing the 'human' stuff people come up with, such as winning streaks, luck, etc. Keep it mathematical and logical.

I'm afraid the chances aren't high that you're good at it. Unless you have insider information, or are employing techniques like matched betting then you never win in the long run (assuming we aren't talking about games of skill like poker). There is far too much money and science behind the odds they use.

There is no (technically tending to zero) chance involved in long term probability - unless you have an advantage like the above, you will lose your money eventually, so I strongly advise you to just take it and run. I understand the thrill of taking a chance and it paying off, but you have to understand that it's an illusion. They capitalise on this kind of (very human) psychology.