I share a similar story, particularly over the last year. Luckily I am not in debt though, however my personal equity and belongings has been reduced dramatically. Last summer (2019) I cashed out in total £19k in May (total income to my bank account for that month), I had a full time job with monthly salary over £1500 after tax, I had a partner of 1 year, a car, etc. Before I won this money I had a good lot of things going for me. Not only that but my partner of the time and I were talking of the future and how she had spent 8 years of her life and saved £10,000.
Well after my income of 19k for May, I bought lots of things, spoilt her, etc, became debt free and still had £12k in my bank account with no worries about finance or nothing. I actually had more money (suppose you could say) now saved than it took her 8 years to do. Now obviously I never told her about this winning as I remember one night she gave me the whole “if I catch you gambling” speech, so I kept it to myself. However, things just literally went downhill from there. I started to gamble more often, took days off work pretending I was sick to gamble, lied to her that I was off, etc. It took me one month, and it was gone…..not only was the money gone, but my job followed a month later, depression began to creep in, car ended up being sold, relationship began to fall apart.
Now here I am, 7 months after having everything, with nothing, no car, no partner, no job, no savings, and a head full of anxiety, depression and regret. I will never get that money back, I will never get my partner back……and now I have to try fight off depression and try everything to get my life back on track. I have now banned myself from all online gambling, at least self excluded for 2 years, because, I want my life back.
That, my friends, is the reality of losing control.
