Hi Mav,
I think you are right when you say you don’t think you can judge how bad a gambler is by how much they gamble.
The way I read it is that we are all here because we are all in despair and have been to dark, dark places. I honestly don’t believe you can grade a compulsive gambler based on the amount of money they gamble.
I’ve gone from gambling tens of thousands of pounds, probably 2-3 hundred thousand pounds over 30 years in total, to gambling £300 on average every two weeks. I gamble less now in monetary terms than I did years ago, yet I feel my problem and addiction has seriously escalated and is far worse now than it has ever been.
Let me quantify this. When I was gambling away tens of thousands of pounds I was still eating and I was not leaving myself penniless on a regular basis, I still had a slight element of control. Now that my income is vastly reduced at present, I gamble in the region of £300 every two weeks, a sum far far less than I used to gamble away, but now I leave myself without any food or rent money and literally penniless. I now play a dangerous game of brinkmanship with my very existence and regularly put my health and home at risk. Whether I eat or pay my bills is now very much dependent on whether I win gambling. That is a clear escalation in my addiction, even though in real terms I’m gambling less money.
No addiction should be underestimated, we are all here because most of us have nowhere else to turn, are at the end of our tether and have really deep rooted fears for our very existence. We are all in the same boat regardless of what we do for a living or how much we each spend gambling. We all have to pay the same price for our addictions even though the amounts we gamble may be different. It’s all relative.
Onwards and upwards, we’re all with you mate.
Take care,
Charlster2