Geoffrey's story

Here, he tells what drew him into gambling too much, his worst moments as a gambler, and how with the support of his family he is beating the problem:

"Yeah basically just walked into the pub where me mum was drinking – it was a local – and went in, had $5.00 in me pocket and slipped it into a machine won $15.00 and thought it was great and I’ve just been going back ever since. I think it was when I turned 18, I went into a TAB with my mate and put a few bets on there and then walked into the pokies and thought that I would win, lost a little bit of money and just went down hill from there. Yeah it was more of a social thing at the start all me mates were in the pub slapping so I’d go in there too and have a beer and thought it was great but yeah it was more a social thing.

A lot of my mates basically were already into gambling and that sort of stuff and they taught me the ropes of it a little bit more and I developed the taste for it. I was more pokies than the TAB and I guess it’s the music that they play that grabs me as well. When I actually did have a good win I felt great I felt on top of the world and when people look at you when you win in the club you feel even better because they’re not winning. My biggest win would’ve been off $5.00. I put $5.00 in one night and won $253 that’d probably be my biggest win and I felt on top of the moon and I got paid the next day so it was a whole lot better.

My worst loss would have been $1100, I pulled my pay cheque out of the bank, went straight to the pokie room and basically lost the lot. I’ve done a lot of things that I regret as a result of gambling – crime all that sort of stuff, and realistically these days I just really want to get away from it all and I’m finding hard still today. Basically when my family started finding out that I was gambling excessively they said something to me. Probation and Parole referred me to Creditworthy. I went and done a little bit of gambling counselling.

It helped a little bit at the time but the moment that I stopped I started gambling a lot again. So yeah its something that you should stick at until you feel you’re ready to move on. I did hear of counsellors and stuff like that that could help you with your gaming problems and the same time I didn’t really want to go and see them, I didn’t really want to admit my problem, but at the end of the day I did have to address the problem.

Between working and having the money there and gambling it, to now not working and not having as much money I see the difference. That money would have made the world of difference to me, but yeah it’s just like I kick back now because I can’t got to the pub every now and then and think about it a lot more. I have been going to see a lady at Mission Australia at Creditworthy and she’s helped me out a lot. Gave me a better perspective on it all. Oh there’s a lot of chains that you can go through – Mission Australia, who else is there – Wesley Uniting all those sort of places. They can all offer a bit of support and stuff like that and it’s free of charge which is also great as well.

Well my advice is just basically is to stay away from it because it’s what you see and what you hear that is what attracts you to them and basically if you get a hobby and keep your mind occupied you’re not more inclined to go to the pokies and put your money in them. At the end of the day I think it’s a little bit of boredom and chasing your losses. It’s dragging me down a little bit, but yeah I’m coping."