7 Helpful Ways to Quit Gambling and Save Money
Beating a gambling addiction all on your own can feel like a real uphill battle – maybe even an impossibility.
I know, because I have got a friend who’s been there.
And he will like to share his story of how he got rid of his gambling addiction after years of struggle. Quit gambling wasn’t.
If you are addicted to gambling, you can learn from his experience in battling with his gambling addiction, this article will list some ways you can try to quit gambling. These helped him quit his addiction, and it might help you in your battle as well.
How To Quit Gambling Starting Today
There are millions of people in the world who are believed to have serious gambling addictions.
- Approx 1% of the population in the United States, which is approx 3,319,000 gamblers with a serious addiction.
- Approx 2.7% of the population in the United Kingdom, which is approx 1,817,910 gamblers with a serious addiction.
- Approx 1.2% of the population in Singapore, which is approx 65,450 gamblers with a serious addiction.
- Approx 2% of the population in Canada, which is approx 765,000 gamblers with a serious addiction.
There’s just something about putting money down on the big game (or any game, really) that pulls a gambler in like a magnet.
World cup, lottery tickets, casinos, and horse racing are a few of the most common ways people used to gamble.
Thankfully, some gamblers are able to beat this addiction back by using strategies like the ones outlined below.
Try them out for yourself. Maybe they’ll help you the same way that they help him (and so many others).
Let’s get into it!
First Things First – Recognize (and Admit) That There’s an Issue
There’s a reason that every single recovery program on the planet starts in the exact same place, admitting that there’s something a little sideways with your connection to gambling.
It’s because without admitting this – and really understanding and accepting what it means – nothing else you’ll try to quit gambling will make any difference at all.
When a gambler first started to recognize that their gambling was getting a little bit out of control, most gamblers will tell themselves it wasn’t that bad, it was something that they could control, and it was something that they could sideline any time they wanted to.
Sound familiar?
Truth be told, though, nothing really changed for my friend and his relationship with gambling until he really looked at how much of a hold it had on his life, how much it was negatively impacting things, and admitted to himself that he wasn’t in control of his gambling impulses at all.
If you have any of these common signs of gambling addiction in your life the odds are pretty good it’s time to admit there’s a problem. Only then are you going to be able to right the ship, so to speak.
Common signs of gambling addiction can include (but aren’t limited to):
- A compulsive urge or need to gamble
- A social calendar that almost always revolves around gambling in one way or another
- Feelings of anxiety and irritability were not able to do a bit of gambling
- Feelings of release, relief, and euphoria when you’re able to manage stress with gambling
- Lying to your friends or family members about your gambling behavior
- Financial trouble stemming from your gambling activities
- Feeling like you have to chase your losses to breakeven and “then you’ll stop”
Make a Plan to Wean Off of Gambling
Trying to go “cold turkey” with gambling is almost always a fool’s errand.
My friend tried that approach himself when he first wanted to give up gambling and get things better under control. It worked for about a week and then he was right back in the saddle.
A much better plan of action – and one that has been proven time and time again to work – is to come up with a “step down” schedule to wean yourself off of gambling over the long haul.
It’s a whole lot easier to give up gambling over a six-month block of time than to flip a switch and hope that your willpower is strong enough to slam the brakes on everything forever – without any hiccups later down the line.
What you want to do instead is a plan to slow down your gambling, reducing the frequency of your bets (as well as the value of your bets) a little more each and every week.
Before you know it gambling will have almost no hold on you whatsoever, and you’ll find this process went a lot easier than you ever thought it could.
Leverage the Power of Apps to Help You Stop
In the “olden days”, you had to rely a lot on your willpower, your support system, and the habits that you built to effectively give up gambling once and for all (or even just get it halfway under control).
Today, though, with the help of mobile applications you’re going to be able to shortcut this process significantly all while making it a lot easier on you. You won’t have to rely on willpower alone.
Mobile app gambling and online sports books have taken off in the last 10 years, with millions and millions of people dropping billions of dollars into the online gambling industry.
The beautiful thing about traditional bookies disappearing, though, is that you can use technology to block your access to mobile gaming apps and online sports books – eliminating you from accessing these platforms if your willpower falters or waivers.
There are tons of mobile apps that do this job well on both Android and iOS. Jump into the app store on your device, hunt for apps like Gambling Therapy, and give them a test drive.
Don’t be surprised if they help you corral your gambling behavior a lot faster than you would have thought possible before.
Find Something Else to Fill Your Time
Finding something else to fill the time that you would have spent gambling is a huge piece of the puzzle, basically filling up your calendar so that you don’t even have the time to gamble even if you wanted to.
Some people take up new hobbies. Other people spend their time volunteering, reconnecting with friends and family, or taking courses to learn new skills.
My friend jumped headfirst into the world of fitness and entrepreneurship when he gave up his gambling addiction. Both of these things were pretty easy for him to get “hooked on”, making the transition from gambling time to fitness and business time almost effortless.
Make sure you find something that works for you and try to find an activity that will positively benefit your life going forward.
It makes breaking the gambling addiction a whole lot simpler.
Outline (and Understand) Your Gambling Triggers
A huge piece of the success puzzle in conquering your gambling addiction is identifying your triggers, the kinds of things that lure you into the temptation to gamble, and avoiding them completely or demolishing the hold that they have over you psychologically.
All of us that have been or are addicted to gambling have people in our lives that also suffer from this affliction, have places in our lives where we love to do a little bit of gambling, or just have little rituals that are a part of our gambling behavior.
These are all gambling triggers and they need to be systematically wiped away if you’re going to have any long-term success in eliminating the dominant hold that gambling addiction has on your life.
Identify those triggers and be relentless with them. Really think about what you need to abandon to move forward, dropping the anchor that ties gambling to your identity.
Few things will shortcut your path to success like this will.
Consider Joining a Support Group
Support groups can be incredibly useful for some folks that want to get away from gambling addiction while also looking for some camaraderie, some friendship, and some real-world wisdom from people going through the same things that you’ve gone through as well.
There are a ton of great gambling support groups online as well as real-world operations that meet locally in pretty much every state clear across the United States. The odds are pretty good that if you have an even halfway decent-sized city in the driving distance you’ll be able to connect with a support group that can help get you over this addiction for sure.
Seek Out Help From Legit Professionals
At the end of the day, though, folks with significant and debilitating gambling addictions are encouraged to seek out professional help just as soon as humanly possible.
He looked into professional help when he realized how big of a financial hit his gambling was having on his life and it’s one of the smartest decisions he has ever made to quit gambling.
The national gambling hotline can help connect you to professionals in your local area. You can reach this hotline by dialing
- Australia: 1800-858-858
- Canada: 1-888-795-6111
- Singapore: 1800-6-668-668
- United States: 1-800-522-4700
- United Kingdom: 0808-8020-133
The calls are free, the help is anonymous, and you will be able to explore professional help options without having to make any firm commitments on that first phone call.
Help is available through this hotline 24/7 every single day of the year and there are even text and online chat options available if you’d prefer to connect that way, too.
Closing Thoughts
Beating a gambling addiction isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. I’m not going to sugarcoat it.
There are a lot of highs to gambling when you finally hit and a big bet pays off, but those highs are never going to cover the lows of losing and just how much of a spiral legitimate gambling addiction can have on your entire life.
It took my friend a decent stretch of time to really give up gambling once and for all, to free himself from the hold that it had on him.
But if my friend can do it you can do it – just like millions of others already have – especially when you arm yourself with the kind of inside information we highlighted above.
Antony C. is a dividend investor with over 15+ years of investing experience. He’s also the book author of “Start Small, Dream Big“, certified PMP® holder and founder of IncomeBuddies.com (IB). At IB, he share his personal journey and expertise on growing passive income through dividend investing and building online business. Antony has been featured in global news outlet including Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq and Non Fiction Author Association (NFAA).
