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Don't Bet Your Life On It

I am 28 years old and just one year ago I had little to no interest in gambling. The thought of losing money in any way was unappealing to me and I even felt bad the few times I accompanied my Grandmother to the bingo hall and she didn't win. She was always in good spirit, win or lose, and I admired that. I just couldn't seem to shake the sick feeling I got after losing twenty measly bucks, pondering all the ways I could have better spent the money. Remembering all the things I felt about gambling then makes it difficult for me to imagine all that has happened to me in the last year. This is an absolutely true story. I am only telling it in the hopes that it will help someone who reads it in some way, although I am not sure how.

In April of 2006, I was introduced to on-line gambling by my mother. I went to visit her after getting off my night job one morning as I often did. She described the game she was playing, a popular slot game called Tomb Raider, based on the movie, and available at nearly all on-line casinos that use Microgaming software. I thought she was just playing some game at first until she told me she was playing at a "real casino", and for "real money". It took me a while of watching her and listening to really grasp the concept. I had never before imagined people could actually play casino games on-line for real money. I don't think I really believed it completely until she won $1200 dollars about five minutes after my arrival, cashed out, and showed me the check that she got in the mail just a few days later. I thought for sure it was some Internet scam but I didn't want to burst her bubble. When I accompanied her to the bank and it was cashed for her right away I was shocked. It just all seemed so easy and convenient. For the first time, I thought of gambling as appealing and exciting.

For the next two months, I scoured the Internet for the best advertised casino bonus promotions, depositing twenty or fifty dollars with my bank card when ever I had the money. I was a night manager at a hotel and I had a lot of free time in between my required duties. I progressively got worse and started gambling at work using my own laptop and a wireless Internet connection made available by my employer. I can only look back and imagine what my co-workers must have thought when they came in at 7am to relieve me and I was still gambling, sometimes leaving an hour or more after clocking out because I couldn't stop. My relationship with

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