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I Was A Gambling Addict For Years. Here’s How I Broke The Habit.

After losing my entire life savings, I decided to change everything.

Jari Roomer
Mind Cafe
10 min readOct 7, 2021

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Photo by Aidan Howe on Unsplash

My name is Jari, and I’m an ex-gambling addict.

There, I said it.

It’s out there. For the whole world to see.

It was a heavy addiction too. I lost my entire life savings — thousands and thousands of euros — betting on sports matches. Especially football (or soccer) was my biggest vice. It’s the sport I love the most, a dangerous combination.

The addiction started when I was just 16 years old, when I was still only putting ten bucks on the line every weekend.

It may seem innocent, but that’s where the inner demon started to lay the groundwork. I wasn’t even legally allowed to gamble, but it was just too easy to register at online bookmakers and bypass their systems.

As I got older and reached the legal age to gamble online, things went downhill rapidly. It wasn’t unusual to blow my entire month’s paycheck in a weekend. It was that bad.

My worst day was when I won roughly $4000, only to lose it all the exact same night. I can tell you, that stuff messes with your head.

Important Note: In this article, I’ll share my…

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Mind Cafe
Mind Cafe

Published in Mind Cafe

Relaxed, inspiring essays about happiness.

Jari Roomer
Jari Roomer

Written by Jari Roomer

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