It all started innocently enough for Tanya. As she sat in my clinic, she explained that it had begun with some flutter while she was off work following an operation. She was bored, feeling a bit lonely, and an advert for an online betting site popped up. She’d never gambled before and clicked on it just out of interest.
“I always associated gambling with old men in betting shops. This wasn’t like that at all. It seemed like fun—the advert had women just like me in it—I was bored and it was just a laugh”.
And at first it was fun. But then it became a daily treat to break up the monotony, then it shifted and became something more sinister. “It started to really control me. It was actually scary,” she explained.
Before long she was spending hours gambling online. The rest of her story is as predictable as it is sad. She lost her job, got in debt and was evicted from the flat she rented. She moved back in with her parents. By now, the buzz of gambling was all she had.
Esta historia es de la edición June 2023 de Reader's Digest UK.
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Esta historia es de la edición June 2023 de Reader's Digest UK.
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