Once upon a time, I was an addict

_{Photo by Daniel Norin}

Back in the day, I used to be a very serious gambler, most especially on sport betting. To be honest, I feel like my gambling problem started the day I realized that I could play sport betting on my phone without having to go stand in their various shops. That made the whole gambling thing easier for me because I hated going to the shops and be seen with the touts that always frequented those places.

But unknown to me, learning how to bet on my phone was the beginning of the end for me, and it didn't take long for me to get addicted to it. I soon found myself using money that were meant for other important things to play sport betting and the sad thing was that I wasn't winning. I mean if I had won big, I won't be writing about sport betting like it's a bad thing (even though it is).

People over here always say that gambling has a spirit, an evil one, one that always makes you want to win more until you lose everything and after my many experiences in gambling, I really can't doubt that. I remember how back in the day, if I was winning, I would want to win more and if I was losing, I would want to play more in other to get back the money I had lost. Any which way I followed always led to me losing all of my cash and then the regrets set in.

Those are the two things that happens to a gambler, hope and regret. You get hopeful when you start to play and then you regret after you lose all of your money. Fortunately for me, I was able to control myself and was able to put the whole addiction under lock and key.

But to be honest, the urge to want to gamble always comes every now and then, especially on weekends when we have all of the football leagues playing and sometimes I do lose my control and would place a bet or two, but it's honestly not as worse as it used to be.

Unfortunately, I have a friend who's currently going through the same thing. This friend of mine is no doubt addicted to sport betting but he would never admit it, even though I had tried explaining to him on multiple occasions that I myself had gone through the same thing he was going through. He always complains about how money never lasts long with him even though he never uses it to do anything meaningful.

And then whenever I try asking him how much of that money he used for sport betting, he would always avoid the question. I really wish I can help him get over this addiction but the truth is that I was only able to get mine under control because I got extremely broke at one point and I'm not really the type to borrow money from people unless in extreme conditions.

_{Photo by Keenan Constance}

So yeah, I guess he has to go broke to learn. Hopefully he gets to take my advise before it happens and he just get the whole thing under control before it gets out of hand.