So I had been gamble free for near a year, until now. I signed up to Gamban and Gamstop last October and was doing really well, until about 3 weeks ago I had some mental health issues and decided to explore if I could get on any gambling websites again. To my surprise I was able to register on them as my wife's ex surname, and also used my current address (which is registered on Gamstop!). I used PayPal for deposit some cash and proceeded to win, then lose all my months savings, I then stupidly preceded to use credit through PayPal, and lost all this also. I am now in debt to thousands of pounds, but I can afford to pay it off over 2 years. I am so ashamed and have had many dark thoughts recently, though I feel sort of calm now, knowing the moneys gone. I have self excluded from all the sites using my wife's name and I hope this is the final nail in the coffin for my gambling.
I find it disgusting that PayPal was able to give me thousands of pounds (which wasn't in my bank account) and let me gamble with this. My PayPal address registered on these websites is even my full name which is registered on Gamstop also, do I have a case to go to these bookmakers and ask a) why my home address wasn't flagged with Gamstop when registering, even though I used my wife's previous surname and b) why my PayPal address which clearly states my full name, which is registered on Gamstop, wasn't red flagged. Is there a chance I could retrieve my money back, as there has clearly been incompetence by the bookmakers. To be honest I'm not expecting to get this money back, and have contacted Gamstop for advice, but just thought I'd ask on here if anyone has had a similar situation. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with in my life, I've stopped 4 times now and relapsed, I've tried everything, Gamban, Gamstop, my partner looks after my finances, and have found a way around them all. I find it disgusting that you can use Paypal to deposit cash you don't have and is something that really needs to be looked at. Thanks to anyone who reads this and who can give me advice, and I will keep on fighting this disease. Lewis
Sorry to hear Lewis.
Little to no prospect of retrieving the money. If you want to get around blocks hard enough you probably will.
They are a great tool, but aren't going to stop you committing fraud or stealing someones identity.
Get yourself to Gamblers Anonymous (GA)
re-instate the blocks, hand over you finances to your wife, close your paypal account (you don't need it), close any similar accounts, get rid of any credit cards. Ask that you wife checks your credit report regularly. Get a basic bank account that doesn't allow an overdraft or gambling transactions. If it means that you wife has to give you cash each day to get lunch / pay train fare, so be it. Surrender control. These are all just tools to help.
GA will support your recovery holistically.
Without doing this, I'd say you are in danger of continued periods of abstinence and relapse.
Thanks for the advice, all blocks are currently in place which is why I should not have been allowed to sign up to these gambling sites, as my address and email address/paypal address should have been checked against the Gamstop database. Yes, I did use my wife's name, but I was never asked for any form of identification such as a passport etc as you normally would, which I found very strange, this would have stopped my registration. I'm not making any excuses for myself, it is totally my fault and I will pay the price, but being signed up to Gamstop it feels a bit wasted if you can just change a name and register anyway, surely an address and email address logged with Gamstop should be red flagged immediately by the bookmaker and the person stopped from signing up or at least have to go through more stringent security process.
I have emailed the bookmaker to find out how I slipped through the net anyway and hopefully they can explain.
Anyway I will take your advice and from now on all my finances will be handled by my wife.
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