A True Gambler's Story 

My story about gambling, I guess will be pretty similar to many 

others who have had the misfortune, of becoming a compulsive gambler.

Let me tell you firstly a little about myself, I am currently 46  years 

of age, and I was brought up in a small family in the mining community

of the Rhondda Valley South Wales, in the United Kingdom.

My mother and father split up while I was just very young, and I did 

not have the influence of a father.

I have one sister who is 6 years older than me who has been happily 

married for over 25 years and her life seems to be very stable and

happy but she does show one form of compulsiveness in relation to 

cleaning the home, to me a little too much, but a small burden 

compared to other addictions.

I need to explain a little now about a tough mining community where a 

single mother all those years ago was taboo, and it must have been 

very tough for her to bring up two young children.

For me I had to try and earn money as a young man, and also had to 

learn to defend myself against the older boys, this did not seem a 

problem, but I can remember that there were times when I would have 

loved to have an older brother or someone to look out for me.

This was not all negative because I soon become quite liked by my 

peers and learned how to obtain money, due to necessity, this 

actually put me a few steps in front.

I was also actually naturally clever than my peers and while in the 

infants school was deemed to be in front of my time, I could actually

 tell the time by the age of three, this was unknown in these days 

because nobody had watches.

I then moved onto the junior school but here I did not follow a 

learning rule but excelled at sport and again was far advanced to my 

peers, but then I did not mix with the children who wanted to learn,

 but more with others who did not.

I guess now looking back I was starting to rebel and looked for 

security with the tougher boys, but actually I was the toughest.

I then moved to the grammar school were this type of behaviour became 

had no interest in learning but somehow could still compete with my 

peers in mathematic and the sciences. But fell a little behind with

 other subjects.

It then came the time to leave school so I did not take the examinations 

and left school the term before, straight into employment.

I went down the mines and the mine owners took a liking to me and

gave me further education.

I then went on to obtain my first degree in mining engineering and by 

26 years of age I had a lot of practical experience behind me. My

future looked bright and then came the closing down of the mines in

South Wales, this was a major change, and they paid us redundancy.

I actually received about £10,000 this sum of money was astronomical

in those days and I bought a house and renovated it, I was living

quite high and then I lost my driving license and this left me in a

impossible situation.

Taking these changes on board I went to University to study Civil 

Engineering full time and I graduated  four years later with a 

classification of second class upper this disappointed me because I

should have  had a first class upper.

I then moved into the tunnelling business and I started to excel in 

this industry which was also very lucrative.

I worked on all the big jobs in the UK including the channel tunnel.

I then moved onto the international market and went to the mountains

in Turkey to work, and from there to Taiwan.

This was great experience, but always work orientated, and there were

voids in my life.

In Taiwan I got together with a young Taiwanese girl and although we

are currently apart with her being in Taiwan and me in the UK we are 

still together and hope to marry.

Over the years a reasonable amount of money was accumulated and my

last job which ended in October 2004 was paying clear £1500 per week.

I am now unemployed and without any income.