03-24-2021, 08:01 PM
<p>My adventure with casino gambling and especially with slot machines began with my first trip to Las Vegas in 1995.<br><br>I've never been to a casino, and Vegas was amazing. In those days we still used coins and cars<br><br>they were more mechanical. In 1995-2001, local Native American tribal casinos opened in my area. I started going out with friends maybe<br><br>twice a year. It was fun. More of a social experience and usually came home with money but it was fun and<br><br>I've always had a good time. In 2001, my life changed when I moved to another state and found myself out of a job. I had some savings<br><br>and I moved because my then partner changed jobs. I thought I could easily find a job in my industry, but I didn't. He took me away<br><br>6 months to find a job. During this time feeling depressed and lonely and with what I thought was nothing to do I started walking<br><br>to one of the local casinos. There were 2 of them within one hour of where I lived. There were people there and it was a fairyland<br><br>I started out just playing 15 cents at a time, but soon realized that I needed to play 75 cents (nickel slots) to make the games interesting<br><br>Needless to say, after a while I got hooked. What was a social thing turned into something I needed. I tried therapy and<br><br>I went to a few GA meetings, but the thing that helped me the most and continues to help me to this day was self-exclusion. I made a deal<br><br>with myself. If a new casino opens near me, I visit it once, have a good time, and then self-exclude. Fortunately, this only happened once<br><br>where I live. Self-exclusion is a funny thing. It all depends on the casino and how strict they are. I went back to one of them<br><br>this is in my former state...where I lived in 2001. I moved to another state where casinos are just starting to appear. They don't test Me<br></p>