Shayne's story

My name is Shayne and I am writing this letter to express my gratitude in your service and the brave efforts of the people who are the face of your campaigns and share with you my journey of leaving the life of gambling.

I've been watching the campaigns you run with the people expressing their urge to stop gambling and their brave efforts to be on a series of commercials trying to inspire others to follow suit, especially Matt who I see photos of in venues and think what a great effort to put himself out there and not worry about the attention he will receive. WHAT A LEGEND!!! Also your organisation who seems to be moving in the same direction as the gambling itself with all the different types of ways to bet now there seems to be just as much effort to give people contact with help through different types of avenues. Well done.

My story isn’t any more exciting than any others who start gambling and cant stop but my end to gambling I believe was a little different after reading so many stories on Gamblers Help etc.

In short I started at 17 years old as it looked as a very fun thing to do, gambling within my family was frequent and some times out of control with gambling events etc … I then went on to gamble out of control for the next 10 years where I was depressed with the issues that come not having money and always borrowing and trying to find cunning ways to get money to fuel my addiction. While all this was going on I knew I was a much better person than this and knew the day would come that I would quit and never look back. Thank God that happened.

My decision to give it away was an easy one, it was destroying me but while all this was happening I managed to meet Emma the most wonderful person ever and after a year of meeting her I decided to tell her knowing that once I told her it was going to be all over, it was going to be either her or the gambling and that was an easy choice. I have never gambled since! It's now been 2 years and 2 months. Over my last 3 years of punting I tried to get help from Gambler's Help and a counsellor within the building industry as I am a plumber, these avenues helped but there was nothing like telling the one you love the most.

I believe that giving people advice to tell the ones they love and try not hide it from them can be great guidance for them, although it won’t work for everybody I think the person that's closest to you can be the greatest asset as it means total accountability for your actions and somebody looking over your shoulder keeping an eye on you.