Gambling until you go totally broke

[Fivestar4everMVP]

A friend, (doesn't stay close to me) called me up on the phone this morning, I was surprised to see his call since it's been a while we Last spoke to each other, and talking to him again on the phone was the last thing on my mind, and Answered the call and we greeted as usual.
He went on to ask me for financial assistance, that he is totally broke and have asked all his friends who are close by, and non of them agreed they have enough so as to lend him some money, he went on to tell me that I am his last hope, that he wouldn't have bothered me if he had anyone else to call or turn to.

I asked him what happened? What the sudden need for financial assistance? He tried lying (I noticed from his turn) but later, he opened tell me that he had some funds on him which could possibly have sustained him until this month ending to get his salary, but he didn't know what came over him, he went to a casino last night and in the process of trying out one and two games, he gambled and lost every single penny on him, and now, he has nothing to fall back on for the few days remaining before he gets his salary for the month of March.

Long story short, I wasn't going to help him, most especially for the fact his a single guy, but out of pity, I later lended him $20.

But then, this got me wondering why a full grown person will gamble until he or she has no money left in his or her bank account, and no cash at hand, I personally have on several occasions gambled away every single cash I had at hand, but I always had some money in the bank to fall back on, together with my family.

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

Or maybe gambled until you are one bet away from going broke (if you lose), do you go ahead and risk the money, or cancel the bet and  keep that money for something more important?

[Davidvictorson]

...but he didn't know what came over him

This right here is a first sign of gambling addiction. The irresistible urge to satisfy the gambling urge. Ruminating about gambling.

...he went to a casino last night and in the process of trying out one and two games, he gambled and lost every single penny on him

,
This is the second sign of gambling addiction - chasing one's losses. He lost the first game and thought he could recover the lost funds if he tried another game. And he lost chasing a loss.
 

...he has nothing to fall back on for the few days remaining before he gets his salary for the month of March

.
This is always the reality after the loss. They recognized their lack of  sustenance.

...but out of pity, I later lended him $20.

You are such a a nice guy. If I were the one, a single cent will not go to him. You may have ended up reinforcing the behavior.

[mindrust]

I have no sympathy for those losers. Had he won, he wouldn’t have talked to you. You would be the last guy in his mind when he was spending them profits. When they lose, suddenly you become his best buddy. Fuck him. Just leave him be or feed him with the generic crap like “sorry mate you deserved better in life I hope everything will be great in the future”  If you try to fix somebody who doesn’t wanna get fixed, you’ll end up broken like him.

[Oshosondy]

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

Or maybe gambled until you are one bet away from going broke (if you lose), do you go ahead and risk the money, or cancel the bet and  keep that money for something more important?

It has happened to me before several times which means I was addicted. If it happens just ones and the person learn his lesson and stop the stupid gambling habit, he is not addicted. But if he continues, it means he is an addict. It is possible that his close friends borrowed him money already or they know he is using his money to gamble and not want to borrow him money. Only the money that I can be able to give the guy as a friend that I can borrow him because likely he may not pay back or take longer time to pay back.

[Zlantann]

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

Or maybe gambled until you are one bet away from going broke (if you lose), do you go ahead and risk the money, or cancel the bet and  keep that money for something more important?

Your friend is suffering from a gambling disorder which was why he couldn't control the urge to gamble until he lost everything he had at hand and in the bank. I suspect that your friend was chasing losses which was why he lost all. I have been in a similar condition where I gambled with all my earnings for the week and had nothing to sustain me for the next week. It was not easy for me to survive that period. I had to rely on my co-workers to survive and it was a very embarrassing condition because they kept mocking me for losing all my money on gambling. From then I learned to be a responsible gambler. I don't have to wait until I am close to going broke before I stop because that's also irresponsible gambling. I just have a gambling plan which includes a budget of how much I intend to spend at a given period. Immediately the money earmarked for betting is exhausted, and I would have to wait until the end of the month or week to refill my gambling account.  

[_act_]

Your friend is suffering from a gambling disorder which was why he couldn't control the urge to gamble until he lost everything he had at hand and in the bank. I suspect that your friend was chasing losses which was why he lost all.

This is greed, lack of discipline, irresponsible gambling and an addiction. From what I conclude at with what is written by OP, his friend is suffering from chronic gambling addiction or problem gambling. Did you know where this type of addiction starts? It starts from people that think they are wise to make money from gambling. They will lose but continue to find ways to be winning more than losing as they will think that they can make weekly income from gambling. It is better the OP advise him about it because he is using his future to play. Gambling is meant to be for fun, but some people just want to abuse it and it will have bad effect on their finances.

[OceanBit]

Making simple mistake can sometimes lead to losses, especially when you are a beginner. I can relate, when I was a beginner, I also encountered similar situations. There was a time that I misread the rules of the game making me do wrong move. Like in poker, I thought I had a winning combination so I bet large amount, but realized and ended up losing. Also When I was new, I don't know how to check the setting of slots games, without realizing that I was betting the highest amount. These mistakes taught me lessons on how important to stay focused, understand the game works better and always double check everything before placing bet. Do not always rush and take your time on making decisions.

[acroman08]

But then, this got me wondering why a full grown person will gamble until he or she has no money left in his or her bank account, and no cash at hand, I personally have on several occasions gambled away every single cash I had at hand, but I always had some money in the bank to fall back on, together with my family.

same with me, I have gambled away money that I can easily acces in the past but I never tried to empty out my bank. While I still have money in the bank, doing what I did still negatively affected me financially.

anyway, regarding why grown up people gamble their money to oblivion, one of the reason I can think of why people do this is that they wanted to win back the money they lost and convinced themselves that they would get lucky and double or triple the money last money they have but as usual that doesn't happen and they end up losing every money they have.

[Alphakilo]

Your friend is suffering from a gambling disorder which was why he couldn't control the urge to gamble until he lost everything he had at hand and in the bank. I suspect that your friend was chasing losses which was why he lost all.

I want to share this video of gamblers who sleeps in sports betting shops and just gamble. In the video you can see a group of boys lying on the floor. It is similar to the person in the video. They have gambled with very important money, their savings, house rent, and whatever they had left on them gambling and even chasing after their losses.

So should I have empathy on them? No.

Gambling addiction is affecting men and making them very useless to their families and society. They who are in their productive years are so caught up in this addiction that it ruins them totally.

Watch the video. I know it is totally relatable if you have ever been to a physical bet shop - https://twitter.com/AfricaFactsZone/status/1771087963692163351?s=19

[Solosanz]

Gambling until broke is a real stupidity, someone could recover and become a successful person, but I'm sure sooner or later he will gamble like when he was gets addicted because no one will change. So if you have a friend that get addicted, better to stay away and avoid to engage with them.

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

Of course everyone will be like you friend, seek anyone who he know e.g. family, friend, boss etc to ask for money. Or, someone become beggar who live on the street.

[Frankolala]

I have done this before. I had a good amount ofoney on me, and I decided to gamble because I thought that I can double the money. At first I was winning, but later it turned out the other way round, I started losing. I lost up to 90% of my whole funds in my life, and the spirit of addiction continue pushing me to gamble all, that after all, I am left with just little amount that will make no difference. I listen and lost it all. This was when I started regretting my actions, I was broke but someone came to my rescue. After that day, I don't listen to my instinct on keep gambling.

Addiction and greed goes together, your friend became greedy that he never saw or thought of the consequences of giving all his funds to gamble, If not he would not try tbat. It is gamblers that feel they can outsmart the casino, and win big that keeps playing and forget about the aftermath of their actions. I don't borrow money to gamblers, no matter your relationship with me.

[Lanatsa]

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

Or maybe gambled until you are one bet away from going broke (if you lose), do you go ahead and risk the money, or cancel the bet and  keep that money for something more important?

I havent been able on such situation because no matter what i dont let myself do lose control when it comes to money spending specially on gambling and thats why i dont find myself getting broke
because i do make myself having that  discipline and moderation not only on finances but also into my mindset and emotions on which we know that these are the main factors on which it could really affect you
on which this is something that you would really be trying out to avoid. Dont wait up for you to mess your life before you would really be stopping. People would be having that different mindset on things
on which you would really be having those thoughts on what the heck they have done that?

No one on their right minds would really be gambling out their last fund just because on having hopes that they could win and make it somehow to multiply but we know that
if you wont be lucky on that time then that would surely be a disaster.

[qwertyup23]

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

Or maybe gambled until you are one bet away from going broke (if you lose), do you go ahead and risk the money, or cancel the bet and  keep that money for something more important?

I think people who have experienced this situation are the ones who hit rock bottom. Imagine, you betted every single penny of your remaining money to risk an all-out attack on such gambling experience. I would never imagine putting myself in such a situation where I would risk everything on a single bet.

If that person continuously borrows money, then it is better that you do NOT lend him any cash. This will only become an endless cycle wherein he would borrow money from all of his friends/family in order to recover what has been already lost in gambling. As such and like I always said, the more you gamble, the more you put yourself in a position of risk.

At the end of the day, it is definitely recommended that your friend learns from this experience that he should never put himself in that kind of situation ever again. If ever this happens again, then I am very sorry to say but your friend needs help in order to overcome this addiction.

[livingfree]

Let those people like him learn their lessons the hard way. Because if they're always going to go to someone that they know will help them, this is going to be done repeteadly. They will not learn and have that in their minds that there's always someone that's going to rescue them in the times of need.

If I have friends like that and tried to approach me, I'd definitely say no. He's got the money but what happened? He didn't took care of what he's got but then gambled all of it.

Let him rethink his actions and accept the consequences so that he won't do the same mistake again in the nearest future.

[danherbias07]

I ended up in the same shit before, no money, no one to reach out to help me out or maybe it's my pride that doesn't want any help from anyone and just nothing to eat at all. But the reason is not because of gambling, I just had nothing anymore. Paid my rent, electric bill, and water. All of those needed to be paid at that time and I am left with $2 in my pocket. After wasting that leftover money for 2 days, yeah, I somehow stretched it out for 2 days, then I have nothing left but some change to pay for my fare going to work. That's when I reached out to some of my coworkers to lend me some money. $10 will go a long way and somehow there's an angel who helped me out.

I won't do a stupid thing about gambling. With nothing left? I mean, that's foolish and irresponsible even if you are single. A person should still think about his budget for the days to come unless it's an emergency just like what happened to me. I was renting so I could not just tell the landlord that I would pay next week or he would kick me out.
It's a sad story for your friend but there's no one to blame only him and maybe the reason why no one is trying to help out is because they know where he wasted it.

[Natsuu]

It's definitely rough when a friend hits you up for cash because they blew it all gambling. I've had my own moments of going too far with gambling but luckily I've never been completely broke. When I realized I was risking too much, I stopped and kept what I had for important stuff. It's all about knowing when to pull back and take care of yourself. If you ever find yourself in that spot, it's okay to say no to that last bet and prioritize what's really important. And reaching out for support or advice can make a big difference too

[Marykeller]

Long story short, I wasn't going to help him, most especially for the fact his a single guy, but out of pity, I later lended him $20.

But then, this got me wondering why a full grown person will gamble until he or she has no money left in his or her bank account, and no cash at hand, I personally have on several occasions gambled away every single cash I had at hand, but I always had some money in the bank to fall back on, together with my family.

Lending your friend $20 is still part of the help, he wouldn't say you didn't assist him when he was financially broke or didn't have any penny on him.

These are the common stories we hear from our friends who gamble until their money finishes and when their money finishes they begin to call their friends whom they haven't called before for help. What should we do, if not lend them money we can afford to lose because for them to pay us back, they won't.

I think this is what gambling has done to those who are addicted to it, making them gamble beyond their limit.

[Coin_trader]

I am just wondering if anyone here have ever been in a similar situation before? That is, gambling until you are completely broke with nothing to fall back on?
No money in the bank, no cash in the hand, what did you do?

I’m not on similar situation before but I understand how a person can do that such kind of thing if they have an urge to gamble because I feel that strong urge too but the only difference is I can control myself to not gamble recklessly through allocating a budget for my gambling expenses while leave all my money to my partner care. I have no worries that I will overspend because I don’t have money to do that.

Or maybe gambled until you are one bet away from going broke (if you lose), do you go ahead and risk the money, or cancel the bet and  keep that money for something more important?

Not totally broke but lose all my bankrolll. I frequently doing all-in whenever I’m already down using significant amount of my bankroll for a hope to recover my funds because the house edge will make recovering much harder if I play slow with low funds. I have no strong attachment on my gambling money since this is just from my side hustle profit.

[SamReomo]

I feel bad for that friend of yours, it's the starting part of gambling addiction. Your friend is slowly getting addicted to gambling and that's why he's spending everything he has on gambling. A normal and sane person would never spend the money that's required for his/her daily needs, only an addict or the one who's getting addicted could do that.

I have faced financial issues many times in my life but none of those were due to gambling. If for some reason I was on his place then I would never gamble the money that was needed for my daily necessities. I would gamble only with the funds that would not affect my life in any adverse way. I believe gambling could be good as a part-time fun activity, but when someone considers it as a source of income then things start getting wrong.

[Heartilly]

We don't know the other side of the story and it would be unfair if we judged the person right away just because of reckless gambling.

What if, he tried to borrow money to start again another chapter of his life, away from gambling? Or after being wrecked at gambling, trying to borrow money until he finally gets back on a smooth track again on his financial status. There are lots of scenarios that we can think about.

Since it's OP's known person, only he knows what's the current status of that person.