How does it feel to lose not just your bet, but your precious time as well?

[Kasabus]

I’ve experienced this myself. Gambling has eaten up a lot of my time. Before, I was only focused on sports betting, which honestly doesn’t take much time. You analyze the game, place the bet, then wait for the result. Most of the time I don’t even watch the game because I’m busy with my real job.

Things changed when curiosity kicked in and I started trying other games. I ended up with slots. So many games, so many temptations, especially when you see posts where a small wager hits a huge multiplier. Those lucky screenshots really pull you in.

I got hooked and started playing almost daily. And we all know slots have a huge house edge, so most of the time, you still end up losing. What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

[Eternad]

You are gambling to get some entertainment which means your time was allocated for gambling the moment you play. You will only think you wasted your time if you don’t enjoy the game which means you are forcing yourself to gamble.

Win or lose we should be satisfied on gambling since the entertainment is what we can get by playing this aside from the profit potential.

There’s a high chance that we will lose money on gambling so we shouldn’t gamble if we are not aiming entertainment using our time.

[coin-investor]

What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

We are so busy hoping to make money and regret losing money, but few of us regret losing time. It's a big issue, and you can be considered addicted to gambling if you spend too much time in casinos, neglecting your family and your job. You can win money betting, but you can't regain loss time.

So even if you are not losing money check if you are losing time with your family and your job because you will end up a loser if you lose your job and your family.

[summonerrk]

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

I've heard most stories about bettors becoming gamblers and vice versa. But of course, the trend is more often towards gambling. After all, no human brain wants to overwork itself, and it's much more fun to press a button and get a result than to analyze sports matches and then spend an hour and a half worrying about the fate of your money. This is probably why many bookmakers also have casino branches.
And why they often offer gambling coupons, for example, for slots, while at the same time, conversely, many gamblers are offered bets on sporting events. These worlds are very closely connected.

[Merit.s]

I think you should stick to sportbet alone and play slot once in a while, because it's clear that you're gambling for profits and slot will suck you dry fast without any reward. I hope you can stick to your new year resolutions and set a time limit for your gambling activities.

What happened to your job, I hope you ain't gambling during working hours because you said when you were into sportbet, you hardly watch the matches. Gamble for fun and not for profits.

[Gozie51]

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

Slot is not the only game that waste your time, in fact soccer waste my time because I have to use prediction sites to also compare what I want to gamble on. But waste of time is not the problem I see with gambling. What I see is the aspect of not winning. If you win then time wasted won't matter to you, you can be considering time when you don't win, you see it as regretful. Usually it is not only gambling that will waste your time daily, anything that doesn't add value and especially financially is a waste of time.

[Cointxz]

I think you should stick to sportbet alone and play slot once in a while, because it's clear that you're gambling for profits and slot will suck you dry fast without any reward. I hope you can stick to your new year resolutions and set a time limit for your gambling activities.

Slot game is not the problem rather his curiosity to play other games since he is waiting for the sports betting results. Even without playing slot games there’s other game can give instant result which can be an alternative to slot games.

He should avoid gambling after he place sports betting if he wants to avoid temptation.

Browsing furthermore the casino after placing sports bet will surely lead to a lot of temptation.

[Achalugo BTC]

You are gambling to get some entertainment which means your time was allocated for gambling the moment you play. You will only think you wasted your time if you don’t enjoy the game which means you are forcing yourself to gamble.

Win or lose we should be satisfied on gambling since the entertainment is what we can get by playing this aside from the profit potential.

There’s a high chance that we will lose money on gambling so we shouldn’t gamble if we are not aiming entertainment using our time.

Most people have take gambling to be what will generate money for them instead to have fun through and that is why they do gamble with the amount they can't afford to lose.
Just as you have highlighted, gambling should be something one should be enjoying, whether they win or not and if its taking to be for fun or to be entertained by it, it will not be affecting most people as it is affecting them, even though they don't win.
And is important for people to always do something with the amount they can afford to lose, so that if things doesn't go as they planned, they will not be affected or be unhappy about it, having that mindset will prevent them from losing more money than they expected.

[Botnake]

You’ve already identified the problem, and it doesn’t really require you to quit gambling. What you need to do is limit your exposure so you can save some of your precious time. You don’t need to bet on everything just to enjoy gambling.

Focusing on sports betting is already a good move since there’s at least a real chance of winning and it’s more skill based. With slots, you’re playing against the math and it doesn’t favor you, so losing is expected unless you get lucky. Don’t stress too much about that.

[iv4n]

I got hooked and started playing almost daily. And we all know slots have a huge house edge, so most of the time, you still end up losing. What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

And who decided that you should spend time & money on gambling?  

You gambled, you lost some time & money, but somehow you realized it's not worth it. And maybe it doesn't, so you just need to move on and find what truly interests you. Because it's stupid to cry because you spent time & money on the movie & popcorn, but you didn't like the movie, and the popcorn was too salty. Next time, inform yourself a bit more before you decide to spend money & time on something, it can save you from troubles and stupid feelings.

[justdimin]

Things changed when curiosity kicked in and I started trying other games. I ended up with slots. So many games, so many temptations, especially when you see posts where a small wager hits a huge multiplier. Those lucky screenshots really pull you in.

The same happened with me actually. I used to bet on sports but later I got some promotional emails and I got hooked into slots and stuff. Like wager X amount to get Y bonus and so I played a few slots and live dealer games. Then I started playing some of them out of curiosity and now I waste a lot of time and money on these slots, which were never a part of my betting in past.

I've also promised myself to gamble less in 2026, not just slots but in general too. But as you also mentioned, it's not just a waste of money but a lot of time goes into gambling that achieves nothing but losses. Hope we both can stick to the promises for long, because I've thought so many times, especially after having some losses but hard to stop for long.

[Maslate]

For you to realize or say that, it probably means you’re a busy person and time management is the real issue here. I’d suggest watching or reading about how to manage time better, because regardless of status in life, white or black, young or old, rich or poor, we all get the same 24 hours every day. ^{(this is what i learn on the youtube video i watched)}

If you feel like you’re not managing that well, then that’s a problem that needs to be addressed right away. Focus on your priorities, the things that actually feed you and your family.

Giving up gambling isn’t a big deal, especially if it’s already eating your time and money. There’s still sports betting anyway, spend a few minutes, enjoy it, and just make sure you actually stick to it.

[Oshosondy]

I got hooked and started playing almost daily. And we all know slots have a huge house edge, so most of the time, you still end up losing. What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

This is an addiction, it would be good if you stop gambling for a very long time. If you later continue to gamble but you continue to waste your time on gambling, it is better you quit gambling and not gamble again as long as it is not fun for you, it is an addiction.

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

Just like I have posted, first discipline yourself and not gamble at all for a long period of time, this can really help you when you start to gamble again.

[joeperry]

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

It's nice to know that you're pretty aware of your situation, some people are not aware of those and literally get addicted to it and most of them claims that they are not yet addicted. What you've said is really an eye opener most of the time what I know is I only lose money and but now thinking about the time I play games like provably fair games or even sports betting (since I'm watching them including Esports) not only that I lose money but also lose quite number of time and sleep since usually I place bet before sleep and there's thing on my mind to check my phone/tablet to see the result of the match which most of them are losing and thus not only time and money but also a bit of my well-being and this year not only I would minimize my gambling activity but I would try to focus on myself to improve (health).

[Betwrong]

~
I got hooked and started playing almost daily. And we all know slots have a huge house edge, so most of the time, you still end up losing. What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

Yes, I agree that time is more valuable. Especially when you are doing the smallest bets on slots, you can lose not much of your money but a lot of your time. I know it from my own experience because I myself prefer doing the smallest bets possible on slots, unless higher bets are required by rules to some competition. I can confirm that spending an hour on playing slots feels weird, let alone spending more than that. I play slots almost every day, but my playing rarely exceeds 30 minutes.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I got hooked and started playing almost daily. And we all know slots have a huge house edge, so most of the time, you still end up losing. What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

So this year, my promise is simple. I’ll minimize slots and avoid repeating the same mistake again.

Learn self control and never allow yourself to get hooked, this is how to succeed in slot game.
And by succeeding, I don't mean make money, I mean play the game successful without any issues like feeling like you lost too much money and time you should have used for something much more important.

And let me point out to you that you were greedy, it takes being greedy to see a screenshot of a big win with small bet and then get captivated by it, I myself don't get moved by things like this any more.
Winning in slot games is a product of luck, you don't gamble and win because you saw another person's winning, you win because you got lucky, but when you Gamble when luck is absent, you may end up wasting both your time and money, especially if you are gambling for the purpose of winning money and not to have fun.

[xbetz.io]

This resonates. A lot of people underestimate the time cost of slots compared to betting. With sports, you make a decision and wait.
With slots, the game is designed to keep you engaged constantly, that’s where time disappears.

[Pandu Geddon]

I got hooked and started playing almost daily. And we all know slots have a huge house edge, so most of the time, you still end up losing. What I realized is that I lost something more valuable than money, my time.

I think everything will depend on how you manage your time. You can still play slots every day at the time you set yourself. I also play slots and don’t feel like my time is wasted. To be honest, I’ve never played slots for a very long time. 
If you can manage your time and deposits, maybe playing slots every day won’t affect you. Or maybe you can start reducing the time you spend gambling each week.

[Kasabus]

Things changed when curiosity kicked in and I started trying other games. I ended up with slots. So many games, so many temptations, especially when you see posts where a small wager hits a huge multiplier. Those lucky screenshots really pull you in.

The same happened with me actually. I used to bet on sports but later I got some promotional emails and I got hooked into slots and stuff. Like wager X amount to get Y bonus and so I played a few slots and live dealer games. Then I started playing some of them out of curiosity and now I waste a lot of time and money on these slots, which were never a part of my betting in past.

I've also promised myself to gamble less in 2026, not just slots but in general too. But as you also mentioned, it's not just a waste of money but a lot of time goes into gambling that achieves nothing but losses. Hope we both can stick to the promises for long, because I've thought so many times, especially after having some losses but hard to stop for long.

So far I’m doing fine. From January up to now, I’ve managed to minimize my slot playing time. Sometimes I still play for around 2 hours in a day, not straight, and that’s already a lot for me. Around 90% of the time I lose, sometimes I hit a big multiplier but that’s it, if I total everything I’m still down overall.

Sports betting though is something I can’t really skip, I’m still active there. So maybe I’ll just go back to my old setup, which honestly feels better for me and puts less pressure on myself.

Less slots, more sports, means more time saved. Money isn’t really the main concern anyway since I’m not a huge bettor.

[Porfirii]

You are gambling to get some entertainment which means your time was allocated for gambling the moment you play. You will only think you wasted your time if you don’t enjoy the game which means you are forcing yourself to gamble.

Win or lose we should be satisfied on gambling since the entertainment is what we can get by playing this aside from the profit potential.

There’s a high chance that we will lose money on gambling so we shouldn’t gamble if we are not aiming entertainment using our time.

I think your comment is key, Eternad. It is not only that gambling has the potential to make you lose not just money but a lot of precious time, which is true and the reason I not only set limits in terms of money but also in terms of time invested (we talk a lot about the former but very little about the latter), but that the different forms of entertainment, call it TV, social media, streaming services... are increasingly designed to trap us and make us invest a large number of hours of our lives in them. It's a trend that is only increasing, and that requires everyone's attention.