My name is Frank and I’m 26 years old. I made my first experiences in gambling at my place of study in Zwickau. A fellow student brought me into contact with an establishment run by the Merkur company for the first time. The installed slotmachines were mostly also from this company, devices of the company Novoline and BallyWulf were represented in small numbers. I did not need much explanation, after a short time 20 Euro had disappeared in the machine and were loaded on the point account. The evening was pleasant, there were free drinks and at the end I went home with the same amount with which I had come. So far my first experience.

Immeras more frequently in the Casino – nothing will already make out

From then on we went to the casino together once or twice a week to spend a cosy evening. As with all these things, I was aware of the dangers and decided not to go gambling alone. And yet I did at some point. When my colleague didn’t have time, I went alone in the evening. I was undisturbed, could choose the vending machines I wanted without making sure that there was a place for my companion and stayed as long as I liked. With the time it came that I did not only play in the evening, but also in the mornings, when I had no university, until it was so far that I was almost every day a guest at Merkur. I didn’t tell anyone that I spent my free time at slot machines, but that I had to go to university or had appointments.

The stakes are getting higher – the result getting more and more extreme

At the beginning my bets were between 5 and 10 cents, regardless of whether I played with 5 or 10 lines. I had the feeling of control, when 20 Euros had disappeared, I went home. One evening I still had about 7 Euro on my points account, I thought, just turn up the stakes, then you can go faster, you won’t win anyway. The bet was set to 1 Euro and promptly Eye of Horus gave me the incredible sum of almost 500 Euro. From then on I was caught. My minimum bets were now only 30 or 40 cents, often I played with 0.80 to 1 euro bet. The 20 Euro I bet were of course quickly gone, I started every game day with 50 Euro, often I went to get additional money. 100 Euro were quickly lost if it didn’t work out, and several hundred quickly won if I was lucky.

My emotions – anger and satisfaction in turn

At the beginning I approached the gambling quite emotionless. I was able to cope with a loss of 20 Euro, but when I won, I was of course happy. After my first big success and with increasing stakes the pressure to win got bigger and bigger. If it didn’t work out, I pushed money, it just had to work. If I went home empty-handed, I was annoyed about myself that I had spent 100 or 150 Euro senselessly. If I went home with a profit, my first way led me to the bank, a part I held back, so that I could go the next day again to the casino. The more I played, the more loss and profit affected my feelings, always with the knowledge in mind, you can win, it just has to work, you just have to try it long enough. If I then met friends or acquaintances, they would experience me in an emotional roller coaster, depending on how the previous gambling session had gone. This went so far that losses always affected me more than winnings brought satisfaction. I always wanted more and more, even if I didn’t feel like it, I went gambling simply to have a sense of achievement.

Won money – really a win?

When I won money, my first thought was, great, I can play again, I invested most of my winnings again in Mercury vending machines. Overall, I can say that I didn’t make any real losses in all this time, although I didn’t have a real overview of my income and expenses anymore. But I became aware of something else. Money won in the casino found almost without detours back there. A cycle developed. I had high turnovers, spent a lot of time in the arcade and still didn’t really get anything out of it. Today I call this money “unclean money”, because it found again to Mercury back and me no real increase in value brought. I often had the plan to let it be, I didn’t really succeed in the beginning, when I was free and no company I went to play, what else could I do. The real insight came with a huge win beyond the 800 euros. I suddenly got to do it with the fear that I couldn’t get rid of it anymore, because these successes unconsciously fascinated me despite all failures. I swore I wouldn’t go gambling anymore. I had no overview of my financial means and neglected my private life in the meantime. My experience with winning from the casino isn’t really a win.

Strategy – more intuition

Of course, I was looking for winning strategies. I searched the Internet, but due to a lack of will to pay for something that was not well proven, the search did not produce satisfactory results. Over time, you learn to read the pictures from the games and can roughly predict when it’s worth increasing or stopping the stakes. Despite this knowledge one loses, there is no right strategy in my eyes. For me it was based on intuition at least.

Gambling on the Internet – just not

Gambling on the Internet or from home has never interested me. In the casino I had company and what interested me the most – cash. Paying into an account with a gaming company on the Internet doesn’t mean anything to me, especially as it’s easy to overlook the conditions or requirements for paying out winnings. The proverb: “Only cash is true” was the most important thing for me when it came to gambling. I wanted to sit in a comfortable chair, smoke and press a button on the machine.

My feelings today – rejection and unwillingness

When I think about gambling today, I often react with rejection. I rarely go to the games library with one of my colleagues. My stakes are around 10 cents and I don’t take more than 10 euros with me. Especially not an EC or credit card. When I look at my environment, all my friends have gone through a development, have made progress, while I have wasted my time for nothing.

 

Experience report written by Frank, 26, from Zwickau