In So Much Debt Through Gambling

The Debt Prayer. Here is another blessing for money. This prayer is for help to come out of debt. Often times, either through poor financial planning, or unexpected unemployment, we can accumulate too much debt to deal with on our own. Use this prayer to ask for God’s help. 60% of those addicted to gambling will commit crimes 1. 20% of gamblling addicts commit or attempt suicide 2. 63% of gambling addicts are alcoholics 1. 20% of addicted gamblers have filed for bankruptcy 3. 50% will abuse spouses and children 4. 20% of the homeless are gambling addicts 5. 50% of gambling addicts will divorce 6. The average (gambling) debt is between $63,000. Looking at 90% utilization. It was $18,000 before my gambling disaster. My father suggested paying $1,000/month on the highest interest card. This would eliminate all of my credit card debt in less than 30 months. Here's my plan: Plead with the IRS to let them add my 2017 tax debt to the previous installment agreement so I don't become homeless.

In this week of March Madness, we are addressing a common issue related to sports… gambling debt! Many of us travel to Las Vegas and bet on sports or play games in Native American casinos here in California. Here in the Inland Empire, places like San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, Pala Casino Resort and Spa, Morongo Casino, Resort and Spa, and Pechanga Resort and Casino are all very popular places to visit, relax, have fun, and, unfortunately, rack up gambling debt. Whether you lose money, owe money directly to the casinos from credit lines, or if you used credit to play in the casinos, you should be able to discharge the debt with a bankruptcy filing (keep reading if you want to know when the gambling debt is not able to be discharged). Gambling debt is considered one of the unsecured debts which can be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. This means that if you qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can have the gambling debt totally cleared. But this does not mean that you should go ahead and use all of your credit to gamble as much as you can and then just file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after you’ve lost all your credit lines. The reason is explained below.

It is not legal to pre-meditate a bankruptcy. You should not plan to file for bankruptcy as a strategy to get out of debt after gambling because this is not allowed. A bankruptcy court and bankruptcy trustee can deem your debt non-dischargeable or unable to be discharged if you have signs of pre-meditating a bankruptcy. You may think that this is difficult to prove, but, actually, all that the bankruptcy trustee needs to do is examine your most recent spending in the past 90 days to see if there was any spending that looks like it was planned spending with a bankruptcy filing planned ahead of time. For example, if you bought a new TV last month and also racked up a $10,000 gambling debt, and are hoping to file bankruptcy today, it would be fairly obvious to the bankruptcy court that you had a bankruptcy planned all along because the debt was incurred so close to when you filed. These recent debts may be deemed unable to be discharged.

Remember, bankruptcy trustees are just people like you. Your file will be examined by a normal person who can spot these types of spending patterns and will not let you get away with planned spending for a pre-meditated bankruptcy. Otherwise, if you have genuine gambling debt and you are unable to pay it in the time allotted for you to repay the debt, a bankruptcy should be able to discharge the debt.

Someone out there is probably also thinking that once the bankruptcy is filed or discharged, you might want to go ahead and start gambling again immediately after the debt is discharged. You really shouldn’t put yourself in this difficult situation because you won’t be able to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy again for 8 years. Now you are stuck with the debt until you can file again 8 years from now. After a bankruptcy, your main focus should be on building up your savings and improving your credit scores. Going right back to gambling after a bankruptcy can be even more risky because you don’t have the opportunity to file another bankruptcy to clear the debt. You will most likely face a lawsuit and collections activities.

If you are riddled with gambling debt or any other type of debt, contact Bankruptcy Law Professionals at 855 257-7671 to schedule a free consultation.

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It was November 2005.

I was so excited.

I won a $20,000 jackpot playing online video poker.

Not only could I pay off the gambling debt I’d been accumulating slowly over the last month or two but I could pay off previous debts as well.

I could put this nightmare behind me.

And then almost in the same moment I realized there was no way I was going to keep that money.

I was a gambling addict.

I wasn’t going to stop just because I won a big amount.

Stopping would mean that I wasn’t gambling anymore.

If I wasn’t gambling anymore I would have to deal with life, and the whole reason I gambled in the first place was because I couldn’t deal with life.

I had Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) but at the time I had no idea.

Everything was so hard for me.

A regular work day.

Having friends.

Being in a relationship with anyone.

Maybe a good day for you is a day where you wake up and your energy and focus are at 100%. And you have a busy work day and then socialize with friends and by the time your day is over you’re down to 15 or 20%. It was a busy day for you but it was a good one. Maybe a bad day means you start at 50% and end the day at 0%.

Imagine starting your day at 0%.

That is what having unmedicated ADD was like for me.

I started at 0% and the only place to go was into negative energy.

Everything was difficult because I had no focus and no energy to concentrate.

To get basic things done I had to reach inside for whatever energy I could find. I would try to consume energy drinks and energy shots but they aren’t meant for people with ADD.

It took longer for me to do things.

Reading a book was almost impossible and still hard today.

But I got things done because that’s what I was supposed to do.

“Normal” people go to work every day.

“Normal” people like to spend time with others.

“Normal” people can read books and some even do it for fun.

So I tried to be “normal”. I tried so hard.

And on the surface I succeeded.

But on the inside I was in so much pain.

Gambling Debt Facts

Living a normal productive life caused me so much mental pain and I didn’t know why.

In So Much Debt From Gambling

I didn’t know how to cope with this pain so I turned to gambling.

When I was gambling I didn’t have to deal with the pain.

I could get through the day as long as I knew that gambling was there waiting for me.

I didn’t gamble to win money.

I gambled to survive.

Eventually, like any addiction, it became unsustainable.

I gambled money that wasn’t mine and now others knew about my pain.

They tried to help me.

I wanted them to help me.

But I didn’t know it was ADD.

I didn’t know why I was addicted to gambling.

Help With Gambling Debt

It took over 10 years of addiction counselling, and every kind of therapy that we could think of before I stumbled across a random ADD test and realized: this is me.

I got medication and everything changed for the better.

I started to be able to do normal things and I didn’t feel the mental pain anymore.

It took a while to let go of the addiction entirely but eventually it was gone.

But back in 2005 when I won that $20,000 jackpot, there was no way I was stopping.

Someone could have given me $100,000 and I would have kept gambling with that.

I gambled until I had no more available credit and no more cash in my bank account.

Rent was due on Monday and I didn’t have it. I had to borrow it from a friend.—

In So Much Debt Through Gambling Bills

Money doesn’t solve gambling problems.

Money enables gambling problems.

To solve gambling problems you have to spend the time to figure out why you’re gambling in the first place.

It took a lot of years of my life but I figured it out.

If you are having gambling problems, spending problems, or going through any kind of addiction, and you want to stop, I believe you have to dig deeper and find out what is causing your addiction.

For me, addiction was not the problem. The addiction was the way I coped with my problem. The problem was something called Attention Deficit Disorder.

ADD is real and I will always have it. The medication fixes the part of my brain that can’t focus so now I can do most basic things and they aren’t painful.

But it doesn’t fix everything.

I will always be a little bit different but I’m ok with that.

Bankruptcy And Gambling Debt

Some days are exhausting but at least now I get to start at 100% and stop before I get to 0%.​

#BellLetsTalk

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