Online casinos: how I lost 4 million rubles, an apartment, a reputation and a family

After casinos were officially banned in Russia, most of them "moved" to the Internet, where playing is not prohibited. A man from Izhevsk initially earned good money and thought that he could get out of this pool, but in the end he was left with nothing. Further, the entire text is author's.

My friend and I were discussing how to increase our income. He said that from time to time he plays in an online casino and he manages to earn money from it. A friend knew that my father once suffered from gambling addiction: my family and I even moved from a city apartment to a village where our great-grandmother had an old house. Therefore, my friend believed that I knew what this could lead to, and would not get involved myself.

He was wrong: because of gambling, I was left without a family and with debts of almost two million rubles. I'll tell you how it happened. But I will start with how online casinos are arranged and how they earn money. How online casinos work

In Russia, online casinos are prohibited, so Internet service providers constantly block their domains. But the owners of such resources easily bypass the locks by creating so — called "mirrors"-clone sites with different addresses. These mirrors are also blocked, but new ones appear almost immediately — and so on indefinitely. Therefore, online casinos in Russia feel great.

A casino is a platform with games, something like a club. The casino games themselves do not belong to the casino: they are created by developers in IT companies, and the casino, as it were, rents the program and only manages the size of the bet. Manufacturers of such programs compete with each other and strive to attract as many players as possible: for example, bright design and pleasant music.

The most popular type of gambling on the Internet is slots. This is an electronic analogue of slot machines. You place a bet, press the button, virtual reels with pictures or symbols spin. If a certain combination fell out after the stop — you won something. Each such launch is called a spin.

The betting ranges in different slots differ. Usually they range from 5 rubles to 10 thousand. Sometimes the bid amount can reach 50 thousand rubles.

This is how the Divine Fortune slot game looks like: five reels, each with symbols of different values, pictures or letters

In addition to the game on the principle of "I made a bet — I turned the reels", there are also bonus games, or simply "bonuses". They start when three symbols with the inscription Scatter, Free Spins or Bonus appear. Bonuses are rare, but you can win an amount that exceeds the bet by 30-50 times, or even higher. For comparison: in a normal game, you can win a maximum of 10 times more.

In some slots, you can win a jackpot. In some games, it accumulates gradually, but more often it is just a fixed large amount. Naturally, the chance to win the jackpot is minimal.

To play, you need to register on the website and top up the game account-deposit. You can withdraw your winnings to the card, but you will have to pass identity verification: attach scans of your passport and the bank card from which you made the deposit.

In each casino, money is withdrawn at different speeds. For example, on one of the sites where I played, the translation did not come earlier than a day later. I am sure that this was invented on purpose: gambling people do not like to wait for a long time and within a few minutes after the withdrawal request, they can cancel it and sit down to play again. The most difficult thing is not to win, but to stop and not let everything go.

Slots work on a random number generator, which determines the chance and the amount of winnings. It calculates the result instantly. But the player is shown a whole performance, at the end of which his winnings are allegedly calculated.

Each slot has an RTP-return to player, the percentage of return to players. The size of the RTP can be found in the help section of the game. It is usually written that RTP is 95-96%. But even this does not mean that each participant will get back most of their money.

The point is that the game gives this share of the total cash to random players. The casino keeps only 4-5% of all the money for itself — if this is the case, then 4% is quite a lot, given the amounts that people leave in the machines every day. In addition, the gambler immediately brings the won money back to the casino again — I know for myself.

If a person has hit the jackpot in a particular slot, it will not be possible to win it for some time. My familiar player thinks that there is an RTP mode: while you are in it, the slot will not bring significant money, and to get out of this mode, you need to bet more than you won.

That is, let the casino earn money. Let's say you got 200 thousand, then lost 220 thousand — and only then you can win again. In general, you will be in the red, and the casino will be in the black.

But how this system actually works, none of the players knows, and casinos and providers do not advertise their algorithms. Perhaps the RTP mode is just a guess of my friend, but it explains well why you can't win after you have earned on the slot.

Now I am 30 years old. I live in Izhevsk, I work in the field of marketing. In 2019, I earned about 50 thousand rubles a month, kept financial records. My wife and I had our own apartment. We were expecting a baby. I have never considered myself a gambling person and did not imagine that I would create such problems for myself.

I started playing just for fun-what if I can win something, like my friend? I registered on one of the sites, made a deposit of 5 thousand rubles. I played at a bet of 20 rubles. After half an hour, I had 7 thousand in my account. I liked it, and I decided to continue.

The profit was not bad for the first weeks. Several times I turned 4-5 thousand into 20-30 thousand. Gradually, I began to make larger amounts on deposits and play at large bets. So I got involved.

At first, my wife didn't know that I started playing, but then I told her. As long as the slots brought money, she didn't mind. We agreed: I will not announce the amount of the loss, but I will tell you how much money I have withdrawn to the card.

Once I went to choose gifts for my wife for the New Year, there were about 60 thousand rubles on the card. I then caught myself thinking that I feel proud that I have more money than usual. I wanted to invest the remaining amount after the purchases in my own website, but this was not destined to happen: I lost the money.

Gradually, the game began to draw me in, I began to spend more and more time on slots. If at the end of December I played for 30-40 minutes a day, then in February I already played for several hours: from the very morning I went to the kitchen and, while my wife was sleeping, started my backs. I remember once my wife and I were at a lovestory photo shoot, and I played with my smartphone during breaks.

The further away, the bigger the bets and the amount of loss were. In February, I turned 15 thousand rubles into 300 thousand, put money on withdrawal, and then I thought: why not continue? I canceled the application, played again at high stakes — and lost everything.

If I had money, I immediately replenished my account, hoping to compensate for the losses, and played on. But if you just played big, it's no longer interesting on small bets, so I raised everything to the maximum and, of course, I was left with nothing.

Sometimes, because of such failures, I was in a terrible mood, I did not smile, even when my wife tried to cheer me up. It upset her, she offered to finish the game. I wasn't listening.

Once I had the idea to ask a friend for money to win at a casino, and then return it with interest. I told him that I could earn money on slots, and he agreed to be my "investor".

First, he lent me 30 thousand, I promised to return 40 thousand. I lost the money, but I gave it back with another win. I took from him twice more, the last time-200 thousand. I first made 1.1 million rubles out of them, and then I merged everything. I still owe this person 160 thousand rubles.

To recoup, I took out loans. The first one was taken at the beginning of March 2019: he borrowed 60 thousand from the bank, won back much more and paid off the debt in a few days. The rest was spent within a week. Almost immediately I decided to take another loan. This time I was approved by 130 thousand. I lost this amount in a few minutes.

My father once said that he would give us 50 thousand for the birth of a child. I asked to give them in advance. He agreed. The money was left in the casino.

In the middle of spring, I realized that I would no longer be given loans, and I began to borrow from friends. First, I borrowed 30 thousand from a friend — and lost. I don't have many friends, none of them earned more than me, so I decided to ask for help from clients. I asked one of them for 100 thousand and promised to return 120 thousand in a week. I haven't paid off this person yet. Recently, he told me that he then got into debt himself to help me.

To the people I borrowed from, I gave various reasons why I needed money: for a child, for the treatment of my wife from the consequences of a difficult birth, for paying off debts and loans.

For the most part it was a lie, and at first I was ashamed, but then I got used to it and just stopped thinking about it. Once I borrowed from unfamiliar people, coming up with another reason. When they later found out why I really needed the money, they almost sued. Fortunately, we managed to reach an agreement, and I paid them off in a couple of months.

In May 2019, the spouse delivered an ultimatum:

. I agreed verbally, but secretly continued the game. At that time, we already had a two-month-old baby.

At the beginning of the summer of 2019, I won and withdrew a little more than 400 thousand rubles. I have paid off all my debts, and I still have about 130 thousand left. The calculations showed that I completely recouped and even turned out to be in a small plus. I should have stopped, and I really wanted to do it. But I didn't have enough for long: the very next day I lost everything, and then I got into debt again.

I started constantly thinking about how to get back, and I became irritable. I hated every little thing like spilled soup. But I used to be proud of my ability to control myself and not pay attention to minor troubles. Even while walking with my wife and child, I was immersed in my sad thoughts. It was terribly exhausting.

Gradually, my attitude to money changed. When you win large sums, small ones are not so interesting anymore. Because of this, you start to take a lot of risks: for example, you can bet 500 rubles, having only 10 thousand, although this is only enough for 20 bets.

Many times I was going to withdraw money, but canceled the request for payment in order to continue the game. Such intemperance became a habit in other areas of life: I began to eat as many sweets as I had not allowed myself before, stopped thinking about decisions and began to easily succumb to a variety of temptations. In fact, I began to degrade.

At the end of June 2019, after another loss, I decided to mortgage an apartment. Then my wife and I lived with her parents: it was easier to take care of the child this way. I received 650 thousand in the bank against the security of the apartment and lost them in an hour. I remembered that at the beginning of spring, my wife said: "I don't want you to become one of those drug addicts who pawn apartments." Then these words offended me, but in the end everything turned out that way.

By the middle of the summer of 2019, I owed about 800 thousand rubles in total. But even when I had 700 rubles left in my wallet, I threw 500 rubles into the casino. Several times there was not enough money even for travel and food. Around the same time, I had problems with sleep: heavy thoughts did not allow me to fall asleep.

At that time, I was renting a place in an office that belonged to my first employer. Besides me, there were several other tenants there, and one of them noticed that I was sitting on the casino website.

He said that he was also fond of this before, but life deteriorated to such an extent that he lost a seven-figure sum and lost all his friends, only his wife stayed with him. He advised me to quit, but I didn't listen to him. Then I still cherished the hope of recouping and even earning money.

At the end of the summer of 2019, my parents accidentally found out about my situation. My father was furious, but promised to help. I already had 2.7 million rubles in debts. My parents offered to sell the apartment to pay off most of the debts. At first I didn't like this idea, but then I realized that there were no other options, and I agreed.

My father gave me half a million to close the loan that I took out against the security of the apartment. After that, my house could be sold. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to lose this 500 thousand, and I closed the loan. In September, I decided to mortgage the apartment again, this time the bank gave 550 thousand. I think it's already clear what happened to this money. I didn't say anything to my wife again.

In the same month, I put the apartment up for sale for 1.65 million rubles. It was pledged, so no one was in a hurry to buy it. As a result, I decided to sell it according to a cunning scheme: for only 1.2 million, but I was given an advance of 550 thousand to withdraw the property from collateral. After the sale, I received another 650 thousand.

I honestly intended to pay off my debts, but I couldn't stand it and decided to play. I asked for help from a friend: sitting next to me, he had to control me and not allow me to play big. I managed to increase the initial amount to 1.5 million rubles, but we made a mistake: they didn't withdraw the money immediately. My friend left, and after an hour I decided to continue and lost everything. This was the second time I leaked 1.5 million.

By the middle of autumn, everything became very bad. I asked for 100 thousand in debt from my wife to pay another creditor who was going to sue. But instead of paying off, I put this money on a deposit at the casino. My wife didn't know about it. Once in November, I asked her for another 20 thousand to repay the loan, but I also lost them.

Two weeks later, my wife wrote from the recovery service that I was a debtor. She filed for divorce. I moved out almost immediately and settled in the apartment of my grandmother, with whom I still live.

Playing at the casino is the number one mistake in my life, and being dishonest with my wife is the number two mistake. I wanted to keep her from worrying, but I still had to tell her the whole truth. We probably wouldn't have divorced if I'd been honest with her.

The articles say that the casino says that the casino is an honest business. I disagree. An honest business is based on a fair exchange: a person paid money and received a product or service of equal value. There is no such thing in the casino: here you either lost or won, and even at someone else's expense.

A friend explained to me that when it comes to a random number generator, the mathematical expectation is negative. This means that over a long period of time, you will not win more than the amount that you spend on betting. At first it seems like nonsense: you can turn 10 thousand into 150 thousand in one day. But if you look at the situation for six months, you can find that in fact you have been in the red for a long time.

I believe that gambling activity harms society, turning normal people into sick liars who lose money, property, family and friends. A person really presses the button himself, no one forces him, he is responsible for the consequences of his actions. However, at the same time, the casino creates all the conditions for him to continue pressing this button.

Gambling addiction is officially recognized as a disease — ludomania-which is attributed to mental disorders. A person who plays and can't stop is called a ludoman. The main symptom of ludomania is that the player cannot restrain himself when it is necessary, stop and stop playing. Psychotherapists consider it a kind of self-destructive behavior.

I have vowed many times not to play for the last money, but it was enough to break down once and find an excuse for myself, and then continue to make it a habit. No promises helped: I just didn't hold them back. Gradually, I became someone who could not be relied on.

This story is not over yet: I have not completely coped with the addiction. From time to time I try to recoup myself. Recently, I won about 700 thousand rubles and paid off some of my debts, but then I got into them again, and even deeper. Now I owe a total of 1.8 million rubles. About 170 thousand of them are for microfinance organizations. During the last breakdown, I scored 200 thousand online loans, and this debt is growing by about a thousand rubles a day.

I'm able to take breaks for several weeks, but I'm not sure that I'll quit for good until I pay off all my debts. Addiction has nothing to do with it: I just feel sorry for the lost money.

This is very difficult, but you should try to exclude any financial relationship with a loved one who suffers from ludomania. Support them morally, but not financially. Any communication is welcome, except for running a joint household and monetary relations. I do not advise you to help with employment, especially if your relative will have access to other people's money at a new job.

Do not lend friends or relatives an amount more than the one you are ready to part with and not spoil the relationship. At the same time, it does not matter whether the person who asks for a loan is a ludoman or not.

Do not believe promises if a person does not learn from his mistakes. If a player has gone into negative territory at least twice, it means that he has already become addicted, because he loses money, but for some reason continues to play. The first time, losing could be a mistake that a person could learn from. The second time he proves that he can't study independently.

If you are addicted to gambling yourself, count how much money you have lost over the entire time. Think about how much money your parents gave you to cover your debts and so on. And also count how much the relatives who supported you all this time spent on housing, transport, food. And don't forget about the interest on loans. After correct calculations, your minus will grow two or three times.

Don't hide your addiction from other people: this is how you hide the problem primarily from yourself. You can negotiate with your friends so that they do not lend you money.

Do not rely only on yourself: ludomania is a disease, and only a qualified specialist can help to cope with it and return logical thinking to its place.

When I started playing, I had problems with work. Instead of doing projects, I sat down to play. As a result, I broke deadlines, I had to come up with excuses. Besides, I borrowed money from clients. This has damaged my reputation as a specialist — there are fewer orders.

Now I am doing the same thing as before: freelance in the field of marketing. I have ruined my reputation, but not the product, and my expertise and result are still important to customers. When I started playing, I still earned 50 thousand a month, but I took all my salary to the casino. Over the past year, I have managed to increase my earnings. I pay alimony and gradually distribute debts. I figured that I could repay them in 3-3. 5 years.

As for the family, since my father gave me half a million to repay the loan, we do not communicate with him. He also had problems with gambling, and I came to the conclusion that now I am a living reminder of his own mistakes, which is better not to see.

I visit my son two or three times a week. My wife and I only talk about topics related to our child. I didn't have a special relationship with my wife's parents, although I lived with them for several months. Surely this is also due to the fact that I borrowed 50 thousand from them and still have not returned it.

I went on dates for a while. I immediately warned the girls that I was divorced, had a child, and separated from my wife because of my problems with the casino. It didn't make me look good, but it was honest.

Oddly enough, in this situation, I see advantages for myself. First, I began to think in other categories — a million rubles is not such a big amount for me now. Secondly, I became convinced that there is a certain core inside me that will help me cope with anything. Several times I caught myself thinking that everything is bad for me, and I can't even get upset. Then I just kept going.

The main thing that I learned from this experience is that a person does not consist of mistakes alone. Yes, sometimes you do terrible stupid things, but this does not negate the right actions and all the good things inside you. Even if everyone around you accuses you of idiocy, it is important to treat yourself with understanding, maintain pride and self-respect and just move on.