It’s the week of Thanksgiving across the USA (at press) and while many households are stressing out about dinner arrangements, you’ve got something else weighing heavy on your mind. You’ve been struggling with compulsive gambling online, and are well aware of the fact that temptation ramps up during the Holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving. Knowing this, you’re asking about how to avoid gambling urges over the days ahead. Below is a quick yet powerful summary of what you need to do.
5 Steps to Keep from Casino Gaming and Sports Betting Through the Thanksgiving Holiday
Stay Away from Email
As an online casino gamer and/or sports bettor, you’re about to get bombarded with email promotions to encourage you to reload your accounts and make wagers. There will be separate promotions for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. These promotions will be VERY enticing, offering reload bonuses that promise to double your deposit and more. These email solicitations are triggers to gamble that must be avoided at all costs.
Open your inbox right now, and delete any online casino and sports betting emails that you see, without reading them. Then, go to your email settings and initiate the “out of office” setting to cover the days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Essentially take an email vacation until Tuesday.
Remove (and Ban) Gambling Apps from Mobile Devices
You’re also about to receive push notifications from any active online casino and sports betting apps that you have used. Delete these apps from your phone right now, and install software that prevents you from downloading them again as the urge to gamble occurs over the next few days. Gamban is one such app that has proven to be effective for many gambling addicts.
Forget Football
Sacrilege, we know. It may even feel downright un-American to not watch the slate of NFL and NCAA football that’s on deck for the Thanksgiving holiday. However, the temptation to join the millions of others who will be betting on the schedule will be too much to bear for most habitual sports bettors. Each broadcast will be flooded with commentator discussions about point spreads and parlays, and interrupted by an onslaught of advertisements for the same online sportsbooks that you are trying to block from your periphery.
It’s a tough sacrifice to make, but it’s necessary for sports betting addicts. Besides, there is one thing that is more American than watching football on Thanksgiving, and that’s spending quality time with the family. As an alternative, suggest that you all go out and play a game of touch-football at the local park before dinner. After you’ve stuffed yourselves on turkey, get a head start on your favorite Holiday season movies together over the weekend. It’s never too early to watch ELF and Home Alone!
Open Up to Family
Worried that your family will wonder why you’re not doing what you normally do (watching the game) on Thanksgiving weekend? Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it finally provides you with the opportunity to open up to let them know what you’ve been struggling with. Maybe they already have an idea of what’s happening because your addiction has had a negative impact on them already. We know that opening up about this feels daunting, which is why we have provided a guide for How to Tell Your Family You Have a Gambling Problem.
Talk to a Specialist
Take the Thanksgiving break as an opportunity to break the hold that gambling has over you by reaching out to an online specialist for immediate support. A Kindbridge care-coordinator is ready to receive your call right now, and will connect you to a problem gambling counsellor. To accommodate preferences, we offer private one-on-one online sessions, family sessions, and group sessions. Call +1 (877) 426-4258 right now or click one of the options below to learn more about your road to recovery.
Problem Gambling Support Through the Holidays
CALL +1 (877) 426-4258
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