Hello, this is a story of how I was able to fund my school tuition by playing a popular online FPS game known as Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO). But at the same time, destroyed me.
For those who don't know, CSGO is a first person shooter that is very popular. Players can buy skins with real money and sell for real money. What are skins? It is different textures of the guns used in the game, and can be worth from .01 cents to up to $10,000. Some might even be worth more than $10k. It's ridiculous how a $15 dollar game can have items worth that much. But thanks to these pixels, I was able to fund my study abroad tuition, which I was very grateful for. But it had a negative effect on me...
I heard about gambling CSGO skins, and there were numerous sites online that hosted games like cointoss, jackpot, crash, roulette, and so on. It was practically a casino for CSGO players where they bet skins. I was hooked when I won a jackpot worth over $2000 by only betting $2. And this happened, not once... Not twice, but three times!!! I had proof of me winning them but unfortunately lost them after my phone broke. But believe it or not, I would bet $2.5 skins on huge jackpots and win a huge jackpot with less than 1% chance of winning. Of course, I started betting recklessly after having so much winning, to the point where I lost over half of my money.
After losing half of my money, I just had the urge to win back my losses, even though I had made so much more, considering the fact I only put in $50 worth of actual money. I started trying out new games, like crash, roulette, and coin toss. There were moments where I would bet $1000 on a 50/50 coin toss, and the adrenaline rush was so addicting that I did that several times and lost just about everything.
I decided to stop and just sell roughly $3,000 to help pay for my tuition abroad. Although I had only put in roughly $300 actual US Dollars into these gambling sites by buying more skins through 3rd party websites, I was able to turn it into $3000 and pay for my tuition. But these gambling urges kept creeping on me. It took a toll on me, and it was a gateway for me to start gambling on online casinos, by sports betting to black jack and poker online. I spent hours every day gambling away my money, and I nearly maxed out my credit cards.
Fast forward a couple months after quitting cold turkey on gambling. For some weird reason, I just had the urge to do it again, and with my addicting personality, I got into CSGO gambling. I was able to put in $200, turn it into $2,000 and then later on into $4,000. I guess you could say I was very lucky but very stupid for not stopping. One day, this guy adds me and asks if I would like to join jackpots with him and split the winnings, and being a generous and gullible person I am, I agreed. He told me about a new site I have never heard of, so I check it out. It seems very legit, and so I gamble my precious skins on this site. After putting about $400 worth of skins, I hit a huge jackpot of nearly $5,000. Or that's what I had assumed.
After not receiving my winnings, I found out the guy that wanted to me to join jackpots with him was actually a scammer. A very sneaky one. I should have done some more research before putting money on a site I have never heard of or used. I later did more research and found that the site was complete BS. It was ran by a bunch of bots that made the chat seem active, and I assume the guy that added me was the owner of this BS site. I was so pissed that I had been scammed, and how stupid I was to trust a person online. Never trust people online. Ever. This enraged me and I decided to win back my losses, so I put more and more money into 3rd party sites to purchase skins to gamble with. I had spent roughly $2500 just to win back my losses. I was so STUPID! Why!?!?! This rush when gambling was so addicting that even though I knew I was going to just lose more and more money, I kept going back to it. I debated on going to gambling rehab and such but lately I have just been focusing on other activities, rather than sitting in front of a computer playing games and gambling. Basketball and boxing has played a huge role in my life to help avoid me from gambling again.
I wanted to share my story of how video games helped me but also destroyed me, and I believe this should be made more aware of. This game does contain lots of minors who's brain hasn't fully developed, and I assume the average age of these players are in their teens, and tons of them are gambling, at such a young age. To expose children to such activities at a young age can definitely impact them in the long run. There are many stories out there related with CSGO gambling, and most of it is not good. Corruption, scandals, law suits, the list goes on.
If you have any questions or comments, or suggestions, please let me know. I did not post this story to advocate gambling or to promote sites that operate, but to spread awareness. Thank you all for reading.