A Game of Chance

Kelly Delaney

Description

Kelly’s Prince Charming turns out to have a secret gambling addiction that threatens their marriage and everything Kelly has come to value, putting the lives of her children in danger.
Kelly is naïve and impressionable. When she is introduced to a young man on a blind date, she is immediately taken in by him. On the surface Luke is funny, smart and caring and easily impresses Kelly with his plans to settle down and have a family. Luke appears to be everything Kelly has been looking for. She is swept up in her dreams for the future and has no idea what dangers lie ahead for all involved.

When Luke’s true colours begin to show, there is no one she can call on for help. Kelly becomes trapped in a cycle of guilt and commitment to someone who tries to take everything he wants. Her dreams are shattered by the man who was supposed to protect her and her children but instead brings danger to their door.

A Game of Chance is a true story about the impact gambling has on families. Kelly is not alone, as gambling can impact anyone’s life, regardless of social status, age, or sex. Due to it being a mental health issue, gambling addiction can be stigmatized, but it’s time this disease is brought into the light.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Biography
• Future
• Gambling
• Dice
• Addiction
• Delaney
• Kelly
• Autobiography
• Digital Illusions CE
• Contrat à terme

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press AU
• Date de parution: 16 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781982296568
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Game of CHANCE
 
 
 
 
 
KELLY DELANEY
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Kelly Delaney.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com.au
AU TFN: 1 800 844 925 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9655-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9656-8 (e)
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 01/06/2023
CONTENTS
Introduction
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
Epilogue
INTRODUCTION
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.
—Mahatma Gandhi
I decided to write this story because I have held onto the pain and frustration of it for a very long time. I have kept secrets buried for so long to protect those around me. Now is my time to express how I have felt during this whole torrid journey.
Mine is a story about the impact gambling has on families. I realise that my family and I are not alone. The consequences of uncontrolled gambling are often reported in the news. Social status, age, sex, and culture all have no bearing on gambling; it can impact anyone’s life.
Gambling is also stigmatised due to it being a mental health issue, as much as depression or other mental health illnesses are. From my experience, gamblers are depressed and unhappy with their life. They always believe they will have that next big win that will wipe out all current debts. They honestly believe they will win in the end. But gambling is a losing game, and very few people truly win.
Gambling changes personalities and the core of a person. Gamblers have no insight, no identity, and no place in society without gambling. They lose everything—family, friends, work colleagues, possessions, even their lives. Gambling is a lonely path to travel, not only for the gambler but for the gambler’s family. It alienates everyone involved from the rest of life.
1
Life is a journey each of us travels on our own. It is a game of chance, and nothing is certain for any one of us. Look around the world at children born in Third World countries facing famine and a questionable future from the minute they take their first breath. What about children born into countries deep in civil war, whose parents are unsure whether their baby will survive for even a day?
For children born into families with parents not equipped to care for them, it is ultimately all a game of chance. Even as those children grow up, there is still uncertainty as to where their futures will take them. It’s a risky business when they have so many choices to make.
People who come into our lives can leave their mark in so many ways. These marks can be both good and bad; it’s how we deal with them that dictates how we survive. The choices we have to make in our lives are at times difficult, and we avoid making some until we are forced to, leaving us no other options.
As we travel the journey of life, fears and anxieties can weigh heavy on our minds. We will ultimately have to face the consequences of our actions. We can only hope that as we grow, how we choose to live our lives on this journey will allow us to evolve into healthy human beings and won’t negatively impact us or the people we love and care about. We can only pray that the bad choices we make will help us learn and, in the future, improve ourselves to move on and grow and make better choices in the future.
Then there are the experiences it just never seems possible to change. They are repeated continually and seem to hold us in a never-ending pattern of pain, fear, anger, disappointment, and, of course, regret. Being human, our emotions come into play; we are all emotional beings. Left unchecked, emotions can impact our rational selves, blurring our reality so we can’t see what is real and what is imagined.
You can make yourself believe life is completely unchangeable, no matter how much you try to alter what is happening. You can also trick yourself into believing life is very different from how it really is, just to survive. All these experiences can leave us with everlasting scars that lie hidden. They hide in the recesses of our minds waiting to pounce when we least expect it.
The domino effect from our decisions is incredible, and as families grow and more people are born into this game of chance, each person becomes involved in the machinations of the consequences of other people’s actions. Children are usually little victims of the choices that adults make. This was the case in my story.
Children are born reliant on their parents to keep them safe from harm, to be their voice when they are too young and fragile to speak for themselves. Parents need to make healthy and safe decisions on behalf of their children and never put their safety and security at risk.
2
Everywhere we go, we see advertisements for gambling—on television, social media, the Internet, and in clubs and pubs. They show how easy it is to place a bet on anything you want. Gone are the days when horse racing and poker machines were generally only found in New South Wales. All Australian states and territories now have poker machines. They are easy to access for everyone.
It is not as easy to find help. Gambling assistance services may be difficult to access if you live outside of metropolitan areas. In fact, I did a search online, and although Gamblers Anonymous immediately came up, above and below the link were other links for casino slot machines and other forms of gambling. Gamblers become desperate for funds to feed their habit, and when I say desperate, I mean truly despe rate .
Gamblers will put gambling before anything else in life, including their family, their home, even their own well-being. Bills go unpaid, and food can become hard to purchase due to lack of money when you live with a gambler. Gamblers are taking immense risks; after all, almost everything in life is a gamble for them. They live with uncertainty, as do the people who live with them.
As you will see, this is a story of gambling and the destruction it caused in my family. It’s also a story of lies, cheating, ultimate heartache, and complete and utter pain. It is a true story, although some of the details, dates, and names have been changed to respect and protect people’s personal privacy.
The aim of this story is not to humiliate, embarrass, or blame anyone, or try to get sympathy for myself. It is simply to shine a light on the destructive effect that gambling can have on people’s lives and how difficult it is to stop the process for the gambler. It is an illness that so many people are afflicted by, but that illness also affects the people they love.
As I stated earlier, I have held onto this story for a long time, but I needed to write it for me. I want people to see the extent to which gamblers will go, to continue headlong on a destructive path, and how desperate their loved ones, friends, and family feel as a result. This book will shine a light on how completely desperate people can become, and how they will make decisions that are reckless and damaging to so many. They do not consciously set out to ruin lives, but once the dominoes start to fall, sometimes there is simply no way of stopping them.
Gamblers are very clever people. They are intelligent, smart, and popular, and they can charm, impress, and fool those around them very easily. That’s the only way they can succeed in their deception successfully and not be caught out.
3
I look at my role in this story and realise I had the power to change parts of what occurred, and possibly the outcome. But at that time, I didn’t have the tools or skills to be strong enough to do so. I could have changed the outcome for so many people, but I just didn’t. I allowed myself to be manipulated and moulded into the person the gambler needed to feel successful.
As I writ