rSlash - r/Tifu I Lost My $600,000 Life's Savings Gambling

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

0:00 Intro 0:09 Loosing 600k 11:30 Wrong person 12:52 Passionate party Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today I F'd Up by losing my entire life savings of over $600,000 to a rapidly developed gambling addiction and not being able to afford the taxes that I now owe. I, a 38-year-old guy, had at one point amassed over $500,000 in a retirement account with over $100,000 in cash in my checking account. To start, many of you will immediately wonder how I even got in that situation, so let me give a little backstory. I'm an IT professional with a background in software engineering, although currently I'm in management.

I make six figures and have since I was in my late 20s. I'm generally frugal, save way more than the average person, and don't buy a lot of lavish things. I keep to myself most of the time, go out on occasion, and buy quality on things that I use the most, but don't overindulge. Doing this has led to a happy and generally successful life where I never had to worry about losing my job for even a year, much less where my next meal was coming from. I always knew that if problems really started, I'd have enough money to survive for years.

I've always enjoyed the occasional casino trip. Probably more than my friends, but it was never really a problem. That is, until mid last year. I was a casual gambler playing mostly parlor table games when one day I went to the casino with $600 and sat down to an Ultimate Texas Hold'em game where I proceeded to win non-stop for hours. I continuously upped my bets and kept winning. Eventually, I was betting the table max $3,000 altogether with the various bets. The table was drawing attention and I was on a high. Everybody was winning because the dealer was losing and I was winning the most. A straight followed by a full house followed by another straight and

another full house. Man, I was playing max bets, raising my bet four times blind without even looking at my cards and would still win. Sometimes only with a high card. I could not lose. The table was all cheering me on because when I'd win another $2 or so, I'd toss $100 chips to the others at the table as a kind gesture. The largest chips they had at the table were $500 chips. They ran out and had to order a refill. This happened 6 times. 6 times they ran out of money for the players at our table and had to keep bringing more in. To avoid too much attention, I would shove the $500 chips into my pocket and play with only the ones on the table. Any new winnings went into my pocket out of sight. At one point, they decided to change the cards, which takes

about 20 minutes, so I get up to use the bathroom. I thought my pants were going to sag from the weight of the chips. The chips filled my pocket so much, I worried they might just spill out of my pockets. I later found out that the PID bosses were getting calls from security asking them to keep an eye on me because they were suspicious that I might be cheating. And they said the security reviewed the footage of that night for days afterwards, trying to see what was going on. When I finally stood up from the table, I had won over $30,000 from my original $600

buy-in. That was a high I didn't know was possible. I could buy a car with that, or anything I wanted, really, but then I already could. There was nothing I wanted that I couldn't have already bought. That $30k didn't matter. I found out later that because I was betting so much for so long, my tier status went to the highest level. And that came with tons of perks like a free cruise, free golf trips at a local private club, and over $3,000 in food comps which were valid at even the

fancy casino restaurants like their steakhouse. I would eventually treat all my friends to multiple fancy dinners with this money. With nothing I wanted to spend the money on, I decided to go back again the next weekend. This time, I played slots in table games, all sorts of things, and again, I won more. Everything I touched won. Slots were paying me hand pays right and left. People recognized me from before and would stop to hear the story. I won another $20,000 over the course of the month, mostly on slots with bets ranging from $5 to $60 a spin. It was all cash, literal paper cash in my closet in $10,000 bundles just sitting there with no purpose, other than to be used on more casino trips. My friends all told me how lucky I was and loved to tell the story.

It was fun to tell stories about sticking it to the casino. Everybody loves a good winter story. My friends all knew that I had nearly $50,000 in cash in my closet. I had just bought a house and started fixing things up. I spent about $40k on the house covering paint, appliances, and flooring. When I spent that money though, I was careful to use my card and save the cash for future casino trips. In the weeks that followed, I'd slowly lose more and more of that $50,000 Watt of cash. It became $40K, then $35K, and I kept thinking, oh man, if my friends ask to see the cash, I'm going to need an excuse for why I don't have it anymore. I should probably try to win some back of the tables again.

Which I know just as well as you do now that this is a ridiculously stupid thing to even think, much less attempt. Eventually, my mom would fly into town to visit me, and she lives in a state without casinos and enjoys going as well. She mentioned over and over how she couldn't wait to go to the casino and see how lucky I am. I had to make up an excuse for why I didn't have all the money that I told about in my stories. I felt guilty and dirty lying about something as trivial as losing 15k. But I didn't want anybody to know that I gave some back to the casino like

an idiot. Caving into this feeling of shame and accepting my willingness to hide it would ultimately be my downfall. After my mother left, I had no other people to be accountable to. The casino offered me $250 every week and $250 every weekend in free play. I proceeded to go back to the casino twice a week. Of course, to collect the free play. I proceeded to go back to the casino twice a week. Of course, to collect the free play. But with my betting habits of occasionally betting 10 to 50 bucks a spin, that amount of money can last anywhere from 3 minutes to literal seconds. Once it's gone, I'm at the cashier asking for

money because I'm withdrawing $3,000 at a time. That's an amount that the ATM machines didn't allow me to make. I lost the money over and over, week after week of losing $3,000 or even $10,000. One day, I saw my banking app noted, You spent $30,000 less so far this month than last month. And my heart sank. I knew I needed to stop. And I would. I just needed to bet bigger and have one of those good days to get me up maybe 20-30k out of my now missing 60-80k.

And I just cut my losses there. That logic carried me for months as I spiraled. I stopped going to the casino altogether and the allure eventually faded. A few months later, I discovered online casinos. I thought they were all illegal or didn't accept US customers until I found one that did. I deposited a few hundred bucks and was able to play slots and table games while laying down in the bed at night. The convenience of depositing money straight from my bank account, effectively straight into a slot machine was just easy. Too easy.

I eventually lost everything I had in my savings accounts. I felt empty. I felt nothing. The, well screw it, what's another 10k at this point? Thoughts started creeping in. I used a credit card to see if it would even work, and to my disappointment, it did. I ran up the limit on my credit card hoping to win enough to pay it back off. When I reached the max, I requested a limit increase, which was granted, then ran it up again. Out of sources of money, I decided to withdraw money out of my Roth IRA into my personal account. The wire took less than 20 minutes the first time. I felt guilty. I felt a rush of anxiety and thrill as I then immediately deposited that money into the

online casino. I turned $10,000 into zero in a matter of hours. I started depositing increments of $1,000 because that was reasonable and less money, but I'd lose it and do it again minutes later. Again, in a reasonable small increment. When bills came due, I didn't have money for them, so I justified another withdrawal from my retirement account. This time it was to pay the bills so I need this. I'd withdraw way more than I needed for the bills and blow the rest.

During all of this, there were of course moments where I turned $100 into $20,000 or $1,000 into $10,000 in minutes as well. It wasn't all losses, which is what kept me hooked. If I could turn $100 into $20,000, just think about what I could do with $1,000. I could get it all back. I kept withdrawing money from my retirement account until I had withdrawn so much that the amount left would no longer even cover the taxes I now owed on the income and penalties incurred from early withdrawing money out of my retirement account. I was so ashamed. I didn't want anybody to know about any of this.

I told no one. My closest friends are all as wealthy as I was, but without a gaping hole in their bank accounts. It got harder and harder to keep up going out to eat and going out golfing. My new house doesn't have basic furniture required to host guests, no large sofa, no reasonable dining table. It grew increasingly difficult to justify to all my friends why I haven't had anyone over and why I haven't bought a couch or even basic furniture. The crippling guilt and anxiety over my looming tax obligation forced me to come clean to

my best friends. I feel bad for having not said something sooner. It could have saved my future. I'm still reeling in shock with what I've done. It all happened over the course of a single year, with the bulk of it over the last six months. I've since stopped entirely. I've got my budget back on track, and I have a plan for covering taxes and moving

on with my life. Talking to my friend about it put it all into perspective. In hindsight, I feel like I was in a massively depressed fog. Not thinking clearly, not caring about my own well-being. It all happened so fast. I'll be dealing with the fallout from this for the rest of my life. But the next few months and years will likely be the most difficult as I pay off all the debt that I foolishly accrued and try to get my life back together.

I hope this post serves as a reminder to everyone to not gamble at all because winning might be the worst thing that happens to you. The really depressing thing about this story is that it's not even a unique situation. This story is as old as gambling itself. Oh geez, down in the comments OP adds that he had a lot of money invested in Nvidia, which as we all know has absolutely skyrocketed in value. So if he had just done nothing and left his investments there, he'd be a multi-millionaire. Instead, the dude is massively in debt. Ugh, this is depressing. Today I effed up by accidentally proposing to my girlfriend's dad. My girlfriend and

I have been dating for two years and things have been going great. Recently I started thinking about proposing, but I hadn't settled on how to pop the question. However, her dad is pretty old school so I thought it would be nice to ask for his blessing first. Cue my big mistake. We were at their house for dinner and after dessert I pulled her dad aside. I was nervous so my brain decided to shut down and go on vacation. I meant to say, I'd like your blessing to marry your daughter.

Instead, what came out of my mouth was, I'd like to marry you. The man just stared at me. I realized what I'd said about.5 seconds later and immediately panicked. I backpedaled so hard that I made it worse. I stammered something like, I mean, I want to marry your daughter, not you, unless you're into that. Not that I mean you're not attractive or oh my god, I'll just go jump off a cliff now. Meanwhile my girlfriend, who had wandered over at this point, overheard part of it and burst out laughing. Her dad, to my surprise, laughed so hard he started crying.

He eventually said, Well, I appreciate the offer, but I think my wife would object. Long story short, I got his blessing, but now her entire family refers to me as Dad's Other Husband. Today I effed up by letting my boss found out that I had intercourse with his parents. I'm a 23 year old woman and me and my partner go swinging and frequent adult clubs. It's just part of our lives and we enjoy it. Now very few of the people in these clubs have I ever seen in the wild and I keep that

part of my life separate from my work and regular daily life. I don't keep it a giant secret or anything. It's more just the relationships are separate. Usually at these parties or clubs, you begin getting a circle of people who you vibe with and who you share kinks with and whatnot. And for me, this has included a couple in their 60s who I have a lot of fun with. We've been to their place a few times where they host these parties. Well, this morning while I was at work, I was talking with my partner on the phone about this couple having invited us and a few others over for a party. I just

said something like, Sue and Louis are hosting a party this Saturday. It's at their vacation house this time and such and such. I didn't think anything of it and I didn't think to lower my voice. I wasn't saying anything explicit. Well, my boss overheard me and said how weird it was because it sounded like we were going to be going to his parents' house, which obviously couldn't be the case. I kinda laughed it off, but he seemed weirded out. Now, I didn't say their last name, so I figured, okay, they're not related. Well, this Saturday, we went to the party at Louis and Sue's. All was good and fun. But then, a car arrives in the driveway kinda late.

There were maybe 10 people here at this point. They were doing various stuff and they were all naked. There were toys everywhere and content on the TV. Louis and Sue curse and put on robes and try to rush cleaning up because they recognize it's their son's car. Most of us aren't super drunk, but we've had a drink or two and not everyone gets the message of get up and act normal. We're trying to hide things and stuff while they talk to him at the door.

We're all obviously caught, but in our slight drunkenness, we thought that we had a shot at playing it out cool. Anyway, we hear this guy who we just know is their son, yell the most heinous things at his parents and how disgusted he is. I recognize his voice and peek out. Don't judge me, I wasn't thinking straight, okay? And he sees me and I quickly hide again. To be clear, I didn't know that these were his parents.

My boss yells out my name and says that he'll see me on Monday. He rushes out and drives away. Very dramatic in my opinion. Lewis and Sue were honestly very chill about it. I guess they don't have the best relationship to begin with. I don't know to be honest. They said the main reason they were so panicked at first was because they thought the grandkids would be in his car. My boss apparently took his wife's last name, which is why I didn't think that they were his parents also. I guess we'll see if I have a job on Monday. Quick update.

I'm currently at work and my boss hasn't showed up for work this morning. I've received several messages from his wife calling me a whore, a disgusting slut, etc. She also wrote that she bets that I've tried to trick her husband in the intercourse. I've never screwed this guy and never have I wanted to. She's also tried calling me several times. First time I picked up and she was just completely out of reach and screamed at me about how I would be dragging her children's grandparents to hell. I've also talked to Sue and Louis and we might meet today or tomorrow to talk in person since this texting

and calling around and across is too much. I honestly just feel bad for Sue and Louis and feel guilty and like it's my fault. Then two days later OP posted an update. I've talked to Sue and Louis in person today and they were both very apologetic about the whole thing, which I felt I was the one who should apologize. Okay, so turns out my boss has cheated on his wife several times. And then she cheated on him in retaliation, I guess. She apparently cheated with one of my boss's paddle friends, someone he saw as a close friend. Just super messy stuff from both sides. Sue and Louis told me that they haven't had a good

relationship with him for like 5 years or so because he did some other stuff with finances and or their savings and caused lots of family issues, I guess. I'm not going to share details, but it's messed up. He apparently blames them, his parents, for the things that happened and is extremely upset that they didn't want to pay for him to get out of it. They've talked to both my boss and his wife and they're still furious and apparently my boss wants me fired but doesn't know how to. And his wife is just a crazy b-word, honestly. She

thinks that I'm having intercourse with her husband. I haven't. And his parents, guilty to get back at her. For what? I don't know. I've never met her. And she thinks that I'm the one behind their money troubles and that I've manipulated them into a sex cult. I've contacted HR. I just told them that it was a get-together and didn't share details. And the company has told me that he essentially can't do anything. I've also been told that I can be moved to a different part of the company if I ever wish to. I have everything from his wife saved too, just in case. They're both very conservative and religious, which is also part of why the family doesn't talk with them much, other than contact with the grandkids.

His wife is convinced that I've slept with her husband. I don't know how she got this idea. It's very messy, but I don't think it's actually about me, but rather just them being toxic together. My boss insists that his parents stop the parties and especially stop being with me and my boyfriend, and that we cut contact. Neither me, my boyfriend, nor Sue or Louis want to cut contact. We have fun together, and we don't see why we should stop just because they want us to.

It's not like we'll tell him or anyone else about it. Sue also made me lasagna to bring home, so you don't have to think too much about food when we had the stress on you. She's literally the sweetest lady. I feel much better knowing that he can't do anything and that I'll still have a job where I feel safe no matter what he decides to do. I don't have any updates from my boss or his wife, but I'll try to update if anything does happen. This post makes me relieved that I work from home and I don't have

to deal with super messy, really messy, grab the tissues, drama like this at my workplace. That was r slash today I effed up and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.