Have you ever taken a full month off betting - how did it feel?

[ThePuntingProf]

One must consider that the question of a full month away from wagering is less about the calendar and more about the relationship one has with uncertainty and stimulation, because for many people the act of placing a bet is not merely a financial decision but a ritual of anticipation, a small daily drama that supplies meaning and structure, and I say that as someone who has spent decades in this world and who, after Margaret passed, found that the evenings became quieter than I ever imagined they could be, and betting filled some of that quiet with numbers and scenarios and the comfort of thinking the outcome could be understood if only the model were refined; I took a month off once after a particularly absurd run where I was objectively making sound selections yet variance produced a sequence of results that felt personally insulting, and what surprised me was that the relief did not come from avoiding losses but from avoiding the constant checking, the compulsive refresh, the endless mental re-living of decisions as if regret could reverse time, and during that month I still studied matches, built Poisson distribution projections, and reviewed Asian handicap pricing, but I did it without the emotional spike of money attached, which made the work cleaner and the conclusions more honest, and when I returned I wagered less frequently and with more patience, which is in many ways the hardest skill to acquire in betting.

 

[GlasgowGrinder]

• If you cannot stop for 30 days, you are not in control.
• Remove access. Delete apps. Self-exclude if required.
• Replace routine. Same time each day. Different activity. Gym. Walk. Spreadsheet review.
• Use month to review data. Identify: worst leagues, worst bet types, worst times of day.
• Return with rules. Maximum number of bets per week. Fixed staking. No deviations.
  My position: breaks are useful only if they produce policy changes. Otherwise you pause the leak and reopen it.

 

[CoachTony_Bets]

This is exactly the range of answers I expected, and it helps. Eddie and Grinder basically said the same thing in two languages: if I do it, do it with structure and a reason, not as a dramatic cleanse. Conor, the “Saturday hit” part is real. That’s why I’m thinking I pick a month with a clean boundary and I tell a couple people around me so I cannot quietly sliding back in.

And Fade, you’re not wrong about people dressing up a losing streak as personal growth. I’m not coming off a big downswing, I’m coming off that feeling of being mentally tired of it. As a coach, I see the same pattern with players who never take a day off: they still show up, but they stop being present. If I do it, I want to come back with fewer bets, better spots, and more enjoyment watching games.

 

[SharpEddie47]

@FadeThePublic is half-right, as usual. Many people take breaks because they are losing. The other half of the truth is that even profitable bettors can burn out, especially high-volume ones. The difference is what happens after the break.

A disciplined bettor returns with a tighter process: fewer markets, fewer impulse plays, more line shopping, and better record keeping. A casual bettor returns with the same habits, just refreshed enough to lose with enthusiasm again.

@CoachTony_Bets , if you do this month off, write down your rules now while you are calm. Not later. Your future self will negotiate. The future self always negotiates.

 

[FadeThePublic]

@SharpEddie47 , I’ll give you this: “future self negotiates” is painfully accurate.

@CoachTony_Bets , if your goal is “enjoy games again,” a month off will probably work. If your goal is “come back different,” you need guardrails. Otherwise you will be right back to checking live lines in the second quarter because it feels like control.

Also, a suggestion: keep watching games during the break. The people who take a break and stop watching entirely are the ones who come back rusty and then blame the market for “getting sharper.” The market is the market. It does not care about your mental health journey.

 

[TaffyTipster]

Fade’s being a bit of a knob about it. But the point is fair.

You gotta change something. For me it was simple.

No betting on the phone in the pub. That was the killer.

Two pints and you suddenly fancy some “value” that isn’t there. So when I came back, bets were done at home only.

Cup of tea. Not a lager.

Sounds boring. It works.

 

[DublinDegen]

Fade’s being a bit of a knob about it. But the point is fair.

You gotta change something. For me it was simple.

No betting on the phone in the pub. That was the killer.

Two pints and you suddenly fancy some “value” that isn’t there. So when I came back, bets were done at home only.

Cup of tea. Not a lager.

Sounds boring. It works.

@TaffyTipster youre 100 percent right about the pub thing lads im not even joking thats where it all goes sideways because youre with the lads and you want the craic and you think youre being sound and then youre down 200 quid before halftime and youre pretending you dont care and then you go home raging

i might actually try the tea thing like thats depressing but also im sick of being an eejit about it
and eddie dont start with the spreadsheet thing ive got one in my notes app that i havent opened since september

 

[ThePuntingProf]

@TaffyTipster youre 100 percent right about the pub thing lads im not even joking thats where it all goes sideways because youre with the lads and you want the craic and you think youre being sound and then youre down 200 quid before halftime and youre pretending you dont care and then you go home raging

i might actually try the tea thing like thats depressing but also im sick of being an eejit about it
and eddie dont start with the spreadsheet thing ive got one in my notes app that i havent opened since september

I will say this gently but directly: if the pub environment and alcohol consistently correlate with your worst decisions, then the question is not whether a month off “feels good” but whether your life structure is quietly feeding the behavior you claim you want to reduce, because you cannot outthink a pattern that is reinforced every weekend by social cues and intoxication, and I am not moralising at you, I am describing a mechanism; Tony’s original question was about returning different, and the uncomfortable truth here is that people do not return different because of time off, they return different because they implement constraints that their impulsive self cannot override in the moment, whether that is deleting apps, using self-exclusion tools, limiting deposits, or simply committing to wagering only in a sober state at a set time, and as someone who has seen both the intellectual and emotional sides of this over many years, I would rather you be “boring” for a month than entertaining while you are losing control.

 

[GlasgowGrinder]

@DublinDegen .
Alcohol plus betting is negative expected value before you even place a wager.
Recommendation:

1. No gambling when drinking. Zero.
2. If you do not comply, self-exclude.
3. Replace Saturday routine. Different venue. Different mates. Or leave early.
4. Track results. Evidence removes excuses. This is not joke. You sound close to harm.

 

[FadeThePublic]

This thread took a turn, but Grinder is right. If you cannot stop in the pub, you are not “having craic,” you are running the same script every weekend and paying for it. And before anyone says “we’re not therapists,” no, but we are adults. Sports betting breaks are one thing. Betting because you can’t sit there during a match without firing live bets is another.

 

[CoachTony_Bets]

@DublinDegen , I’m not going to pile on you, but I will say this: the way you describe it sounds less like “I enjoy betting” and more like “betting happens to me once it starts.” A month off is a good experiment, but protecting yourself in the moments you know you slip is the bigger thing. And for everyone else reading: the reason this question matters is because a lot of people quietly drift into the habit side of it. You do not wake up one day and decide “I’m going to obsess over live odds.” It builds.

For me, the plan would be a clean 30 days, still watching games, still doing film and notes, but no wagers. Then I come back with a tighter schedule and fewer bets.

 

[SharpEddie47]

One last practical note for the original question, for anyone who wants to actually measure how a month off betting affects them: When you return, do not “make up for lost time.” That is the trap. Your brain will frame it as “I have not bet in 30 days, so I deserve action.” That is not how edges work.

Return with reduced volume. If you normally place 25 bets a week, come back with 10. If you cannot do that, your break did nothing.

Trust the process, not your gut.

 

[TaffyTipster]

Fair play Eddie. That’s actually good advice.

Tony if you do it tell us how it goes. Proper update.

Not the fake “I’m back lads” post. A real one.

What you missed. What felt easier.

What felt hard. Then the rest of us can nick the bits that work.

 

[DublinDegen]

if tony does it ill do it as well lads and if i break it you can all roast me on here because apparently humiliation is the only thing that gets through my thick skull anyway

im going to try december no bets and if i fail im buying myself a dumb phone like its 2006

 

[FadeThePublic]

if tony does it ill do it as well lads and if i break it you can all roast me on here because apparently humiliation is the only thing that gets through my thick skull anyway

im going to try december no bets and if i fail im buying myself a dumb phone like its 2006

A dumb phone in 2025 might be the sharpest bet you’ve made all year. RIP public money, but also RIP push notifications.

 

[ThePuntingProf]

If we are concluding anything at all, it is that a month off betting feels different depending on whether one is stepping away from a hobby or stepping away from a compulsion, and the honest answer is that the former feels like rest while the latter feels like withdrawal, and recognising which one you are dealing with is the beginning of improvement, not the end of it.