WINNERS' CIRCLE - Josh L.

I never thought of myself as a "gambler." But you know all those gambling pop-ups you get surfing the Internet? I clicked on one - it looked like fun, and I figured, why not? I signed up with my debit card, played a little poker, and I won $300! What a rush! So I got back online the next day after class. And the day after that. And the day after that. I was losing by then, but didn't think about it much. It's so easy to rack up a big debt on the Internet before you even realize what's really happened.

Of course, by that time my luck had turned and I lost the $300 I had won, and then some. And since I didn't have a whole lot of money to begin with, I figured I had to win it back. I was skipping class to gamble more, and panic was starting to set in.

Not long after that, I was broke, so I did something I'm not too proud of. I called my parents and I lied to them - I told them I needed money for food and books. They sent it, and of course, I gambled that away, too.

A few months later, I got evicted from my apartment off campus and had to come back home. My parents were pretty curious about how I lost all the money they had been sending, so eventually I had to tell them the truth.

They were very upset, but when I think back on it, it was probably coming back home that saved me. I had to leave school to work full-time for the rest of the year to pay them back, and I go to Gamblers Anonymous meetings. Hearing what happened to the people in my meetings was scary - I was lucky compared to some of them.

I'm starting school again this fall, and with all I've learned over the past year, I'm confident that I can stay away from gambling.