Gambling loss calculator
Short answer: Enter what you lose in a typical week. The yearly figure is that number × 52; the long-run figures add compounding for scale. Most people are shocked less by the weekly number than by the ten-year one. Nothing you type is stored or sent.
Why the ten-year number is the one that lands
A £60 weekend feels like the price of entertainment. Ten years of £60 weekends is a deposit on a flat. Nothing about the arithmetic is surprising — what's surprising is that almost nobody does it, because gambling losses arrive in small pieces and never appear on a single statement line.
This is also why the money figure works as a recovery tool rather than a guilt trip. Silex takes the same weekly number and counts upward from the day you stop, so the sum you'd have lost becomes the sum you kept. Same arithmetic, opposite direction.
What the number does not include
- Borrowing. Interest on money borrowed to gamble often costs more than the losses themselves. The PGSI asks about borrowing for a reason — it's one of the strongest markers of a heavy pattern.
- Time. Hours in an app at 1am don't show up in a currency figure and are frequently the loss people most regret.
- The near-misses that kept you in. Losses disguised as wins — a return smaller than your stake, presented with celebration sound and colour — are a designed feature of modern slots and betting apps, not an accident. The research on that is worth reading.
If the figure is worse than you expected
That reaction is information, not a verdict. Two next steps, in this order:
- Take the 9-question PGSI self-check — it takes two minutes and tells you where the pattern sits.
- Put blocks between you and the operators, starting with your phone, then the two that don't rely on willpower: self-exclusion and a bank gambling block.
If gambling has left debt behind, deal with that alongside — free, non-judgemental debt advice is available from StepChange and National Debtline in the UK, and from NFCC member agencies in the US. None of them charge, and none of them will lecture you.
Quit for good. Keep the money.
Silex blocks gambling across your iPhone and walks you through 90 days, one at a time.
Silex is in App Store review. This link goes live at launch.
Common questions
Should I use my losses or my total stakes?
Use net losses — money gone, not money wagered. Total stakes are usually far higher than losses because winnings get re-bet, and counting them makes the figure look dramatic but meaningless.
I don't know what I lose in a week. How do I find out?
Take the last three months of bank or card statements and add every transfer to a gambling operator, then subtract every withdrawal from one. Divide by 13. Card statements catch what memory doesn't — most people underestimate by a wide margin.
Why include an investment comparison at all?
Because the honest cost of gambling isn't only the money lost, it's what that money would have become. The figure uses an 8% average annual return compounded monthly, which is an illustration for scale — not a forecast, not a recommendation, and not financial advice.
Does the number include what I owe?
No. This calculates ongoing losses only. If gambling has left you with debt, a free debt-advice charity is a better next call than a calculator — StepChange or National Debtline in the UK, an NFCC member agency in the US.