About Us
Who is behind QG? What drives the development of QG? What does the future look like? Wanna collaborate? On this page, you’ll find everything you need to know about us. Here are our main challenges:
- Create an effective tool to help people break free
- Make the process fun & engaging
- +80% of problem gamblers don’t seek help. How to reach them?
I am not..
- I’m not a doctor, nor a psychology Ph.D. I’ve got diplomas in engineering and economics.
- I’m not from a broken home. I had a fantastic childhood with amazing parents.
- I’m not an ex-gambling addict, and I haven’t worked with addicts for the past 20 years. Okay, my father introduced me to cards games and roulette at age 5, and I probably played too much online poker in my 20s. But I never saw it as a problem.
- I’m not funded by donations from a reputable charity like Gamble Aware. QG is funded by gambling money. I’ve worked in the gambling industry for 7 years. My company compared online casinos. We still have some sites left, even if we don’t work with them anymore. The main reason we keep the sites is to sell backlinks on them. That’s how we finance the development of QuitGamble.
- I’m not religious. I believe “the higher power” comes from within ourselves.
- I’m not the best/kindest person in the world. I get angry, shout, and use specific words way too often.
- I’m not affiliated with Gambler Anonymous nor the 12 steps.
- I’m not American, nor from the UK, so feel free to correct my English.
But I Believe…
- I believe gambling is doing something for us. The key to a successful recovery is to understand what that is.
- I believe pain is the cause of addiction. It’s the escape from the pain we get addicted to, not the means we use to escape. Can you relate to that?
- I believe a happy person experiences less pain; hence he/she has less need to escape through gambling, drinking, or taking drugs.
- I believe there is room for an alternative to support meetings and expensive sessions with a psychologist.
- I believe we need to make the process of stopping gambling about more than “just quitting”.
- I believe QuitGamble.com has something unique to offer.
Anders Bergman
Founder of QuitGamble.com
in media
Wanna write about us?
- A different approach to helping problem gamblers
- The Happiness Test
- What we’re trying to do?
- How we see responsible gambling.
- What is QuitGamble.com?
Wanna Criticize?
- Read “I’m not” again.
- You still have casino comparison sites.
- You have no scientific proof for your method.
- We don’t call addiction a disease.
Collaborations
Things to discuss:
- Responsible gambling is not about money
- 20-30% of casino players have gambling problems
- How to turn gambling relapse into something positive?
- How do we reach the 80% who don’t seek help?
- Is addiction a disease?
- Pros & cons with regulations
- Why should we protect casinos?
- What qualities does a gambling addict have, and how can they be used for something positive instead of harmful?
Let’s Make The World A Better Place Together
What Is Your Background?
At the university, I studied civil engineering and economics. On the side, I studied psychology and personal development. I was 4-5 when I started playing cards and roulette at home. We didn’t play about money, though; it was a way to learn mathematics for us.
In my 20s, I played a lot of online poker. I tried to become professional, but I neither had the skills nor the temperament. I probably played too much, but I didn’t see my gambling as a problem since I didn’t lose.
In 2013, I started working in the gambling industry. My company specialized in comparing online casinos. Over the years, we have accumulated knowledge within online gambling, web development, programming, marketing, SEO, working remotely, etc.
My interest in personal development and psychology continued to grow, and when I fell into depression in 2018, we changed the company’s orientation. All focus has been on developing a platform to help people break free from addiction.
To be honest, challenging the status quo of addiction and finding ways to help people break free fit my personality much more than comparing casinos ever did.
How Is QuitGamble.com Funded?
We’re trying to keep our costs to a minimum. Currently, we’re 2 people working full time with the platform. The development of QG is funded by my savings and some income from our old affiliate sites.
Our primary income comes from selling backlinks. We also have some income from old users. We don’t work actively with these sites anymore. But they help us stay afloat.
Some might think we’re hypocrites, both trying to help people with gambling problems while at the same time generating money from the gambling industry. I can understand that criticism. If I had a big salary, drove a flashy car, and lived in a mansion, I’d probably criticize myself too. The truth is that we put all money into QG, and if I had more money, I’d spend that on development too.
As a side note, nearly every organization working with problem gambling are directly or indirectly funded by money from the gambling industry.
Every organization is dependent on money in one way or another; the only difference is
that we have some income ourselves.
What’s The Research Behind
QuitGamble.com?
We based QuitGamble.com on escape theory. We believe pain is the cause of addiction, and gambling is one way to escape the pain.
For further information, please read the following article. “Research behind QG”.
Roadmap
Planned Features: Will be released in 2023
Login Questions
When users log in, we’d like to ask them how they feel. Then we’d like to match users that need someone to talk to with users who feel helpful. We believe this feature could maximize the chances for our users to feel heard and help themselves by helping others.
Getting A Buddy
We want to give each user a chance to get a Buddy and become a Buddy. A buddy is someone you’ll be accountable in front of, someone you can do programs with and can talk to when you have a rough day. As a buddy, you’ll also be there for the other person.
To develop this feature, we need more users on the platform to make sense. We’re also looking into how, technically, to create it. Ideally, we’d like our users to sign up for the Buddy Program and automatically be assigned a matching partner/buddy.
Push Notifications
We’re adding support for desktop push notifications, so our users can get push notifications in their web browser even if they aren’t login in on the site.
Delete Your Own Threads
Sometimes we make mistakes in the forum. We start a thread or a comment, then change our minds and want to delete it. Currently, the only way to delete it is to ask an admin to do it. We want all users to be able to delete mistakes. Hence, we’re developing a feature that allows users to delete their comments within 30 min after it’s created.
Video For Gamification
We want to display a video of our upcoming gamification system on the start page. The script is ready; we’re just waiting for the other videos to be completed. Then we’ll start designing the video.
Live Chat With Other Users
We want our “Messenger” to update in real-time, like iMessage and WhatsApp. It makes our Messenger much more responsive and allows us to extend it later with a live chatbox on the site in sync with Messenger.
Videos For The Relative Guide
The relative guide /affected others lack proper videos now. The intention is to make whiteboard animation videos of all content to make it easy for users to attain the information and share it with people they believe could benefit.
Podcast – Interviews With Brilliant Brains About Addiction
We want to add a podcast to the platform. We want to interview intelligent people and ask them to apply what they know to the field of addiction. The ideas are there; so far, it’s only been the time that has stopped us from moving ahead with the first episode.
Use #Hashtags In Activity Posts And Comments
To improve searchability on the platform, we’d like to add #hashtags in the activity field. The user can use them in both comments and posts.
Embedded Videos In Comments
We want the URL embedded in comments on posts in the activity field to populate so the user will see a featured image of the website or video. That will add user-friendliness and color to the feed.
Be Able To Like Comments
We plan to extend the Likes and media uploading functionality available in activity feeds to the comments of WordPress posts and custom post types.
Once built, members can like other members’ comments and upload media into their comments.
Under consideration
Please, share your option with us.
Gamification
The best way to help our users become gambling-free is to engage them on the platform. The more engaged they become, the more they can benefit from all the features. We’re developing a gamification system where the user scores points for all activities to boost engagement.
The points will add to social status on the platform and buy trees in our virtual webshop. When you buy a tree, we’ll donate money to an organization that plants trees around the world.
New Programs – Trauma
Trauma, pain, and addiction go hand in hand, so we’d like to create a program to help people deal with trauma. How to overcome, learn to live with, and eventually the power of forgiveness. It’s an exciting topic, which we believe could help our users fight pain at the core.
New Programs – Handle Finances, Get Out of Debt
Money is not the driver of addiction, but it’s part of the negative consequences of gambling addiction. Financial worries are also part of the 2nd step in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and one of the factors many start gambling. We want to create a program to help people deal with debt short term and long term and give them hope that they can turn things around.
Zoom Integration
When implemented, we can offer Zoom meetings within our groups. We can also use the integration to provide live introduction meetings.
Live Training And Introductions
We want to offer unique training and introduction sessions for QG. Events users can attend to get a head start or ask questions directly to the creator of a program. Another way is to provide live sessions and FAQ sessions after a podcast episode.
Translations
QG is currently only offered in English. Yes, you can create groups within the platform and talk in Spanish, German, French, etc. But all menus, videos, and training material are in English. In the future, we hope to translate it to other languages too.
Live Chat Support
We want to add live chat support as part of the service of QG, both on the website and via the app. We’ll need to add more partners and build a team for customer service to do this. In the meantime, we hope to extend our support material and encourage our users to reach out to each other for questions and support. others lack proper videos now. The intention is to make whiteboard animation videos of all content to make it easy for users to attain the information and share it with people they believe could benefit.
Chatbot Support
Another version of chat support is to program a chatbot. A bot is naturally not the same as a real person, but it’s accessible 24/7 to an unlimited number of users. Instead, it would work as a first step complement to videos for introducing QuitGamble.com, and it’s a social platform for new users.
Automatically Add To My Courses
We want the Happiness Test’s recommended programs to appear directly in my profile under my courses. In addition, these courses should be highlighted on the program page and put on top of the page.
Get In Touch
