Millennial who grew net worth to $600,000 explains how he dug his way out of debt over gambling addiction

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April 10, 2023 – A millennial who grew his net worth to $600,000 explains what it took to dig his way out of debt after overcoming a gambling addiction. In 2011, Ambus Hunter said his only debt was a car lease and he had $2,000 in savings — then he visited Las Vegas for the first time. He became entranced by the “highs and lows” of roulette. Initially, it was all fun and games. But then things quickly came crumbling down.

“I had become so obsessed with gambling that I was no longer taking care of myself. I wasn’t eating, sleeping, lost complete focus at work, and, for the first time in my life, got behind on a credit-card bill,” he said, adding: “I needed to make a change before I dug a hole I couldn’t get out of.”

Over a decade later, that hole is beginning to become a distant memory.

Today, the Baltimore 36-year-old has a net worth of roughly $600,000, according to various documents viewed by Insider, which reflected roughly $750,000 in savings and investments and $140,000 in mortgage debt. He works as a program manager supporting the US Department of Defense and has a part-time gig as an accredited financial counselor.

Hunter said he’d had one major hiccup since he committed to quitting gambling but that he was able to get back on track. In hindsight, he said he should have sought out more gambling-addiction resources but that he was too “embarrassed” and “stubborn” to do so at the time.

After quitting gambling, Hunter said the first important step was to take accountability for the situation he’d gotten himself into and accept he was never going to get the money he lost at the casino back.

“I wasn’t beating myself up, just owning my decisions and reality,” he said. “That actually gave me peace that if I got myself into that mess, I could get myself out of it.”