Congratulations on the 7 months. It has been many years since I went to a casino but I remember it being a process. Self ban, stay away for a year, sneak to further-away casino where not self-banned thinking I could gamble recreationally, lose all my money and eventually realize I can't set foot in a casino. I'm thankful the relapses were bad experiences. Can you imagine the disaster of relapsing and hitting a jackpot, and getting that much deeper into the delusion of gambling? Someone posted the link to a pretty good blog at duck gambling.com. Despite the website name, some fantastic information about why slots are so addictive. There isn't necessarily a best way to quit other than not setting foot in a casino and letting time away change your brain patterns. Finding other ways to respond to the triggers. You already know all this from your 7 months of success, next time it'll be longer and soon not a struggle.

Hmmm did daily strength censor my attempt to link the website? It was the f word, not duckgambling.

My heart goes out to you. It's a long process but stick to it if you can. I was gf for 2 yrs and went back, I have being several months gamble free but it seem the story is the same each time. I have being 1 week gf and I'm hoping this is it. My relapse this time has not being as bad as in the past, plus the guilt I feel almost outweighs the thrill. It gets better with each quitting attempt. I have just being stressed about money but my brain's less stress than during previous attempts to quit. I taught about gambling 23 hrs out of 24 hrs a day( or so it seem), I got physically sick from wanting to gamble so bad. After being strong for many months, I gave in, gambled, and of course it was not anything like my daydreams! I lost. I was sad, depressed, frustrated, hungry, angry, hated myself. I was just thinking today about all my failed attempts, had a sudden ha moment. The best years of the last 7yrs, where the ones I was gamble free! It might seem hard at first but after staying gf for a while my life got better. Hang in there, those 7 months are a blessing! Just try and focus and stay gf. I've realized I need to stay gf for as long as I can to improve my standard of living. I wish you a gamble free weekend, hugs! I won't gamble today!

Congrats on the seven months. It is not gone, you did not lose the seven months of abstinence you had. The relapse is an opportunity to see weaknesses in your plan for abstinence. I am going on 15 months of abstinence and one the ways I got here is I do not carry more than $19 cash with me ever. ($20 bills are a trigger for me.) I do not carry debit/credit cards either. Having time and money with no plan is one of my most dangerous situations. So I make plans for paydays and find other things I enjoy and do them.
Counseling truly helped me get to many of the roots of my addiction(s) and helped to change the FALSE belief I had that I could get ahead by gambling. (I can't)
You have the right attitude of getting back in the fight, count your blessings and give yourself some credit that you did not spend weeks, months or years out there undoing all the hard work that you have done. I'm pulling for you.

You didn't give in, you just got slightly off track and got right back on. When you look at this five years from now it will be just a little blip in the road. You already know what to do and how to do it. You will be fine :-).

Thank you so much for the kind replies. I'm not giving up! I work too hard to earn that money (like all of us!) to dump it into a slot machine. I'm so grateful for this forum. I'll keep you posted.