Awareness of gambling addiction has increased in recent years and many government and industry initiatives have been created to help combat the rising numbers of people with a gambling problem. However, the number of adverts and articles promoting safe gambling and offering help and advice are greatly outnumbered by adverts promoting bookmakers, particularly online gambling. Which are around the clock on nearly every channel.

Some recent observations I have made is that adverts on TV for gambling and casino websites appear more frequently than adverts promoting alcohol, even in the build up to Christmas. Gambling addiction is a growing problem in the UK and there is more help out there now than ever before but recognising someone’s gambling has become out of control can be harder to identify, or admit to, than many people think.

Innocent beginnings

Like many sports fans, I enjoyed the odd flutter in major sporting events, such as the Grand National, the Cheltenham Festival, World Cups and would often put bets on football accumulators at the weekend. Whenever I did this, I would place about £2 to £5 a time and really didn’t affect me financially in any way and just added a bit more excitement to something I already enjoyed. It was seen as a socially acceptable thing to do and most of my footballing friends did likewise at a weekend and most people I knew enjoyed placing a few quid on the Grand National or take part in a sweepstake. For many years this was as adventurous as gambling got for me, along with the odd scratch card here and there, but I soon began to crave something more than the odd winning bet every now and then. The lure of being able to make bigger money soon became an obsession.

A quick and obvious progression

I began using a legitimate spread betting company to help make me money with very little in the way of losses or initial investment and soon became very obsessed with welcome offers or special bets advertised by betting companies. In a matter of weeks, I was a registered member of over fifty online betting companies or casinos, most of which I only used once to take advantage of new member offers. I made several hundred pounds in a short space of time and figured I could make lots of money by doing this on a daily basis. Before long, I was spending hours a day on gambling websites taking advantage of their special offers and continuing to make money but my greed for more was relentless and I soon became taking more and more risks in order to get bigger returns.

Denying the danger

All the time I was winning, despite the odd loss, I believed I was in control. Smaller wins on football or racing bets kept me satisfied for a while, but when I started gambling on the live casino tables I soon found myself well out of my depth. Bets of £10, then £20, then £40 etc to chase my losses became a highly addictive and dangerous tactic to use. I had quite a lot of money in my account so never felt this was too much of a risk, but deep down I knew that what I was doing was not clever and could land me in a lot of trouble. I had seen this pattern of progression replicated in my alcoholism, drug-taking and shopping addictions, where I had started out slowly, believed I was in control, denied it was becoming a problem and eventually hitting my rock bottom with all of them. My gambling was shooting down this path at a rate far quicker than any of the other addictions I had.

Chasing my losses – and losing

Tens of pounds turned into hundreds of pounds and eventually into thousands of pounds. But I was winning! Online Blackjack became my game of choice and I had worked out a good strategy that was paying off quite handsomely. My bank account was getting bigger and bigger and I started to get the arrogance and ego that many do when they are on a winning streak and begin to feel invincible. But the day came when it all came crashing down. It was inevitable and I could see it coming but I persisted in the distorted belief that I was always going to keep winning. I was several thousand pounds up for the day and my luck seemed to be in, but a string of bad hands in Blackjack brought me back down to Earth with a huge bang. I had one last chance to bet several thousand pounds to break even again and cut my losses. It didn’t work. I had lost everything and was back to square one when I started a few months previously. I felt broken. Shattered. Dismayed. This was a low that was as bad as being on my knees with alcohol and felt I had nowhere to turn.

Calling it a day and seeking help

Being at my rock bottom I knew I had to do something. Within minutes of losing everything, I banned myself from all of my online accounts as well as registering with GAMSTOP, a free online self-exclusion service that prevented me from using any gambling website. I immediately felt as though a weight had been lifted from me as the ability to use had been taken away from me very quickly. However, the craving and urge to still gamble was there. It took me opening up to friends in recovery, seeking more help online and talking to therapists at The Recovery Lodge about what I had been going through to really help me get over gambling. I knew bookmaker shops were still available, but once I had established the cause of my addiction and sought the appropriate help, any desire to gamble soon disappeared. It has now been many years since gambling played a part in my life and the freedom I have now as a result is very pleasant and rewarding and I can now appreciate what I do have in my life without chasing more.

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