Contributions
I would like to see the industry take a genuine view of the existence of gambling harms and address it meaningfully and whether that’s through a levy to produce support, education, treatment where necessary when it gets to that stage. I think that could be a good thing.
It became something that I enjoyed doing. At that stage, I wasn’t gambling large amounts. It was just I didn’t have a lot of money. I suppose I had a paper round, and then I moved into being a student so I had a student grant. I think when I became a student, I started to gamble more, definitely, being given that lump sum of money, getting my grant money.
I just got completely sucked into that way of life that I was forming opinions all the time on what would and wouldn’t win, backing myself to make money on that and often getting it wrong as every gambler does.
Dealing with a hugely powerful industry, it’s challenging to make any progress and get beyond that tick-box exercise. I think for the last few years, it has been a tick-box exercise just to put it in small print at the bottom of gambling literature. When the fun stops, stop. I still don’t see in 10 years, that they’ve made any great progress in terms of advertising or signposting gamblers to help. I don’t see any billboards; I don’t see any TV adverts. I think people like Paul Merson have done really well in sharing their stories. There’s got to be more of that.
I swore there and then that– first of all, admit I’ve got a big problem here, I’ve been living with that. I told her the truth, she asked for more, kept digging like, “Tell me everything.” I had a real heart to heart about it. She basically said, “It has to stop here. It has to stop now or I’m not sticking around.” I swore to her, “Yes, absolutely”. The very next day went about excluding myself from sites and closing accounts and producing the proof to her that I had done that. I think I even at that stage try to keep one account open just in case that I might go back to, but then again there was a further chat, “What about this one?”.
She just it had out with me like, “What was going on here?”. By that stage, I was so sickened with myself and the gambling and living with this addiction, that it was a relief, that’s all I can say. It was like, “Thank God it’s out in the open now,” because I felt deep shame that I was keeping it from her and I knew deep down this is only going in one direction. This isn’t going to end well for me and I’m jeopardizing this new relationship I’ve got and if I don’t get help where is this going to end?