Contributions

I never had a bet until I was 21. I was just finishing my apprenticeship, I’d say I was probably about a couple of months off my 21st birthday. The company that I used to work for, we were only about two miles away from Haydock Park racecourse. I was finishing for my holidays, we were finishing at lunchtime and somebody had some free tickets to go to Haydock Park and I got invited to go along. All afternoon people kept saying, “Come on up, have a bet, you cannot come to the races and not have a bet.” I said, “I’m not interested. I don’t want to have a bet.” Eventually, I grabbed a newspaper off one of them and just said, “Put me a pound on that one.” He said, “Oh no, you’ve got a back that one each way.” I said, “I’m not backing it each way, just put me a pound on it.” It won at 33/1. Well, at that time, my weekly wage, we’re talking 1971, 1972, my weekly wage was about £28 a week and I’d won more than a week’s wage in one hit.

David #2
Gambling Experiences

I was in the programme for about eight years and then work started to get in the way of it all. I stopped going to GA meetings because I couldn’t find the time to fit it in, but I still didn’t contemplate gambling until 2018. It was the day of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Frankie Dettori was riding a horse and I’d been watching all about this on Sky Sports News. The horse was called Enable and was 11/8. My partner had given me my bank cards back not long before.
I actually left home and went with my bank card in my back pocket and I was going to have £2000 on this horse. I got to within 20 feet of the betting shop door and the words of somebody that used to be my sponsor came flooding back. “You put a lot of time and effort into this program, don’t blow it.” I thought, “Here I am, I’m about to blow 10 years for what? If the horse wins, I’m going to be back on that greasy pole again, that it won’t stop with just having this bet that I’ll be back into the habit of betting again.” I came home, confessed to my partner what I’d almost done, and she persuaded me to go to a GA meeting the night after.

David #2
Harm

Things have never been better. As I said to you when I first came in, I’m one of the happiest men on God’s Earth. I’ve got no money, but I’m incredibly happy. I get up every morning, as I said, address myself in the mirror “Just for today I’m not going to gamble.” I set out things to do. I started doing some gardening. Basically, I look after lawns. I like looking after lawns, but I’m not very good at flowers, etc. I suppose I suffer from OCD which is all part and parcel of people with a compulsive, addictive nature. I’m addicted to looking after lawns, especially clean stripes and making them look really good. Every day I map out things to do and do them. Whereas before, I would have put off doing something today, I wouldn’t have done it today “oh I’ll do it tomorrow”. Procrastination was one of my big things. Never do today what you can put off ’til tomorrow.

David #2
Recovery

The very last race which was at Ripon, I put £800 on a horse that won at 11/4. so I won the £3,000 back, went home, and worked out what happened during the day and I’d actually won one pound. I thought that “This is absolutely pathetic, this is the nearest thing to insanity,” but it didn’t stop me. Some few weeks later, it was the weekend of May the 11th 2008. I drew some money out to go for a drink with my brother, went in the betting shop, and lost all the money that I had drawn out to go for a drink. After that, it was a procession backwards and forwards to the hole in the wall. I was just using different credit cards to draw out the maximum that I could.

When I came out to the betting shop that Thursday evening, I had lost around about £3,000. Did exactly the same again on that Friday, but I think it was even more, I think it was in the region of about £4,500. Went home and kicked the front door open. I was like a bear with a sore head. My partner she knew that something was wrong and basically, she urged me to do something about it. Saturday came and I went back to the betting shop and probably lost another £1,500. I thought, “I’m going to have to do something, this is absolute insanity that I’m going to–” I had £40 left, and on the Sunday afternoon, Sunday, the 11th of May I put £20 each way on a horse in the French 2000 Guineas.

To this day, I always say if that horse would have won, I would have never had gone to Gamblers Anonymous the day after. It didn’t win so I went to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting on the 12th of May. Basically, the meeting occurred upstairs, I went with another guy downstairs, and he asked me the 20 questions in the orange book of which I answered yes to 18 of them. The only two that I answered no to was had I ever committed a crime to finance gambling. The honest answer to that was, “No, I’d thought about it, but never ever done it.” The other one was had I ever contemplated suicide and I had never ever contemplated suicide.

David #2
Recovery

If you’re an alcoholic, you might spend £30 or £40 in a day and you’d be flat on your back and you wouldn’t spend anymore. If you’re a drug addict, a similar story, you’d get your fix for that day, and once you’d had your fix, you’re not going to spend any money. Somebody who’s addicted to gambling could spend thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds in a day and still not stop.

Stigma

If I went in the betting shop and lost the first bet it was like a red rag. I wouldn’t rest until I’d either got that tenner back or, and all I used to do was dig a massive hole for myself. Basically, I got to the point where the only time that I’d ever come out of a betting shop when I’d got no money left to lose. I’d lost the whole lot, and then I was happy. Believe it or not, happy I could come out.

Gambling Experiences

He took me under his wing, not to learn about the computer that I had gone down to learn about. I was down there for six weeks and in that six weeks, he taught me how to read form, taught me how to use time from the black book. Basically, when I came back I was betting nearly every day, just small bets, small multiple bets and that went on for a while. To be quite honest, I had a lot of luck. I had quite a few wins, not massive wins but big enough to definitely wet my interest and so it went on.

Gambling Experiences

You can talk to people till you’re blue in the face, and until that person acknowledges that they’ve got a gambling problem, anything that you say to them will just go completely over their head. People used to accuse me of having a gambling problem, and I used to say, “I haven’t got a problem.” They said, “Well, pack it in.” I said, “I can pack it in when I want.” They said, “Well, pack it in.” “But I don’t want to.” The sooner people realize that they do have a gambling problem, the sooner that they can do something about it.

Recovery

I would like them to ease back on gambling adverts. In fact, I would love it if they were banned completely like there’s no smoking adverts anymore. Alcohol adverts are down to an absolute minimum. Before, during, and after football matches, it’s all about gambling, but it appears now at teatime with all the adverts for bingo sites. I’d love to see that. I’d love to see the logos on football shirts [stopped]. There’s nothing worse than kids running around with a football shirt on with Bet365 on the front.

Change
Delivering you the best possible experience

We use cookies on our website to deliver you the best online experience, by using them to analyse site traffic, tailor and personalise content to you and serve targeted ads for the latest deals.

For the best experience, please accept all cookies, however, if you would like to manage your cookie preferences please alter the cookie choices here to control your consent.

Accept All Cookies