Then also the education, prevention and treatment, it’s got to be a public health right and it’s got to be via a compulsory levy rather than the current voluntary levy.

There is literally just a saturation of gambling advertising. It’s so normal. You know, my team are sponsored by FUN88, and so I go up to St James’ Park and it’s just on there, their tops and all over the football ground. You know, there’s probably 10,000 kids in that stadium who see this and just see it as normal, so I think that’s got to stop.

I remember when I told my daughters and my oldest daughter just said “Dad, thank God there’s a reason for the way you’ve been like you are because we thought that you just didn’t like us anymore”. So that’s hard to take, knowing that nobody really mattered because all that mattered was gambling.

But there was some counselling offered through the [organisation] up in the Northeast. It’s a company called [organisation]. I think in the first couple of sessions, I got the impression they were happy for me just try and reduce my gambling and I just didn’t get that.

Some of it you’ll never get over, if I’m honest, you know. It’s not so much the money, it’s some of the things you did to get money. That’s the difficult thing to live with. And, of course, the time. You know, I would do anything to get out of things so that I could just sit and gamble. I remember when I told my daughters and my oldest daughter just said “Dad, thank God there’s a reason for the way you’ve been like you are because we thought that you just didn’t like us anymore”. So that’s hard to take, knowing that nobody really mattered because all that mattered was gambling.