A British gambling addict who generated the staggering £10,000 loss in ten minutes only, has shed more light on the help he found after trying to commit suicide on his birthday.
As the 28-year-old man, who works as a taxi driver, revealed for the Liverpool Echo, he had stolen money from his family and friends and had used credit cards and loans to fuel his gambling addiction, only to eventually declare bankrupt.
He confessed that he was only 12 when he started betting on football with his father. Then, as a teenager, he started gambling on so-called fruit machines in Southport. A few years later, when he was 17, he asked an older friend of his to place a bet on a horse race for him. It was a bet that brought him a massive winning in return. The win, however, became the reason why the then-boy decided to buy a fake ID so that he was granted access to high-street betting shops before turning 18.
The teenager quickly got hooked on gambling, with his addiction getting to a point at which he started spending eight hours every day in local bookmakers’ outlets. He even started ordering food at the betting shops so that he did not have to leave.
Gambling Addiction Spiralled to Large Money Losses, Debts, Credit Card Use and Eventually, Bankruptcy
As the gambler has revealed, at the time he got himself a fake ID card, he started winning about £2,000 on a daily basis on the roulette wheels. Then, he started placing bets mainly on horse races, but at one point, he lost control over his gambling.
It so happened that he and some friends of his established a company to sell cars. Even though all of them made investments in the company, the first money they made came into his account, £8,000 in total. Instead of sharing the money with his friends, he went to a casino and lost £1,000. Unfortunately, he ended up chasing his losses, as he tried to win the lost money back. Eventually, he lost the entire sum.
Things have escalated over the following years so that the young man was unable to deal with the pressure of his problem gambling behaviour anymore, so at the beginning of 2019, on the day he turned 28th, he tried to commit suicide. After his unsuccessful suicide attempt, he sought professional help to stop gambling and started dealing with the negative effect that his addiction has been having on his life.
The young gambling addict said that it was the thrill of gambling which kept him going on, as he never felt happy, no matter what winnings he generated. What he really liked was the thrill of gambling, not winning by itself. He further confessed that he has an addictive personality and he has found it hard to stop gambling.
Gambling addiction led the young man to bankruptcy. He was later diagnosed with depression and had to take antidepressants. He turned to the independent British gambling charity organisation GamCare for advice and has banned himself from all betting shops in close proximity to his home.
- Author
Daniel Williams
