Footballer Scott Davies first began sneaking into betting shops aged 16.
Within ten years that 'bit of fun' had cost him his dignity, career, and £250,000.
Now 33, the midfielder has revealed how his addiction led to him betting on his own matches, sleeping in his car and stealing from his mother's purse.
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Now, having kicked the habit with a 2015 stint in rehab, Scott goes into football clubs across the country - with his job with Wigan-based 'gambling harm minimisation consultancy' EPIC Risk Management - trying to steer others from the path he took.
“I did things that I wasn’t proud of, I crashed my car when I was watching horse racing - there was a child sitting in a car seat in the opposite car,” he said, speaking in support of the EPIC Risk Management Pro Sport Advisory Board, which has been launched as the world’s first panel to investigate and act upon the risk of gambling harm affecting professional sports stars or eSports players.
"I started to bet on my own matches, found myself sleeping in my car after training because I couldn’t afford to get home - I’d put my last pound in a roulette machine, on a horse or on a dog," the former Reading player added.
“It started completely ruining my life, I gambled my deposit away for my house in 15 days which was £32,000.
“There were so many different things, I started taking things from my parents’ house to sell to make money, I’ve been through my parents’ purses and wallets.
“And that was someone that was brought up with the right morals, principles and values and I had completely been stripped of them by this addiction.
“Then in 2015 I started to self-harm, something that was out of the ordinary for me. I knew that it wasn’t a solution but I wanted the pain to stop and I didn’t know how to get that pain to stop.
“Looking back now it’s actually one of the proudest moments of my life, leaving rehab, because I knew I’d done the right thing, I knew I’d turned my life around and I knew I was sort of getting my family back on side and that was the most important thing for me.”
EPIC employs several current and former professional sportsmen- including Scott - as facilitators in training programmes to warn players of the heightened risk of gambling addiction in their sector, which is said to be four times higher than among those who aren’t involved in elite sports.
Scott, who now plays part time for Slough Town, believes this is something to do with their competitive nature, saying he believes the fact he 'hated losing' deepened his risk of becoming a problem gambler.
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