Today marks the start of Gamblers Anonymous Awareness week. Here, one man tells Noel Baker how a mountain of debt is slowly shrinking, years after he won the battle against his addiction.

Match-fixing scandals similar to those which have already engulfed cricket and soccer across the world will most likely darken the GAA’s door sooner or later, according to GPA chief Dessie Farrell.

A 36-year-old employee with a serious gambling addiction has been given a suspended two-year sentence for stealing almost €50,000 from a Brown Thomas store in Galway.

A financial administrator for a charity for people with disabilities was yesterday jailed for 18 months for theft of more than €500,000.

My addiction started with slot machines. It was the lights and the idea that you could get money for nothing. I don’t know the reasons why I gambled. I don’t know when I crossed the invisible line into compulsive gambling but when I started gambling I got a tremendous buzz out of doing it.

There has been an alarming increase in the number of young men seeking treatment for gambling addiction because of the popularity of online betting and ease of access to internet sites.

Once upon a time a man’s home, or a woman’s, was their castle. It was as inviolable and secure a place as most people knew. Today it seems that, in too many instances, internet access has made a person’s home a branch office of whatever business feeds off the individual’s addiction.

IRELAND is becoming addicted to gambling. So addicted the outgoing Minister for Justice yesterday launched an options paper aimed at regulating gambling in a state where virtually no regulations exist and where the number of slot machines is set to explode.

AS a nation we have been betting far beyond our means.

THE number of people attending Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meetings around the country has doubled and in some places trebled over the past six months as people can no longer afford their betting habits.

A Kildare man with a gambling debt who in "a moment of weakness" stole €9,500 from his employer has been given a one year suspended sentence by Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A gambling addict and former sports coach who conned rent from foreign students by pretending to let out his apartment has received a three-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A Kildare man who, in "a moment of weakness", stole €9,500 from the company he worked for in order to pay off a gambling debt has been remanded on bail pending sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A SERIES of information meetings is being held this month by Gamblers Anonymous to highlight the growth of problem gambling and the havoc it can cause in the lives of individuals and their families.

LAST year we gambled something around €6 billion at racecourses, in bookies’ shops, in casinos, on the net or by just buying Lotto tickets.

Gamblers Anonymous Awareness Week gets under way today amid increasing numbers of people seeking help since the introduction of internet gambling, new casinos and longer opening hours for bookmakers.

POKER firm PartyGaming’s recent stock market launch gave investors a taste for gambling and rivals seem to be queuing up to cash in on its success.

MORE gamblers are seeking help following the introduction of internet gambling, new casinos and longer opening hours for bookmakers.

Having been here now for two weeks, I have been able to form a good idea of the Australian way of life.

Gambling support groups tonight blasted plans for a shake-up of the betting industry that could see casino ‘‘resorts’’ spring up across Britain.