'I'd have lost the price of a car' - Footballer reveals long struggle with gambling addiction
Rhode and Offaly footballer, Niall McNamee: "The ease with which a bet can be placed nowadays is very, very scary." Photo: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
The ease with which people can access bookmaking services and place bets has been described as "scary" and "worrisome" by an inter-county footballer who struggled for years with his own gambling addiction.
Offaly and Rhode footballer Niall McNamee, ambassador for AIB, began gambling in his late teens and continued to do so up until his late 20s.
At the age of 21, he realised gambling wasn't for him, but by that point, his compulsion to gamble was so strong that he couldn't pull away from it.
“I knew what I was doing was a little bit irregular, that my friends weren’t really doing what I was doing," he told Pat Kenny Show this morning.
He began by putting money on horse races and dog races, because of their short durations. Once one race was finished, he would move on to another.
Very quickly, he began spending most of his time in the bookmakers, and his addiction began to spiral out of control.
The GAA star said that before long, the only reasons he would leave the bookies were because of training, because he had lost all of his money, or because the bookies were closing.
Mr McNamee says that often, gambling addictions impact not just on the afflicted individual, but also on their families and friends. His case was no different.
"A lot of it was emotional, for me, it was an escape from the reality of day-to-day life, and that's the case for the majority of people," he said.
He began to borrow money from parents, siblings, and friends to fund his addiction and pay off debts.
Winning and losing caused his personality and behaviour to fluctuate.
"If I was the guy who won I would be eccentric, happy and hyper; if I lost, I'd be in bad form, and I'd bring bad energy to whatever room I walked into.
"If someone asked me how I was, I could say 'I’m fine,' when really I'd have just lost the price of a car 10 minutes before that."
"Once you start to lose, the hole gets deeper and deeper, and you're left chasing your tail, trying to borrow money off somebody else," he said.
He said he was only able to come to terms with his addiction through counselling.
Mr McNamee believes that people who become addicted to gambling often have some early successes, and may win a large sum of money. Thereafter, they continue to place bet after bet in the hopes of somehow replicating this success. But this never happens.
"I was struggling financially and emotionally. In the back of my mind I thought I’d go to the bookies tomorrow, and win money and get my life back on track," he said.
Nowadays, smartphones laptops and tablets mean a bet can be placed more easily than ever.
"The ease with which a bet can be placed nowadays is very, very scary," McNamee said.
In Mr McNamee's case, his urge to gamble was often triggered by stimuli that people may come across every day - advertisements on tv, racing results on the radio, a ticket for the lotto, etc. Much of his counselling related to how he could help himself to not be triggered by such things.
But these stimuli, like betting services, can now be accessed at any time, by anyone.
"For somebody's that's a compulsive gambler, looking at an advertisement on tv saying they can get a free bet if you set up an account, that's their 'get-out clause.'
Gambling addiction, unlike some other addictions, can often be totally secretive in nature, and Mr McNamee suspects there may now be young people all around the country in a similar situation to the one he was once in.
He was only able to address his problems when his father intervened. Rather than criticise him, his dad was open and understanding.
"When I admitted the problem I thought people were going to give out and say I was an idiot, but the opposite actually happened.
"People were relieved, they had seen that I wasn't myself for a while, that I was carrying the world on my shoulders.
He attended counselling, and found the sessions "life-changing".
Soon, he managed to get his habit under control, but he doesn't believe he will ever fully overcome it.
"It's an ongoing process. You’re never going to really recover from it - it's a lifelong thing," he said.
From time to time, he still gets the itch to place a bet. However, with the tools he learned in counselling, these thoughts have become fleeting and far less invasive.
"Generally when I want to bet, it's was because of something in my life that is out of sync - a relationship, work, anything," he said.
He believes others suffering from the addiction may also be "looking for an escape" from their everyday life.
"As is the case with most gambling addictions, the only time somebody really comes and seeks help is one of the crisis situations," he said.
"It's important for people to be able to come forward and seek that bit of help and support."
- If you or someone you know needs help with dealing with gambling, you can get help and support now by sending a text to Extern Problem Gambling on 089 241 5401 (ROI) or 07537142265 (NI).
- For more details, please visit: www.problemgambling.ie
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