Irish Examiner View: We're on cusp of a problem gambling tsunami

Former Armagh footballer details his own addiction which is echoed in a study from NUI Galway showing huge growth in smartphone gambling during the lockdown

Former Armagh footballer Oisín McConville has warned that we are on the cusp of a 'problem gambling tsunami'. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Addiction is one of the strangest, most unsettling things. It is often, though not always, an affliction that can too easily steer a once blameless life towards the rocks that promise, and more often than not deliver catastrophe. Yet, if an addict can find the will and is offered real support, addiction can be controlled if not entirely or easily beaten.

Part of that control is avoiding temptation. An alcoholic needs exceptional courage to visit a bar - if one were open. Someone with an unequal relationship with cocaine surely knows where and who to avoid. Some do, others don't with almost inevitable consequences.