At the depths of Sam’s addiction, they were unable to pay rent or bills
Sam first started gambling for ‘a bit of fun’ nearly a decade ago(Image: Money Wellness)
After being nearly £30,000 in debt due to a gambling addition, Sam was able to put in the hard work and is now debt-free. To mark Safer Gambling Week, Sam opened up on their story urged others to take that very first step to getting help but admitted it’s one of the hardest things to do.
Sam, from Merseyside, said: “If you have a gambling problem, I urge you just to speak to someone. Making that first step is really hard, but once someone knows, they’re there beside you.
“They want to help you. And just having that one person – it’s such a big step, but it’s the most important step you’ll do.”
Sam first started gambling a decade ago as nothing more than “a bit of fun”. But this quickly snowballed as they chased the “buzz” with each bet.
Sam continued: “I was gambling on roulette a lot, £50 a stake, so my money just drained in ten minutes. I’d look at my money – it was going in the bank at 12 o’clock at night.
“By ten past twelve, it was gone. Then it really hit hard and it was like, ‘What have I done?’
“At my lowest point in gambling, I considered suicide. I saw no way out. I couldn’t pay my rent, I couldn’t pay the bills, and I was scared. It made me really feel fearful… then I slipped into a depression. I took an overdose and someone found me and I got taken to hospital. It was literally just from gambling.”
Sam is now debt-free and is seeking help with their gambling problem(Image: Money Wellness)
In the hospital, Sam explained the entire situation to the care staff who then helped “look at different things to put into place to help me stop gambling”. It was then that Sam realised they had built up a debt of over £29,000.
Alongside the gambling, Sam had taken out phone contracts for some friends with the intention of handing over the payments but that never happened. This lead to Sam being threatened by lenders when they were unable to pay the contracts.
Sam turned to Lowell, a debt collection and recovery firm, who referred them to Money Wellness that provides free debt advice. Sam shared: “It’s literally saved my life – and I’ve totally turned my life around and living it again! Thanks to Money Wellness I am debt free.”
What really killed the gambling “buzz” for Sam was seeing the figures written out on paper: “With Money Wellness, we did an income and expenditure form, and it was written down. Usually, it’s in my head and I’m like; ‘I’ve got roughly this much and roughly that much.’
“However, Money Wellness put it down on paper and I was like, ‘Wow, okay, that’s actually quite a lot of debt. It scared me. So it sort of killed the buzz… and I’ve not gambled since.”
“My life changed in such a positive way. The fact that I’m confident – I’m not hiding, I’m not keeping secrets. It’s such a relief that there’s no more worry about where this is gonna get paid or when this is gonna get paid. It’s there written down.”
People that need help for gambling addiction can contact GamCare’s National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 (available 24/7) or visit their website for more information. They can also use the free GAMSTOP tool to self-exclude from all GB-licensed gambling websites.