Newstalk Daily<\/a>, Associate Professor at the University of Limerick Dr Kieran Murray said there is an increasing awareness of the impact gambling has.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cGambling now has a DSM code for a medical illness, with widespread harms in terms of mental health issues – in particular suicidality,\u201d he warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we probably have enough research now that we can\u2019t dismiss it at this stage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Murray added that the GAA has banned all gambling sponsorship of sport, describing this as \u201creal leadership\u201d which other organisations have not shown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNumerous studies have shown that athletes are more prone to addictive gambling behaviours,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems there are a couple of reasons for that; they feel they may have a knowledge of the sport – giving them a competitive advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo, there\u2019s a theory out there that in the off season, sitting on buses and during down time when they\u2019re injured, it can provide that dopamine hit that you may get playing elite sports in stadiums.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Complete carnage’<\/p>\n
Also on the podcast, Armagh football legend Ois\u00edn McConville recalled how when he started gambling at the age of 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a smoke filled room at the back of a pub,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was instantly attracted to everything that was going on there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat soon escalated and I tried to recreate the buzz I was getting on a football pitch in the bookies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo begin with, that was small amounts but that soon increased and continued to increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo too did the time to do the things I was willing to do to feed my addiction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr McConville added that he soon realised he got a \u201cserious buzz\u201d out of gambling and thought the \u201cpossibilities were endless\u201d:\u00a0<\/p>\n
He dreamed of expensive football boots, then a new car or a large house.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose material things really meant very little in the end,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of the last four years of my gambling and there was no buzz; there was no buzz from winning or losing or anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I couldn’t arrest it at that stage because I was in the midst of a gambling addiction. Compulsive gamblers are compulsive liars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life at that stage was complete carnage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recovery<\/p>\n
Such was the emotional burden of his gambling addiction that he began to feel suicidal – the memory of which now “fills me full of dread\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, if my son came to me and said that was how he felt, I mean, that would fill me full of dread and sadness but that was the way I felt at that time,” Mr McConville said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is one of the reasons why I suppose I have had the long-term recovery that I’ve had.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause as I said, that particularly scared me when I did think back on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr McConville\u2019s second last bet was \u00a320,000 on a horse – which he lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long afterwards, he told his brother and sister what he was going through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very, very, very tough conversation,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause not only was I admitting to them, but I was saying it out loud..<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I was sort of admitting it to myself And that was the first time I’d ever done that, you know, out loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d always had those internal thoughts where I thought, you know, I really need to get my act together, I really need to admit this to somebody else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that was the first time I’d voiced it and said it out loud.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After he sought professional help, Mr McConville soon realised that he was \u201cthe archetypal person\u201d of an addict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI fitted all the bills and I would find it very difficult to hold my hands up,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut once I did then, once I surrendered to it, things got better from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent 13 weeks in that treatment centre and I came out in February 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he completed the programme, he began to pay people back the money he owed them, something he found \u201cvery satisfying\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two decades on, he works in intervention and serves as an ambassador for GamblingCare.ie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nAnyone who thinks they might need help with a gambling addiction can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 for confidential advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Main image: Footballers and a gambling website. Picture by: Alamy.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Intercounty GAA players are six times more likely to develop a gambling addiction than the average person, new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-337404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}