<p>
	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.</p>
<p>
	MICHAEL knew something was seriously wrong when, one day some years ago, he found himself betting on the outcome of a beach volleyball game.</p>
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	It wasn&rsquo;t the first time he had placed peculiar wagers, in what had become a scatter-gun approach to gambling. What started at his local greyhound track in his early teens, had escalated to the stage where he was &ldquo;addicted to Teletext&rdquo;, constantly seeking updates on sporting events, ploughing cash into betting on sports in which he could most certainly not claim any expertise. &ldquo;Mainly racing, Moto GP, soccer...&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	An enthusiastic, sharp fellow, Michael [not his real name], ultimately ended up laying between 80 and 100 bets a day and in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of euro.</p>
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	&ldquo;The big thing for me was not the money,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It was gambling away my mental health.&rdquo;</p>
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	For years, he believed he had gambling under control and freely admits that at times he had &ldquo;loads of money&rdquo;. The situation changed dramatically when he began chasing his losses.</p>
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	At the end of one year, he owed as much as &euro;35,000. A year later, it was more than double that amount.</p>
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	He lost his job and, by the sounds of it, he almost lost his reasoning.</p>
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	But now, the debt has been whittled down to a fraction of what it was.</p>
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	&ldquo;Every month, the money goes out it is a reminder that you never want to get into that situation again.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	The situation had reached a crisis point and he visited a doctor, informing him: &ldquo;Look, I&rsquo;m in big trouble.&rdquo; Lying to friends and family, chasing losses, issues at work &mdash; it had all taken a massive toll and &ldquo;the penny dropped&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;The first six months, I just stopped gambling but I wasn&rsquo;t changing my ways,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>
	Attending more meetings led to a more holistic approach to how he was living his life and conducting his relationships. &ldquo;You have to keep going to your meetings because if you stop, it could become attractive again,&rdquo; he says, adding that he attends meetings three or four times a week, mostly at lunchtime.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;The big thing was that I did not watch races,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You do not look up Teletext, you stop hanging around with other gamblers, you cannot buy a scratch-card.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;I was addicted to Teletext. When I came into GA, I came home and the only button I could see on the TV remote control was the Teletext button. It was like a beacon.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;I got a pen knife and cut it off.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	If that sounds drastic, he believes he had no choice.</p>
<p>
	Perhaps saying something about the scale of the problem &mdash; at least, how it is viewed by Gamblers Anonymous &mdash; Gambling Awareness Week actually lasts for two weeks. The growth in gambling here in recent years mirrors a trend from the UK. In addition to a greater number of shops, online betting is a modern-day phenomenon, creating jobs and pumping money into the economy. As far as Michael is concerned, the origins of the money is at the heart of the debate over gambling. He claims that bookmakers do not make massive profits on people &ldquo;betting on the Grand National&rdquo;. Rather, it is the compulsive gamblers that plough their money into the sector.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;There is a huge problem in society with gambling at the moment,&rdquo; he says. Heavily involved in Gamblers Anonymous, he claims attendance at some GA meetings had &ldquo;doubled, if not trebled&rdquo; in the past year, with the age-profile getting younger &mdash; &ldquo;there would be lads aged 18 or 19 coming into the room&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	A larger number of secondary schools have asked GA representatives to make presentations, as since the advent of smart- phones, a bet can be only a few clicks away. According to Michael, GA has also increased its number of visits to prisons around the country, often at the request of inmates. He believes it is possible that some people jailed for petty drugs offences may have taken to selling drugs to help pay for gambling debts.</p>
<p>
	Michael&rsquo;s own life has steadied remarkably in recent years, but he believes it is a work in progress and without due focus and resilience, he would be at risk of relapse.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;Time is a healer,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I can laugh it all off now, but at the time it wasn&rsquo;t very funny.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	The urge to gamble?</p>
<p>
	Gamblers Anonymous Awareness Week 2014, from today until September 14 will include open meetings where members from the public can attend and the list of these open meetings will be on the GA website: www.gamblersanonymous.ie</p>
<p>
	Here are some questions that compulsive gamblers often answer &lsquo;Yes&rsquo; to:</p>
<p>
	- Do you lose time from work due to gambling?</p>
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	- Is gambling affecting your reputation?</p>
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	- After losing, do you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your loses?</p>
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	- After a win do you have a strong urge to return and try to win more?</p>
<p>
	- Do you often gamble until your last euro is gone?</p>
<p>
	- Do you gamble longer than you planned?</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/one-mans-story-of-addiction-gambling-away-my-mental-health-with-80-100-bets-a-day-285354.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/one-mans-story-of-addiction-gambling-away-my-mental-health-with-80-100-bets-a-day-285354.html</a></p>
