“I don’t know how I survived.”
Started by Matthew Keitel gamble When he was in school as a teenager. But it soon consumed his life.
Eventually, his addiction cost him his marriage, his house, and his job. He stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from the company and was jailed.
“You really think you’re going to change your life by winning and that takes over,” he told Sky News.
“If I continued gambling, it would definitely kill me.”
Matthew’s last bet was 17 years ago on Friday.
He now uses his past gambling problem to help current addicts and has been offering advice NHS Clinics in the North of England.
The NHS will open a new clinic in Sheffield on Monday due to continued demand for the services they provide.
The scheme builds on the existing 14 problem gambling clinics across the NHS in England, seven of which opened last year.
The health service says it treats up to 3,000 people a year and is funded by NHS England.
NHS to almost double number of specialist clinics in one year
The first clinic opened in London in 2008, treating patients aged 13+. Last year, the clinic referred a total of 421 patients.
But NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard has made it clear that help for people with drug addiction must come from somewhere other than health services.
“We’re asking society as a whole, the gambling industry, to do more to help tackle a range of very serious problem gambling and gambling addictions that can be seriously damaging and life-destroying,” she said.
The Gambling Commission says it is trialling new ways of assessing customers’ financial vulnerability as part of the new government’s proposals.
The Gambling Commission (BGC), which represents most betting shops, online betting and gaming, told Sky News: “BGC members contribute tens of millions of pounds each year to research, prevention and treatment to help prevent gambling-related harm and currently tackle gambling through Unique voluntary levy scheme payment.
“This funding supports a network of independent charities that treat around 85% of problem gamblers in treatment in the UK.”
Amanda Pritchard says more help is needed
The UK industry is worth £14bn a year and people are looking for help.
There were 1,389 referrals to NHS gambling clinics in England between 2022 and 2023. That’s a 79% increase from two years ago – with 775 referrals made between 2020 and 2021.
Matthew said that at the height of his addiction the new NHS clinic would be welcome as the services on offer at the time were unable to meet his needs.
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“Although he was an excellent GP, he had nothing to recommend to me. I would definitely use the service,” he said.
He said no one would know he was suffering.
“Gambling – you wouldn’t recognize me in a million people. And knowing that I was stealing money from work, in debt, suicidal – I looked normal. It was really, really scary.”
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