Footballer Scott Davies began sneaking into betting shops at the age of 16.
In ten years that “fun” had cost him his dignity, his career, and £ 250,000.
The 33-year-old midfielder has revealed how his addiction led to him betting on his own games, sleeping in his car and stealing his mother’s purse.
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Now, after giving up the habit of going into rehab in 2015, Scott goes to football clubs across the country – with his job at Wigan-based gambling harm minimization consultancy EPIC Risk Management – and tries others to dissuade him from his path.
“I’ve done things that I wasn’t proud of, I crashed my car while watching horse racing – there was a child in a car seat in the car across the street,” he said in support of the EPIC Risk Management Pro Sport Advisory Board, which was established as the world’s first body to investigate and respond to the risk of gambling damage affecting professional sports stars or eSports players.
“I started betting on my own games, found myself in my car after training because I couldn’t afford to come home – I put my last pound in a roulette machine, on a horse, or put a dog, “said the former reading gamer added.
“It started to ruin my life completely, I gambled away my deposit on my house in 15 days which was £ 32,000.
“There were so many different things, I started taking things out of my parents ‘house to sell to make money, I was going through my parents’ purses and wallets.
“And that was someone who grew up with the right morals, principles, and values and was completely withdrawn from me through this addiction.
“Then in 2015 I started hurting myself, which was unusual for me. I knew it wasn’t a solution, but I wanted the pain to stop and I didn’t know how to stop the pain.
“When I look back now, it is actually one of the proudest moments of my life to leave rehab because I knew I had done the right thing, I knew I had changed my life and I knew that I had my family somehow would get the page going again and that was the most important thing for me. “
EPIC employs several current and former professional athletes – including Scott – as moderators on training programs to warn players of the increased risk of gambling addiction in their industry, which is said to be four times greater than those who do not participate in elite sports.
Scott, who now plays part-time for Slough Town, believes this has something to do with their competitive nature.
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